MIG

I know that welders have been debated many times in the past. I don't want a debate. I want a 220 volt 200 amp MIG welder. I finally sold my '53 Studebaker street rod type truck and have the money to buy a mig. I am looking for information on the best quality welder anybody knows about at the lowest price. I would prefer a national chain, TSC, Home Depot kind of thing since shipping would kill any good deal for a welder. The money is burning a hole in my pocket and I want to buy sometime in the next week. Thanks.

Lincoln Electric IMHO make the best. You can get a small 110v wire feed flux core for just a few hundred at Home Depot. Or go to a welding supply house in your area and get an Lincoln that has the argon tank etc. Just my $.02 worth.

Check out www.cyberweld.com they have pretty good prices and also include shipping. (you pay for it some way or another)
I got my Miller 210 at National Welders they were local, had it in stock, and got the free stars and stripes helmet.
Hope this helps..
Ricky...seeya...

Go with the gas MIG not the flux core, you'll be happier over time.
The MILLER 210 is an excellent set-up!

Miller 250X if I had $2000 to burn. It'll weld soda can up to 1/2" single pass.

I love the Miller electronic mig/tig/stick units. We have four here at work. I can't afford the $2,800+ price though. Thanks for the other suggestions. I do want and will not settle for anything but gas shielded. I hate flux cored.

eastwood has a lincoln tig 175 for 1549.99 stick/tig

Flux core does have it's place -- working in a stiff breeze will blow your shield away -- but I use gas anyway outdoors, and either rig a shield, or cup my hand around the nozzle. Gas mix makes for a much cleaner job.

Check the duty cycle on the welder -- some of them get down to about a 10% duty cycle at max amps -- not worth having -- think of letting the coil cool down for 54 minutes out of every hour of "welding" (six minutes).

DP

I kind of had the Millermatic 210 in mind when I started my search. I don't want to spend $1,200 plus though. I found one near here for $1,100. That is still kind of high though. I also found a Hobart Ironman 210 for around $900. I heard sometime ago that Miller owns Hobart and that they are exactly the same welders as far as construction and quality. Can anybody confirm that? Also, I wanted to find one that will handle the 12" spools. They are much cheaper to buy and hold several times the wire as the small ones. Does anybody have any experience with the Hobart? The only Hobart I have ever used was a little 110v flux core POS that wouldn't make a good bead no matter how it was set up or who the user was.

When it was time to upgrade the lincoln weldpak 100, I decided I wanted around a 200 amp machine.I looked at miller and lincoln, thought they were pricey.Went to Farm & Fleet (local farm supply business) that sold hobart. I liked the price, but didn't like seeing a stack of xerox copies of where the local factory authorized repair center was. Big no no in my book!!!!!! So now we are back miller and lincoln, myself I was leaning towards a miller just on the fact a buddy of mine is running a millermatic 250 that's older than dirt. Now I'm standing in front of the millermatic 210, giving it the final once over I notice it has a 7 step control for the amps....look over at the millermatic 251, infinite control of amps and wire speed. I like that, now how am I going to pay for this and not end up in the doghouse. Well, the 251 is in the garage and I'm still in the house. Did I need to buy one that big? no. Will it last forever? I hope so.


John

Good point about the adjustability of the 251.

So when I need to weld on mine, I can come down and hang out at your shop?? Sounds like you got a beauty John...congrats!!!!
brute4c

Well, I'm still shopless. So I'm fabricating out of the garage. Today I made motormounts. Tomorrow I hope to temporarily mount the drivetrain. With the baby lincoln it would've been wheezin' pretty heavy, and now with this miller the fan doesn't even come on.

John

SWEET!!
Send some pics when ya can!!
brute4c

I bought a Millermatic 210 this afternoon. Thank you all for the information. Especially the cyberweld link Ricky. That really helped. The local and only welding supply place for 60 miles is an Airgas store. They wanted $1,243 for a 210 and $1,768 for a 251. I couldn't spend more than $1,300 total. Cyberweld had a 210 delivered to my door for $1,210. I took that quote into the Airgas store along with a $248 shipping quote from some online shipping company and told him I wanted to by local, but unless he could meet the $1,210 minus the shipping fee I would not by from him. He got mad and called up Miller. Apperantly, Miller sets the retail price on their welders and theoretically, they should all be the same. He yelled at Miller for a few minutes and then got calm and hung up. Miller ships all of its welders for free to dealers and individuals. That made his price only $33.00 more than the online price. I told him that $33.00 was still my hard earned cash and that unless he could get me out the door with my own full bottle of Argon/CO2 for his $1,243, I would not by from him. He came close. $1,268 got me a 210, a 125 cubic ft full tank and a 30 pound spool of .035 solid wire.

Of course, none of the four 220v plugs in my shop were the same pattern as the non removable Miller plug. Thankfully, I had the right one in my box of "stuff I might need someday." I now have five 220 plugs in my shop.

I only got to play with it for an hour before my sons t-ball practice. But, from filling holes in the 18ga windshield frame to fixing the 1/2" metal frame on my shredder, I love it. Thanks again for the help.

One more thing. Spicegear, thank you for the info about the Lincoln. I just didn't want to deal with small stuff, no matter how good it might be.

Oh, no problem. I can do from about .080" up with my lincoln stick and would like to pick up something to do sheet metal and continuous...like seam welding at some point. The Lincoln SP135 may be my ticket...or my neighbor a mile away with 6 welders. Hmm...