Home depot elders

Take a course at the local community college and get some skills and knowledge. Once you have a better understanding of the equipement and applications, you can make an informed decision as to what to buy.

 

if you can only afford to buy it once, then buy it right the first time...that thing will only make you want to buy a 175 or 135...I made the mistake, just save your money. I had a lincoln 135 and it was badass.

 

I bought a Miller 135 demonstrator in '04 from a local supplier. I don't have 220v in the garage or outside, so mine is 110v. I paid $399 and with the other 'stuff' I think I have $550-600 all together. I am completely satisfied with this machine and I'm glad I didn't waste my $$ at Home Depot, Tractor Supply Company or worse yet Harbor Freight.
I see the 135 has been superceded by the 140? So its probably even better now.

 

We bought either a 135 or 175 from Costco back in the early '90s somewhere. We wore it out, literally. We got tired of buying those little 3Lb spools of wire and got the adapter to put a 'full size' spool in it (okay, 10, 12, 15Lb??? whatever it was, I realise an REAL machine would have a 20 or 40Lb spool). I don't know how many miles of wire we ran through it but we bought a case of the bigger spools of flux core when a local welding supplier was closing one of their locations (going out of business prices), and we have two spools left. It was working recently, but the feed quit again (I think it's the switch in the torch this time). We have replaced lots of pieces in it. It's gas capable and on a larger job (for it) you have to watch your duty cycle (it shuts off if you overheat it, it is much quicker to keep track than to wait for it to cool down enough to restart).

We have a 220V now (Daytona Mig 181C) got it from the local dealer, it was a floor demo model.

So I would have to recommend at least getting the 135 (shop around, this time of year you never know what kind of deal you can get). See if you can get whatever you buy with the gas kit and the adapter for the next bigger spool. The little spools are usually only available at the box stores and they want almost as much for them as the welding supply places want for the bigger spool. It's also a pain in the ass to run out of wire right when your in the middle of a weld (always happens after the store is closed too).

 

Second that on the class at the local college. I did, and it was worth it's weight in gold. Yeah, you can be "self taught" like a lot of people, but you'll pick up a ton of insight from someone who knows what they're doing and can tell you why your welds are wrong, what you're doing wrong, how to weld two different thicknesses of metal together, how to weld tubing, make vertical runs, etc.
I took the class, and I'd be confident welding chassis bits now.

I tried welding with flux core with my machine. If my last resort is flux core, I'll rub two piece of metal together really fast with my hands to get them to melt together before using flux core again.

-Brad