cant go wrong with the true & blue miller....... make sure you get one big enough to do close to 1/2" materal that way you can weld most anything.
I know that I am beginning to sound like a broken record, skipping CD, or badly encoded MP3 for you youngins. All of my welders are blue. Miller has enabled me to make a small fortune over the years. Zero trouble, none, zip, nada. Other brands are good too, but blue is what I know.
I like Miller alot. I have 7 135's, 1 140 110v, and 1 175 220v miller MIG's in my class, I've had them for over 5 yrs. and they've probably had over 500 high school kids use and abuse them and they still work awesome. Just gotta replace the normal wear items every so often. Not one major problem yet. I also like that they have more adjustablility than the Lincolns. Also have 2 Miller Tig's and 1 Miller plasma cutter. No problems.
i have a miller 251, i paid $1800 on sale, its nice to be able to hook the spool gun up to weld aluminum.
I have a Hobart and love it. I never have any problems. It is a 220 which i would suggest cause you will end up buying one eventually anyways.
The older L-tec migs are very solid machines and not to pricey. I use one at work one of the best mig welders I ve ever used.
I have a Hobart 250 (220V) of my own. At work I have two Millers, a Millermatic 200 and a big (300 Amp) inverter 3 phase machine. Good machines all but I can't get any accessories for the Miller 200. I['m told they don't make anything for it. Since we're talking about welders on a Hot Rod forum, we will assume we're gonna build hot rods, right. That usually means alot of sheet metal. I installed a spot-stitch modual in my Hobart. I use that almost all the time welding sheet metal and it does a beautiful job. I don't have a spool gun but alot of guys swear by them for fine control using small wire or aluminum. I guess my point is, if your going to buy a welder just make sure there is good accessory and dealer support for it. Then you can tailor it to do what you want.
I forgot to mention this as well. The MigMaster 250 I've got has the hookups to run a spool gun already in the panel and ready to go. Still gotta buy the actual spool gun itself, but there's no retrofitting to do on the welding machine to use it. Don't know that it comes up a lot. I've never used one on mine. I don't do a lot of aluminum work, and I've got a TIG machine for when the need to weld aluminum does arise, so I never found the need to own a spool gun. If you need to weld aluminum, it probably is cheaper to buy a spool gun than a TIG welder (assuming you don't already own a TIG), however, be aware that MIG welding aluminum is mess business. Don't expect TIG-like results from a spool gun. You can make excellent and strong welds with one, but they won't be as pretty as a stack of TIG coins.
Love my Hobart 187, it's perfect for what we do and I haven't heard anything bad about it yet. Do a google search on it.
I had a 135 lincolon awhile back, i liked it because it had a big power cord to help with the amps and it had a rehastat, i think thats how you spell it so you could dial in the heat you needed. As far as i remember the hobart didn't it just had 4 heat settings, never seemed to be the heat i needed at the time. I bought a miller 200 tig 3 years ago, and have been really satisfied. The only problem or design flaw is the leads going to the foot controll, if you knock something off the bench, say even a pair of plyers and lands on it, it will break the microscopic wires inside showing no damage outside rendering the welder useless. Also the wires pulled out of where they are attached to the welder on two occasions, and it requiers a special tool to repair. To fix these two problems i slit a piece of 3/8" gas line length wise and slipped it around the lead, and put a zip tie every few inches to provide more protection, and zip tied the wires where they attach to the machine, to the torch leads as well. I think everyone makes a good welder, its kind of like car brands everyone has their favorites, but having a local dealer for parts and service could be a deciding factor...that and what color you like best.
I've used several Miller 220V units and they were all outstanding MIGs. But I'd trade all of them for a Hobart Beta MIG 250
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