which Miller welder

[johnnymac46]

I am about to buy a Mig welder. My god father who has recently passed was a welder my hole life and swore by Millers. I am looking at a Millermatic 180 Autoset, my question is, will this do everything i need to do. I know i will need to make a cart for my car, it is completely stripped and on jackstands, which makes it hard to move as you all know, and I am going to be installing a AME Rearclip. Will the 180 get enought penetration to weld the frame to the floor pan? i know it will do all the body work i need with out a problem. Im just wondering if i should step up to the 211. I wont be doing much work on thicker metals it will be 97% body work.

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/...c_180_autoset/

http://www.millerwelds.com/products/...c_211_autoset/

[coolwelder62]

I think the 180 will work fine for this type of work.Ask your local welding supply mgr. if they have a demo you could try out over the week end.Tell him you are going to buy one or the other.If they want to make a sale they should let try it over the week end if you leave a deposit.Good luck Scott.

[ma73z]

Can't go wrong with miller in my opinion, I just got a 211 on Friday I liked the ability to use 110 or 220 which I have used several times with my plasma cutter, either way I think you will be happy.

[Mikael A]

I have the 211 and i love it. figured out what you need it for then buy the next step up from there.

[GregWeld]

Always go bigger on a welder. I own a 210... Miller. I'm a Miller kind of guy - but that doesn't really make any difference.

What you will find out about owning a welder - is that there are LOTS AND LOTS of things you can do with it... and your friends will have projects etc... so for the lousy $100 difference between the smaller machine and the larger - go larger 'cause the last $100 is insurance on the first $1000 that you'll have a machine that can do it when needed.

Owning a welder - and being good with it - is like owning a pickup... "you be da man" (when your friends need you).

[Scott Hightower]

Bigger is Better if you can spend the extra cash. However, the 180 has plenty of power for your project.

Scott
Fab Manager
Welders360

[deuce_454]

bigger is better... a big heavy used welder will outperform a new one dollar for dollar....

i borrowed a 400 amp ESAB MIG welder the other day, and it just put down a bead that looked almost like it was tigged

[David Pozzi]

Compare duty cycle, when you get on a big job on thick metal where you really turn the welder up and weld a longer time, the smaller welder will turn off when it get's hot. Duty cycle is the number of minutes you can weld out of every 10 minutes. A 5 min duty cycle is 50% duty cycle.

98% of the time you won't need many amps to do the job, but if I could upsize for only $100 or so. I'd do it.
David

[johnnymac46]

I know im a little late but thanks for the help deciding on a welder i went with the 211 MVP it works awesome.

The auto darkening helmet was a great investment as well. I would highly recommend getting one to any one who welds.

[GregWeld]

Nice!

Personally -- I HATE my Miller Elite helmet. I'm older... as in DIRT OLD... and many times (light gauges etc) it just won't be light enough for me.

I almost always use my OPTREL or my Speedglass.... they'll adjust to "5".

Just tossing that in if you find you can't see well... and seeing is EVERYTHING in welding.