When I was going to trade school, I used mostly DC inverters, and they're pretty nice. Not all that big, but good for 200+ amps on a 100% duty cycle... If I was doing a lot of structural steel in a shop, they'd be my choice for sure, I prefer the feel of stick over flux core.
I also did a fair bit of wire feed, both for my C level and for my fab course. I've got the basics of tuning the machine down, but I still can't do it half as fast as I should
Now that I've got out and started doing this for a living, I use generator driven DC welders, and I love them. It's hard to explain, but they have really smooth clean power vs an inverter that's driven off a building circuit. There is much less arc blow, and the rod burns really smoothly and consistenly.
I want to get myself one of those little Lincoln MIG paks, probably the 15 model. It welds up to 1/4, which is as thick as I'm going to need to weld any brackets or suspension stuff, even crossmembers aren't that thick. They run about $700 CDN new, and you can usually get factory recon units for about $400, with wire and a regulator. That's a pretty fair deal, but I'm off work right now on account of the wrist, and money is tight
