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My welder is a Lincoln Pro-Mig 175 that I found on ebay for $550, brand new and shipped.  I chose the brand because it's got a good reputation, and the size (I was going to go with a smaller one) thanks to the helpful people at CNCZone.com. Despite the hassle of hooking it up to 220 I'm happy I went with the larger one for the extra power; Dad's already got a few projects for me.  

Anyway, on to the pictures:

	The welder itself, powered up and humming along.  When I first got it and unpacked it I was too excited to take pictures.  All I've done to the welder at this point is connected the grounding cable and gun inside the welder according to the instructions.  I've also added...
	This!  It's a wire cleaner made from a rolled up piece of scotch-brite and a hose clamp.  I saw something like it for sale on a welding supply website and figured, why buy it when I can make it for free?
	A picture of the wire cleaner installed.  If you look carefully, you can see the ground cable attached to the positive output, and the gun attached to the negative.  Lincoln's instructions recommended it for flux-cored wire.
	The male end of my extension cord, a 3-prong dryer plug I picked up at home depot.  NEMA 10-30.  All that heavy cable in the background is the rest of the cord.  It's 25 feet of 8/3 bus drop cable, McMaster #7128K15.
	The female end of the cable, a NEMA 6-50 socket and electrical box that I also picked up at home depot.  I wired the ground to neutral/ground on the dryer plug, and each of the other two sockets was connected to a hot prong of the dryer plug.  I carefully checked all the connections and voltages at the plug before plugging in the welder.
	Not being an electrical guy, I half expected there to be a smoke and spark show the first time I turned the welder on.  When the fan hummed to life in a very non-flashy (thankfully) sort of way, I decided to try a weld.  This was my first attempt: it took a little tweaking to get a steady arc, but all things considered it turned out pretty well.
	It's not beautiful, but there it is.  I had heard that flux core makes a lot of smoke, and all the stories you've heard are true; just making this little weld, I'm surprised I didn't set off the smoke detector.
	I couldn't end before saying that an auto-darkening helmet is a good investment.  I got this one on ebay for $40 and it works like a charm.  Don't forget heavy gloves, long sleeves, long pants, and closed shoes too.  If a spark lands on your skin it'll hurt like hell, so cover up as much as you comfortably can.

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