Northern tool offers a line of Clarke MIG welders that look like a pretty
good deal. Never heard of them. Anyone know if they are any good?
US-made or oriental?

Try to scrounge the $ to move up to a Miller, Hobart or US made Lincoln if
you will be using the welder very often. Check out this forum:

http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/

for some comments on these welders and the Clarke units, use the search
feature on the forum to search on these terms and you'll hit lots of
comments:

Clarke
Hobart 135
Hobart 140
Lincoln 135
Miller 135

What you'll find is that any of the small Hobart, Miller or Lincoln welders
are way better than any of the imports. Be careful with the Lincolns, the
135 and higher units are US made and are good pieces, but the 125 and lesser
units are imports and are so-so.

Lincoln re-sells their SP135 and SP175 tapped units under a lot of different
brand names at the "big box" stores (Weld Pac 135, Pro Mig 135, . . .).
These are all exactly the same as the entry model tapped units they sell in
"real" welding stores, and some times you can find them on sale at the big
box stores. You'll also find these on the used markets, sometimes for pretty
good prices, I think a lot of people buy them on impulse, use them once and
then leave them sitting around until they decide to get rid of them.

Good luck-

Paul T.