Art & Inspiration Welder recommendations?

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Nope, just have zero experience with it. MIG, I can do. Stick, I'm rusty at, but can strike an arc and stick stuff together.

Roger

 

Miller 211 works for me.

Ron

 

Snap-on Muscle Mig 250...... Costs a little more but very smooth, very consistent. Made like an old school welder with real wires and real copper as opposed to printed circuit and aluminum. Plus they still sell parts for and or repair every welder they have made since 1986. No one else does that.
Yes I am biased since I make my living with snap-on but all those things are 100% true.

 

For hobbyist type machines, I had a Lincoln 175 amp, I think, and it was OK. When it died, I got a similar sized Hobart and it is a lot better and smoother.

Gary

 

My Miller Matic 211 makes my welds look good and I’m a crappy but improving welder.


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Bought my Millermatic 200 about 10 years ago and man it was the best thing I ever did............... can't say enough great things about it

 

I have 2 Miller 220 volt welders, the first one I bought 25 years ago when I opened my welding shop, the 2nd one I bought about 15 years ago when I needed a spool gun to do an aluminum job. I'm retired now, I'd sell the one with the spool gun, I think its a Miller 210, but I'd have to look to be sure. I don't use it much, I'd plug it in, connect a cylinder, and a guy could run some beads with it. Gene

 

Way back in the 70's when I was an apprentice the local welding supply rep sold me a Lincoln SP-200 wire welder that was a demo unit at one of the trade shows for a 50% discount. It was a brand new machine in their product line at the time and a LOT of money for a kid.
I still have it and use it almost daily, probably done 3 dozen cars and hundreds of metal fab jobs with it.
I also bought a Lincoln Square Wave 255 TIG about 15 years ago and both machines have performed flawlessly.
At welding school we had Lincoln and Miller machines.
I think both are great quality.

 

I have a bunch of blue welders.

One of them finally broke.

That one I call the "yard welder", a 210 MIG. It travels, gets used outside a lot, and has welded about everything possible.

Last week, it failed me.

One of the casters broke.

 

I wrote this in another post a few years ago. I was looking for a light duty mig preferably a 110. I was teaching auto mechanics in a prison here in California. I asked he welding Instructor what he would suggest and he said the Lincoln SP 135 plus. He had 6 of them being used by inmates that could break an anvil with a rubber mallet! At that time he had been using them for 5+ years and no inmate could break or damage them. Those units were in operation 5 daysbaveeek, all day long. I then asked him what I should use if I decided that I wanted 220 and he said Lincoln again. I also purchased a 220 TIG and his recommendation for that was a Miller. I have both and love the performance I get from each of them. Prison proven sold me. If inmates can't hurt them then I guess the next thing would be a nuclear explosion. But after the nuke, I am pretty sure I wouldn't be doing much welding anyhow!

 

I'd go pick up a brand new Millermatic 212 perfect mig welder to get any job done in the shop or at home...

 

This group? I highly doubt it.
Miller is the better of the the red/blue duel.
Decades of experience in all aspects of welding.

 

Miller welders have been putting clothes on my back, and food on my table, for over 30-years.

 

MILLER

 

Have had great luck with Horbart for a long time.

 

If I was looking for a new machine I’d buy this one.
New from Miller, it will do stick, mig, and Tig.
Unlike some other brands 3 process machines that are limited to DC Tig, this new machine does it all.
So that means you can weld stick, mig , and Tig including Tig on aluminum.

Awesome machine.

https://www.millerwelds.com/equipme...ltimatic-220-ac-dc-multiprocess-welder-m30190

 

Hey GTS225...This one is pretty local to you ..Only about an hour's scenic drive .....

 

My main welders now, are my Lincoln 255SP MIG, and a Miller Syncrowave 180SD. I bought the Lincoln as a used commercial welder 20 years ago, and it has worked flawlessly for me all this time.
I also like my Miller. It does TIG and stick welding and is slightly more portable. I do have a pound gun, so I can MIG with the syncrowave as well. If I was just buying one welder, I would buy the syncrowave. You can buy the miller MIG spool gun or a quality aftermarket unit, this gives you the capability of doing all types of welding with just one unit. The AEC 200 spool gun in the link below, is the standard generic model that was developed in WWII, and has been copied by almost every manufacturer. Mine is a Westinghouse, and although my unit is old and has mechanical relays, it still works extremely well, even though it is over 60 years old. The new spool gun controllers are solid state, and are very reliable.
.
https://www.iwws.net/files//literature_flyers/aec200-4__aec200-4c_spool_gun__control.pdf

I also have a Miller Dimension 400, but I don't use it much anymore unless I am welding on the excavator or Bobcat, where I need a longer duty cycle. I also have a Miller Big 40 (300 amp), that works beautifully, but it is not easily portable.
I agree with the other comments above, that state all of the major brands are excellent quality units, and it is a matter of getting a good unit at the right price. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a used unit, provided that I could test it before I bought it.
Bob

 

I own a Miller Synchrowave 180 TIG and a Miller 180 Auto set MIG, I seldom use the MIG but it’s capable of doing almost anything automove related you would ever need.

 

You guys all neglected to mention HTP. HTP imports many of their welders from Italy and I think are much higher quality than any of the asian machines, and very much on par with Lincoln and Miller, despite being a fraction of the cost.

I had wanted a TIG since I graduated college in 2006, but I wanted one with all of the features of the Synchrowave 250 we had in the college shop. Last year I decided to pony up and started researching machines. The Miller Dynasty was prohibitively expensive, coming in at nearly $8000 through Cyberweld.com, and was not considered due to price. A buddy who owns a motorcycle shop recommended the HTP Invertig221, which he had and raved about. It spec'ed out almost identical to the Dynasty, except was a much better price value. I pulled the trigger on Black Friday and couldn't have been happier. After a year of welding with it, I honestly can't say enough good things about it. 220 amps, will run on 110v or 220v, nice small 20 series torch, pulse modes, AC balance, loads of programmable settings so you can quickly change settings depending on what you're welding, more adjustability than I know how to use... I'll put it up against any Miller, especially since I could have bought two of them for the price of the Dynasty. The Harbor Freight Vulcan cart worked great to house all of my consumables, tank, welder and water cooler.



In fact I liked my HTP TIG so much, I just bought this MIG200 from USAweld.com last week. So far it welds great, and I'm sure will provide me years of service. Seems like a really solid machine.



There is less of a price disparity on the MIG machines, and I was tempted by the Millermatic 211, which my father-in-law has. But it's always broken or having some sort of issue, and isn't as powerful at the HTP. The comparable Miller is the 212, which was $700 more. So far I'm happy with my choices, and dealing with USAweld has been a joy, honestly some of the best customer service I've dealt with.

 

There’s good reason for not recommending them, because they’re just not good quality.
I’d never recommend them or any other Italian or other offshore welding equipment.

 

It is always better to have " too much welder " than not enough.

Really hard to make the dial turn right past the stop to get more. ​

If you can't move fast enough to keep up with the amps, I suppose you can always turn it down.

 

Are you basing that on personal experience with these welders or simply making a general statement that they must be low quality due to country of manufacture?

 

I have a miller matic 135, a Hobart iron man 210 and a Hobart EZ tig 165. No complaints here. If you’re going to do any heavy welding for longer periods of time go for the industrial machine as they have better duty cycles. Also, both Hobart machines were bought from cyberweld.com, free shipping and they run damn good sales pretty regularly.


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I'm also in the market for a new welder and I'm strongly considering the Hobart Ironman 230.

 

Not a general statement.
It’s personal experience as a professional tradesman and welding educator along with many years of welding machine evaluation and repair.
It applies to pretty much all of the different brands of offshore welding equipment regardless of what country they’re made in.

There’s good reason for sticking with Miller, Hobart,Lincoln or Esab.

 

Look up htp welders. Very nice units I've used lincoln Hobart miller everlast they all work. I really like my htp mig2400. Just my opinion

 

Listen to Blue One, he knows what he is talking about. I have a miller mig as well, works great


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I'm not going to question your experiences or credentials, you're obviously very knowledgable in this area and you'd know better than me. I'm just some hack in his home shop.

That being said, from my personal experience, I've used plenty of Millers over the years. The synchrowave I lived on in college, the Millermatic 252 we have in the shop now, and the 211 my FIL has. The 211 is broken often and has required more service than a hobbyist's welder should need. I don't subscribe to the mindset that simply because something is made overseas, it's of poor quality. While I'd agree that many cheap, Chinese-made items have garnered a well deserved reputation for poor quality, the same can't be said for items of European manufacture. I just find it so odd that in terms of tools, we universally think USA made is the highest quality and everything else is inferior, but in terms of electronics, Japanese made items are widely considered high quality, and in the automotive sphere, German and Japanese are high quality. Who'd argue that a Honda is low quality? Nobody. In terms of the welders, in my research, the HTP welders seem to be highly regarded, and while they might not have the prestige or resale of a Miller, mine has performed flawlessly for the year I've owned it. I'm sticking to my story that I'd feel comfortable recommending their products to someone else.

 

The main problem with machines like that HTP and some of the other off brands I’ve worked on is that too often when they stop working they aren’t repairable.
You end up with something that you basically have to scrap.

In any case I’ve made my recommendation and given valid reasons.

Take the advice or not your choice.