Lincoln, Miller or Hobart..one of those will do you fine..then pick your range of power....for the 175 class I'd say Lincoln 175sp+ then Miller MM 175 then Hobart 180..in that order are considered the best by many on the Miller message boards. The Hobart 180 has had some good deals lately...as low as $585 USD shipped with cart and autodark hood...missed that deal but it wasn't available in Canada anyway.
http://www.millermotorsports.com/mbo...isplay.php?f=3
web message board...ask their or they have a search feature also...that question gets asked about weekly which one to get. For a little bigger model the MM210 is hard to beat if you have a shop for it with 30 amp service 240 volt plug. Thats what most everyone recommends there. The 175-180 class need 240 volt also. All have 50 amp plugs by the way in this range...even though a 30 amp breaker will do for supply.
Hobart has message boards also.
http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/...isplay.php?f=3
another favorite of mine is
http://shopfloortalk.com/forums/index.php?
that a keep you busy and informed.
ebays not a bad place to check things out in the USA. Order from a seller like BR welding and they will drop ship it from a local place to you....one tax and warranty most likely. Prices hard to beat compared to what the locals can do...but you can mention price from ebay at your local supply hpuse and maybe cut the same deal..and be on a little more friendly terms when it comes to gases and such.
Rod