Well, the welder arrived today. (three days instead of two). I was so excited to get the thing out and tested, that I just ripped open the box and started assembling the thing. Apparently blinded by my excitement, I completely overlook the bent flat corner of the chassis.
I hook the thing up to my 220 outlet, get out two pieces of 1/8th scrap mild steel, and weld the piss out of it. I'm not used to having a welder that at half power will absolutely melt 1/8th" plate, so I'll have to learn this machines' heat settings compared to the maxxed out settings I had to have w/ the Lincoln.
I hooked up the spool gun, and w/o prepping the scrap pieces (which I shoulda did) I also melted the snot outta those two pieces as well (only much more hideously than the mild steel)
I'm confident that I'll get accustomed to the machine quickly, so the fact that I couldn't make a pretty weld on aluminum outta the box don't confront me. (long as I get my rent by Friday)
So I decided to remove the Lincoln from the HF welding cart, and replace it w/ the logos. When I went to set the new unit in place of the Lincoln, it wobbled like I was setting the thing on top of something. I looked underneath, and there was nothing there except one thing. An outwardly bent bottom, (as in from the inside out)
So now, I finally start to look at this thing. The front left corner has sustained an impact hard enough to completely distort the chassis. Clearly this thing has fallen from pretty high up. The internal power transformer is probably what dented the floor outward.
I actually attempted to straighten the bent sheetmetal before I realized that the whole case was distorted. I figured that the corner just got smacked and sisnce it worked wasn't gonna get all pissy over a cosmetic issue. But when it wobbled on the cart,.......that made this be a "now I gotta return it for a new one" kinda deal.
Initially the outward appearance of the box didn't alert me to possible damage. After I saw the welder, I looked at the box a little closer... There is is. A tumble from probably 6 feet or more, and the only thing inside to cushion the welder was some of that soft foam like stuff that they surround stereo equipment in now days.
The seller has these pics, and my similar story. . It doesn't matter where the thing came from, or whether it was Chinese or made in the USA. Had either of them fallen from a high shelf, they'd both look like this one. I guess now we'll see if doing business w/ an offshore company is worth the savings.