Welder Question

I personally bought a Millermatic 175. Lincoln makes a great welder too but I know to many people that live by the brand Miller. The welder I used to go to ONLY uses miller and he has $10000 worth of welding equipment.

Here is where the 220v vs 110 comes in. Most people wont need more than a 110 really but I would get the 220v version. The reason I say this, it has a better duty cycle so you can weld longer without cooling (you wont need it really). If you order a Miller it already comes with the gas kit (and its why its a little more expensive). If you look around online you can find the best price. Locally stuff is more expensice and you pay tax. Online you can get the welder cheaper, shipped for free and usually they throw in a free welder car which is a MUST when lugging around a good sized gas bottle. If you are not in a huge rush, look around on the net and wait for a good deal. I paid $675 for mine with free shipping, gas kit, cart and the Millermatic 175


oh yeah..if you are worried about installing a 220v outlet, its EASY as long as you are somewhere near the breaker box. With 220v you can go up to about 50' of total wire. If you put the outlet next to the box, you can build a 50' extension cord. If you run 20 feet of wire in the walls, you can only do aobut 30' of extension cord. If you do decide on a 220v version, let me know and I will tell you how to install the outlet

I bought mine from Daytona Mig, and love it. They are very helpful, and although it's not a Miller, parts are readily available and it uses common wire tips, cups, etc. Also, if you don't want to spend the money to have your bottle filled with argon every time, co2 is cheaper and works about the same for about half the price.

As every one has said. Get the welder with the most amps you can in your voltage range. I personally would never buy and portable style welder made for 220v. Its not worth it because its to much for most peoples general needs and not big enough for heavy fabrication. I have a Millermatic 251 for my shop fab and a Miller 422. 135 amp welder for portable use. The 110v 135 amp welders are the best bang for the buck. You can weld almost anything the average welder will need to weld. The duty cycle will not even really come into play for the home welder. I can run my 135 amp welder for around 30 minutes all out welding 1/4 plate before it will shut off and need to cool. I would also not waste the money for a gas apperatus and tank. Some kits come with regulators and hoses. Shieled welding is not very cost efective for the average person. With fluxcore wire you can make a weld every bit as good and clean as you can with gas if you take the time and do good prep work. Plus, if your area is not all clean the fluxcore will not be as picky and your weld quality will not suffer. If you can weld good. I would recomend getting a Arc welder such as a miller thunderbolt. I have a Miller 250nt mounted on my truck and I weld 16 gauge sheet metal all day long with no problems. But you if your a starter, the mig will be your best bet.

Buy one. It is the best purchase I ever made. Once you have one you will do things you only dreamed of before and you will fix things you once thought should be scrapped. Either get a Lincoln or Miller small home MIG unit with GAS SHIELD...

Click to expand...

I too recommend buying one. I use a Lincoln 110 with gas shielding and it is great, like spreading butter. For spot welds, I drill small holes where the original spot welds are and then fill the holes to the part it is welded to.

Click to expand...

I probably use it once a month just to fix things or fab up something around the house that I need. I've made a T-post driver out of a Sch. 40 galv. fence post, a piece of 3/8" strap steel, and some rebar. I welded up a chain link gate frame instead of spending the money on those worthless expensive clamps, I've fixed my Snapper Rider countless times. Right now I need to weld a nut to the rounded off oil pan plug on the Isuzu Amigo I recently picked up cheap. Best money I've ever spent on a tool next to probably my Cordless drill.

Click to expand...

I welded some stuff w/ my lincoln flux-core welder and the welds looked like CRAP! Strong enough, but horrible looking! Used a mig welder elsewhere...and it is amazing the difference...alot cleaner.

Click to expand...

FWIW, I'd just like to second these comments. When we got our welder (Lincoln 110) it was just the flux core and I had to really work at welding. After we got the MIG kit, it was 100x easier. I didn't even do any practicing with the MIG set up before diving in on my floor pan. I couldn't imagine doing the whole floor pan with the flux core.

Also, when we first bought the welder, we figured that it was worth the cost to be able to do all the welding on my mustang myself (rather than hire someone to do it) but didn't think we'd use it on anything else. But amazingly, we've used it A LOT. And a couple guys that Dad works with who have bought welders were also surprised at how much they actually use them.

One last thing, an auto darkening helmet is almost a must have. Once you use one, you'll wonder how you got my without one. And get some good welding gloves. I'm incredibly pissed that I can't find any that fit me around here (need to start looking on line). I've been resorting to leather gardening gloves which are better than nothing, but I've still managed to burn myself through them.

I bought a pro mig 175 and I love it. Lincoln makes some great welders. Just make sure you do your research first because they are pretty expensive.

You could check with the places that rent welders as they may sell them at a discounted price. There used but I would think they would keep them in somewhat of a good working order.

I'd love to have a good quality Gas shielded MIG welder in my garage along with a nice Plasma Cutter....

Curious... how much is sheet metal going for these days?

-Tim