Hi Rod - just came across your thread here and wanted to pass along my thumbs up from New Brunswick.
I'm in the same boat as Steve, and have about 8 projects that are stacked up and waiting for me to learn how to weld I've got a small inverter unit from Miller - Maxstar 150 - it's DC only but uses either 120 or 240V. I have only tried it once or twice to run a few beads and after about an hour of swearing I did manage to get something that looked half decent. A buddy of mine GAVE me this welder as he went out west to work for a few years and so I have the free use of it for a while. I'm planning to search out a course in the fall before I start to do some serious building.
Cheers,
Lewis