What your opinoin on the Millermatic 135 mig welder for home projects and body work as well as chassis work ? Looking for some replys of those of you who had experience withe the 135 unit . I know the 140 is the new 135 . I have a chance to buy a 135 , but dont want to buy it and not be happy with its overall uses. Body work i think it would be fine . But when welding the frame , perches , brackets to 1/8- 3/16 material is where i wonder . Wil in penetrate as needed? I have 220 option in garage but looking at the $ part of it . Thanks
how young are you, and how many years will you be building things? My ancient Miller 35S 220 mig, I bought used in the later 70s....wnen I was young. I could not really afford/justify a new welder for my then-hobby only, .....and there were no 110 ones back then. I got lucky finding a used one. I still use it most every day or two, now commercially. Figure out how many things you may build in your future, and the possibility of building heavier things?
You can always run smaller wire and turn down the temp on a 220 wire welder but on a 110 unit you are going to find stuff you don't have the power for. If not on your current project, on a future one. Then you will need to buy another welder, and while there's nothing wrong with have two welders, it will be cheaper in the long run to buy one welder that will handle more then you currently need because as your skill progresses so will the demand on your tool.
If it's a good deal buy it and use it to its limitations. Sooner or later you'll run across a deal on a 220 unit and that one will always be easy to sell, if you should ever need something stronger. I've got a migmatic 185 and it's a great all around machine. It just doesn't get used enough.
I have a millermatic 135 that I bought 15 years ago or so. I can weld 1/4 plate with no problems. I run .028 wire, and run the wire speed and voltage way up on thicker metal. You should bevel heavy metal even with larger 220 volt welders. I used the 135 to weld the front of the cutlass frame to the original 48 olds frame on my convertible, and got real good penetration. I have used the same welder to weld in the mustang II crossmember in my current project. No problems here either
I've built a lot of things with my Miller 140, and it works great. But I do know it's limitations, and when I need some very thick metal welded I take it to my buddy's shop and use his big Miller to really penetrate. The 140 is limited to 1/4" material, unless you bevel the joint and do multiple passes. Certain parts I don't trust to this method, so that's when I use my buddy's bigger MIG.
I have a few welders and teach welding for a living, among them is a millermatic 135, it's a great little welder and is capable of whatever you like for home use/hot rod building, if you want to do frames 1/8-3/16" thickness then prep the weld seams with a bevel for good penetration. You'll be happy with it. I run 75/25 mix with .023 70S-6 wire.
I use a Hobart Handler 135 with 75/25 mix and run .030 wire. I will say the continious duty cycle is something to look at when buying.
I have a 110v welder use the crap out of it. Works great for body panels and up to 1/8th. But to weld chassis or frame I use 460 amp welder at the shop. Not worth the risk of something breaking.
Nothing can "break" if the seams are prepped properly and the welding is done by someone who knows what they are doing. Short circuit transfer for mig is 12-22 volts, 110 or 220 it doesn't matter. Prep and experience will do the job. If using a 110 you gotta make sure you have an adequate breaker on your panel and a machine with a decent duty cycle.
Anyone that knows what they are doing would use a proper welder for proper penetration. More amperage = hotter weld = more penetration. 110 does not produce enough amperage = not enough penetration .Sorry.
Check out the Miller 211, it runs off 110 and 220. I've had mine for a couple of years and it works nice. Ron
O.K, if you say so, lol. Since MIG is constant voltage, amperage is a represention of wire feed speed. Mig uses Voltage and not amperage. As I said, short circuit transfer is 12-22 volts, it is not based on amperage 110 or 220 volts. Short circuit transfer means the wire dead shorts each time the wire contacts the base metal which is where all the sparks come from, it doesn't matter if it's 110 or 220 if you don't stay on the leading edge of the puddle with a short circuit transfer with mig you'll get cold lap (lack of fusion). Constant Current is Stick/Tig welding. Do your homework. A 135 amp machine is plenty capable of welding full penetration welds on 1/4" material with proper preperation and obviously with a qualified welder pulling the trigger.
And for what it's worth, this is the stupidist comment and probably the most common when it comes to welding. THE MACHINE has nothing to do with getting proper penetration, it's puddle recognition. And yes, I would challenge that statement any day of the week.
i got a 110 v 135 and have done everything from quarters to a full cage and frame connectors on a 10 second camaro,,, and never had a problem,,,
buy the best welder you can... I am still running my 135 it never lets be down. I also have a 220 volt miller 250 for the bigger stuff and a Tig for the fun stuff
Listen to this guy. He actually understands what the heck is going on. I encourage those who "heard from their neighbors brothers son that a 110 won't work" (as is REALLY COMMON on these welding threads) to keep your ignorant opinions to yourself. Unless you get in to some of the exotic MIG where they are using uncommon gas mixtures to create spray transfer hard wire, then you'll be dealing with short circuit transfer MIG. As stated, short circuit transfer occurs under 22 volts meaning the most noticeable problem with the Miller 135 when performing MIG welding will be duty cycle. A competent welder will be able to do pretty much anything automotive related with one of the "super 110" machines.
Well, I have done extensive duty on a Miller 450 Constant-Current machine, with a wire feeder, so some MIG is constant-current. Built this, with that rig:
Not sure what that is but it is pretty cool. I agree, some mig can be used with constant current, most scenarios involve a "suit case welder" which use flux cored wire, or self shielding wire. Though a gas mix is very common in those scenarios, I've used them for many, many years welding pressure vessels. Though I have never used a "solid" wire such as 70S-6 or 70S-2 on a constant current setup I'm not saying it's not possible, just uncommon....at least around these parts. Many rig welders (portable) welders run a "suitcase" welder but use a 71T wire, or a flux wire on their rigs. Also many pressure vessel shops I have worked in over the last 20 years use CC machines with suitcase welders for use with flux cored wire.
I should edit this, as I mean some FCAW can be used with constant current, FCAW welding uses globular transfer, which is 22-26 volts, of course this is dependent upon wire size. The voltage I quoted is based on .045 wire diameter. I have never seen or used GMAW or short circuit welding on a constant current machine, I'm not saying it's not possible though. Were you using a solid wire or a flux cored wire when you fabricated that structure? I'm NOT intending a pissing match, just interested in the process and wire you used on a constant current machine. I would assume that it was a field fabrication which would lead me to think it was a flux cored wire or self shielding wire because of the outdoors??
Cyclisk. Steel framed obelisk, fully populated with bicycle parts. Municipal art, City of Santa Rosa, California. Solid core. It was built, on-side, fully indoors.
I have an older Miller SP that is CC and utilizes a sensor wire in the ground circuit. Fairly common, and a good machine, I believe it utilizes control over the feed rate to control the fluctuation in distance from electrode to workpiece instead of CV where the heat ooutput (voltage) fluctuates instead. Two different ways of doing achieving a similar goal. I've never run MIG on my CC machine, only dual shield, but, it is a great machine for running dual shield FCAW when I need to really burn some wire.
Thanks for the info. I have have a cylinder of high argon content helium enriched shielding gas that I believe is for MAG. I'll have to get out that machine and give some 0.45 spray transfer hard wire a try. I've always enjoyed it and would like to be able to utilize it at home.
This guy gets it, spray transfer can be created with 75/25 Argon mix though it wouldn't be considered a "true" spray transfer. By the book, a spray transfer would need a minimum of 85 percent Argon. I've used lots of spray transfer over the years and I can tell you that it has no place on a hot rod or chassis as I'm sure you'll agree. Metalcore wire is high voltage spray transfer used in lots of production environments for obvious reasons. As you said, short circuit transfer is THE most common use on a MIG machine and always will be. The only problem with using short circuit on body panels or sheet metal is the distortion because of the short circuits, it makes for a very hard deposits that is are not easily worked with a hammer and dolly like its counterparts OAW or GTAW. Finally someone who gets it chimes in!
Yeah, I can't imagine many home uses for true spray transfer in this field but I've always loved the look, and it's very interesting to weld. I could talk the science of this stuff all day, and am often discouraged when I read some of the advice given on the welding threads here. Glad to see people giving sound advice and that have a reason behind their answer.
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