Mind you, I'm no welder, but I have a thermal arc 181i. For my needs it works great. It's not that cumbersome to switch processes, and holds a 11lb spool of .030 wire no problem. I use the wire feed mostly to tack, and then if critical I weld it up with stick. My confidence of good penetration is better with stick. It is just a matter of switching leads, push the mode button, and reset the dials. I guess that is the worst part, making note of where you have the controls if you are going to be going inbetween processes. As far as the tig function, it is only a DC lift arc, it would be nice to have HF start or be able to run AC. But I have had good luck with 316 stainless. I think if you need tig, you would probably be better off with a good tig, and stay away from multi process. As I said before, I'm no welder. Mostly just for repairs and making up fixtures, and minor fabrication.
I know noon of this helps you with the lincon, but helps with the multiproscess
Brian
