CHIMERA ARC-110XR IGBT DC Inverter ARC Welder LCD Display - 110/220V 110/140 Amp

After a long and extensive search for a portable welder, this welder caught my attention for its portability and the company's warranty.When I received it, I was surprised by its design; the color, and its compactness were impressive. Before buying the product, I had a question about its internal parts, but when I checked its interior, I noticed that the components were all protected and properly secured (now I understand why the company gives two years of warranty).I was impressed by how smooth the start arc is. After that, I decided to do more testing. I bought a tig torch 150 amps and the initial contact starts great at 70 amps (in 15 amps break) with a 1/8 metal plate; my initial impression is that this welder can hold up.A con of this welder is that its cables are only 6 feet long and there was no included adapter for 220 volts. In the end, for what you are paying for, the quality of this welder is great!

So here goes a review. First thing I want to say is this thing is cheap. 119 bucks to my door? Second there are two versions, 110 and 110xr I can't figure it the difference except the xr has a clear flap over the controls. Here's the review:The good:This thing is small. It's much smaller then my harbor freight ac only stick welder. It had dinse connectors but they're the small European ones. It welds really good! At half power it was burning rods that my harbor freight arc 120 couldn't. Striking the arc is easy keeping it lit is easy. Is both dcen and dcep simply but switching the lead connections. On 220 volts it is Max 140 amps which is fine for my needs making projects around the house and vehicle bumpers and such.Cons:There's no instructions on making it 220. It's comes with a standard 110v plug three prong. So I cut off the end and what do you know there's only two wires in it. The ground prong on the plug is a lie! But wire in a 220 plug and good to go. It's auto sensing so no need to do anything else. The display doesn't tell amperage! It's a percent of max instead so takes a bit of math. 100 is full amperage, on 220 volts that 140 amps and go from there.Overall there's some things that should be different but so far it's suitable entirely for me. I'd recommend it!

The difference between the xr and regular is the no load voltage. It is 76 on xr and 62 on regular. The only other differences are the regular has an earth screw on the back, and the xr has a flip display cover.I ran a 1/16” 6011 on regular polarity thru it on 120v. No problems at all and it held the arc for an inch from the workpiece (this isn’t a good way to weld, I was just curious about the arc distance it would allow). Since it caps around 140amp on 240 there aren’t many 5/32 it can push, so 3/16 stock is the single pass limit, but it certainly works and for the casual user who wants to tack and fix its a fine option.Just got it so can’t rate reliability. Have to buy the 240v adapter cable separately.

I think I like better than my 220v Miller

Arc starts are nice but there's no way this thing is putting out the amperage claimed. This could be due to my wiring, though. I suspect it will run much better once plugged into 220v.Factory support is phenomenal. This would be a 2 star rating of it weren't for the amazing support from SRA.I've already used it weld up some handrails and a little work bench. It's easily worth the price and welds surprisingly nice too.I'm going to pick up a scratch start TIG setup and see how it runs. It would be mind blowing to get into GTAW for less than $150.

Great tool for the$$$$$$$

I'm completely new to welding. Maybe I had junkie rods that kept sticking to my piece but in terms of getting rods to burn, I was able to do so. Love how small and light weight the whole setup is. My deal breaker was the short cable lengths. It's hard for me to imagine how short everything would be but once I had it in hand, I had that oh shoot feeling.