buying a welder finally.. Whats your choice?

Slightly OT but in Australia the rental and cost has a lot of us thinking twice about any plant that uses gas ,how expensive are the various gases in the states ?

 

I have a Miller and a Hobart. Both 110 units with gas. The Miller blows the SOX off the Hobart!

 

Miller all the way.

 

I have a HTP America Maxi Mig. Bought it in 82 have never had any problems with it (Made in america). It will weld from 22 gauge sheet metal all the way to 1/2 steel all day. HTP makes other models my opinion the best welders out there. I also have a HTP Mico cut 350 Plasma cutter. In the body shop where I work they just bought a millermactic 211 auto-set. It only has a 30% duty cycle, my opinion I could buy the same thing at Habor freight .The other welders shop has are lincoln 175 models they work much better then the miller.

 

how can it save you $1000???? i only paid $877 for my 211 brand new from Airgas early last year

 

Why did you have to buy 2 more??? Over how many years??? What happen to the first one???

I bought a 110v Lincoln Mig with the gas kit from Home Depot about 13 years ago for a total of about $500.00. I've gone through a lot of spools of wire with absolutely no problems at all. Now I wouldn't attempt to build a car trailer with it, but I have done many chassis repairs with this unit and it did very well. I have also fabbed up some 1/8th" and 3/16ths" frame work that also turned out well.

I like this unit and if you're not opening up a "heavy fab shop" why spend a ton of money on something that's going to be "overkill".

 

After doing a little research prior to plucking down almost $700 I decided the Hobart 187 would be the best mig for my garage also.

I should be able to both fabricate my frame and weld in patch panels.

I hope.

 

i bought a miller 252 some years ago now for $1800 on sale, theres not much i can't weld, yes it is more money but then you can do jobs for people like weld up a backhoe bucket, build a car trailer, weld till your eyes fall out, i own 6 miller welders and have had no trouble with any.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/product.php?model=M00218

i built this hydraulic lifting arm for a guys wood splitter and what i got paid would be the difference between a 211 and a 252

i also built this cleanout bucket for the same guy, i guess he dam near bought my welder..

 

millers are the only way to go, there are some other really good welders out there but you cant beat a miller. i have a relatively small miller 135 and its way underated. it will weld pretty much anything within reason. for me the versatility/portability of a 110 welder was a must but if i had a sitution where the welder could stay put i would've gone with a 220v.

 

the miller 211 has 110 or 220 hook up.. thats part of why im leanning that way.. i think you can get it for around 1000 shipped to the house these days.. man.. why cant things just be easy... haha.. remember walking into the station having only a couple of drinks to choose from.. now its a whole wall... thats how i feel right now... staring at that wall..

 

I have good luck with the Miller. (learning how to weld sheet metal on it..)

 

X2 that's what I did.

 

Yes! By all means buy the industry standard, Buy a Miller.
The 211 is a semi pro machine that could easily be used in small body shops.
-It will work very well for you and prove to be a long lasting easily maintained machine.

I live and work building infrastructure that pumps oil out of the ground and refines it into fuel for your vehicles.

The oil and gas industry is the biggest buyer of welding equipment and the majority of migs are BLUE.

In fact we have a saying around here when it comes to the Lincoln welding catalog, reading it is like gay porn for welders.



Do yourself a favor and Go with the industry standard, Get with the line that is found in 90% of all industrial oilfield and gas refining fabrication shops, Stay with the machines that will have parts for you 20 years down the road, Stick with the line that you'll find tips/parts for in the smallest of welding supply shops for years to come,

Go with Miller.





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i have the red one.........

 

Haha, me too... two of them actually, I have a lincoln 175 MIG that I've used for everything I've built over the last 5 years and I just recently bought a second hand Precision TIG185. Have had great results with both. Also have used Miller stuff, you can't really go wrong with either...

 

I have a Hobart 210, I have no problems with it. It welds from 24 ga. to 3/8 plate. for my heavy welding I use my SA200 gas powered Lincoln ( 1946 ) the best 200 bucks I ever spent.

Lee

 

i purchased a lincoln sp 170 t. in 1995 and she hasnt let me down once, i do a ton of small to large fabricating at home, lincoln claims the 170 t will single pass 3/8 with .035 wire, i can attest to that. i also use it for top chops and body panel repair and i use .023 for that. she is a 220 volt single phase machine with a 20 % duty cycle.i can also attest to that as once i was welding some dip tanks together at a friends shop and was on a straight run after fitment and tacking, i was really pushing the lincoln on max amps and wire speed, all of a sudden she just stop responding to the trigger, since it was the first time it happened to me i thought she was broke. i waited about 30 mins and she cooled down and went rite back at it. when they say 20% duty cycle they really mean your only gonna get 12 min/ hr of weld time. its rare to weld for 12 mins with out long pauses so ide say this is a great choice for all around automotive work. just remember, mig wants clean steel so prep everything good, and wire speed = penetration, you dont always need more heat, maybe just a little more wire speed, crank it til it sounds like bees

 

Just remember you need to get parts for the machine.Buy American.

 

i just purchased a ne sp 180 c i have the lincoln sp170t great machine just wanted something newer in the shop like gasser john said good for all aroun automotive work the c model is the heavy duty lincoln in the 180 sp series.

 

I am with Deuce Roadster on this one, i have one at work and its great!

 

i started with a cheap pocket mig. Clarke 100 amp.it was great for hobby type sheet metal.
next was a lincoln sp130 i now use here at home,some clunky old stick welder for the heavier stuff.
at work i use a lincoln sp175.old as the hills,still works great,hoping they will upgrade me soon.
really,all i have seen and sold in welding equipment,you get what you pay for.cheap aint good,good aint cheap.
Frank

 

I weld for a living. 80% of what we build is large structural beams/columns. Our company uses Millers exclusively, these welders are used 8-10 hours a day, 5-6 days a week, and have very few problems. I personally own a Miller 250x and also a Miller Cricket XL. I converted the Cricket to gas and like it best for sheet metal work. Neither of my machines has given me any problems.

 

i've had a millermatic 200 for over 20 years. trouble free years at that. it handles sheet metal all the way up to heavy frame fabrication. swapped to a tweco gun 10 years ago. would love to know how many miles of wire it has passed. good luck

 

I also bought one and am highly impressed!! this is a closeout deal on a discontinued model so don't fart around if you want one.

 

One piece of advice, and then just personal experience- as was said earlier, find a local JC or such and take a beginner's class (which will probably interest you in advanced classes), and learn first on a stick welder. Stick is pretty easy, but you learn the basics of stick size and heat ranges and controlling the puddle, and then MIG will be easy- but if you learn on the "a monkey can do it" MIG, it will be harder to learn the stick skills. I started on my gramps' old Forney "box" at age 10, and those old copper machines were pretty sweet- I have three of those old SA200 gas Lincolns, and have never used a "sweeter" or easier to use welder, just lays a beautiful bead with no fuss.
You can find great deals on welders on cl, lots of folks buy them and then don't use them, and many times you'll get a cart and bottle, helmet, and other extras with them. I got my Airco Heliwelder 250 from a roadracer resto place over at Sears Point that had just bought a new Miller, had it on epay and I was able to go look at it and pick it up after purchase so it was like a cl buy. They had just sent it out for service, and had added water cooling (it has an old aluminum fuel cell on top for a water tank LOL), very nice cart and the tank came with it for $870
Found a cherry classic Millermatic 200 on cl, a contractor who bought it, with cart, tank, hood, and then the economy slowed, never used it, for $600.
One thing they don't tell you, most bigger outfits like Airgas have meet-or-beat pricing policies, so if you take them a legitimate ad from someone else for a comparable machine (not a HF junker) they will match the price to get your business, and they make most of their money on supplies, not machine sales.
A little bird just saw this listing for the particular machine that was mentioned, with free shipping- then if you just search "MIG welder".... enjoy

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MILLER-MILL...60339695927?pt=BI_Welders&hash=item53e5eb6937

 

I have had Lincolns and I have had Millers, none of those compare to my HTP 200, A very nice machine. Weld from 24 gauge to 1/2", and more. They are are less money and a better machine, and use all of the same consumables.

 

once you do buy a welder then you need wire, better wire costs more, not sure how many guys on here have ever tried NS brand wire but its copper free, never clogs your liner, i used to work in a factory setting where we ran 1000lb spools of 045, when we ran copper coated we had a guy who had to work on whips a couple hours every day just to keep enough ahead so the line wouldn't come to a hault, the liners would plug with copper dust, after we switched to copper free NS wire no more liner trouble, a couple weeks ago i ran out of wire on my own machine and had to buy a roll of copper coated, within a couple days i started having trouble, wire burning to the tip, not running smooth, more splatter, have to make sure the whip is layed out straight or close to it, going to buy some NS copper free this week,geez

 

so i bought one of these today.. got a better deal than i planed on too!! winning..

 

Me, too!

 

I purchased a 211 I like it real easy to use and user friendly buy it.