I always liked the Esab machines, have ran a few of the bigger mig and tig rigs. I have had my eye on a Heliarc 281 for a few years, but witih insane pricing lately dont need it that badly.
My current rig is the multiprocess Tweco 211i. Has been trouble free doing my personal stuff and some money jobs for around 8 years now. These were known as the Thermal arc fabricator series, and nowadays Esab calls it the emp. Think of it as a more basic precursor to the newer Rebel series. Its very strong on mig, and does a good job burning sticks. These ones dont have ac or high freq of course, so tig is a bit limited...but its not bad for your general carbon steel work. My only real grip about it is that it does not have a dedicated gas valve to your torch, relying on a simple on/off valve at torch body. It has been a supremely handy machine, you are talking sub 100lbs with a big spool of wire in it. It lived in the back of my truck making money running off a 7500 genset for a time. I really cant say anything but good about this setup. The dual voltage is very nice, at the time it came out it was considered one of the strongest most consistant rigs you could get on 120v. I can cover the majority of repair work on anything 1 ton or smaller without even switching to 240v.
Hobart has always been considered solid. Longevity and Everlast seem pretty solid for the price. An old co-worker got one of the bigger vulcans from harbor freight and it actually seemed pretty decent. That being said, I would probably stick between the major blue/red/yellow especially if you are gonna rely on it to get paid.
