Lincoln 210MP welder review

I recently acquired a new Lincoln 210MP multi purpose welder for my shop, and thought that I'd share my review of it with the SMC folks.

A little background info on me... I've been welding for 40 years, learned on oxy-acytelene with steel filler rod and progressed to stick, TIG and MIG in that order. I used to weld a lot back in my 20's when I worked at a fabrication and machine shop, and ever since then on farm and personal projects. My welding equipment includes a Miller 130 MIG for sheet metal work, and older Miller Thurnderbolt AC/DC stick welder, a Miller Syncrwave 250 DX TIG machine, and a Miller Trailerblazer Pro 350D engine driven arc welder with a Miller Suitcase MIG welder for industrial level MIG welding.

I had a gap in my MIG shop equipment that I wanted to fill; namely I did not have a 200A range MIG welder for shop use, and bringing the welding trailer over and hooking up the suitcase MIG was a bit of a hassle for quick shop projects. Because I don't use a MIG on a frequent basis, it is always a hassle to figure out the proper settings, and even using a cheat sheet it usually takes ten minutes or so of experimentation to get things dialed in correctly.

My local welding shop recommended that I try the new Lincoln 210MP welder, and stated that they had sold a lot of them ever since they came out last summer. They brought one out last week and I bought it after giving it a tryout. This machine is aimed at the home shop user, and has a lot of great features that makes it a true multi-purpose welder. In addition to MIG capability, you can stick weld with it, add a spool gun for MIG welding aluminum, and also add a scratch start TIG torch for TIG welding materials other than aluminum (no high frequency). It includes both 120V and 240V power cords, and was priced well at around $1,100.00 with only $250 more for the spool gun (which I did not buy).

My machine and welding shop is set up in an old log cabin here on the farm, and space is a little bit at a premium. Being able to consolidate two existing welders (small MIG and stick) into a single machine, without having to add a third, larger MIG welder was attractive to me too.

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In addition to the various functions that a single machine can weld, it is easily portable (weighs 40 lbs), and the greatest feature of all is the fact that the machine will automatically set all of the welding amps / wire speed, and voltage based upon inputs from the user (as well as available power). To use it, you simply use the screen to input the welding gas mix, wire diameter, and thickness of material being welded and it automatically sets the wire speed and voltage for you (which you can easily change if desired). It does the same for stick welding.

It senses the available power (120 versus 240) and restricts the machine accordingly. Want to weld some 22 guage sheet metal? No problem -simply plug the 120V power cord in and run through the settings and weld away. Want to weld some 1/4" steel? Use the 240V power cord for higher machine settings.

I found that the pre-set recommended settings were right on and much easier than fiddling around with my Miller 130 to try and determine the best wire speed and voltage.

Here is what the input screen looks like:

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Here is one of my test MIG welds with the unit, in this case some 1/4" thick steel:

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And here is a 7018 pass on 1/4" steel (it looks odd because I used a bead blaster to clean off the slag after welding).

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You can use flux cored wire with it (although it includes a gas regulator for hard wire). Lincoln does not rate it for 6010 rod; only 6011 and 6013, and I found that it will weld 6010 ok but the arc feels non-standard while doing so. 7018 felt normal, as did the MIG.

My only complaint is that the power cords and arc welding leads are somewhat short, but these issues are easy to address. I've already swapped out the leads from my Thunderbolt to it (about 4X longer), and will be building a heavy guage extension cord to use with it.

All in all I'm very pleased and highly recommend the machine. It does a lot in a small package and the features are great - especially for someone that does not use a welder frequently enough to have the settings memorized. I highly recommend it.

Scott

Scott,

Thanks for the review on the 210! I know you put up this review a few months ago, but if you happen to come across this again, I've got a couple of questions.

- Did you look at the Miller 215? Similar machine only blue, but there are some differences.

- I think I like the Lincoln screen and menus a little better, but I have only used the Lincoln, not the Miller. Any thoughts?

- The Miller has some smaller buttons above the screen (again, I have not had a chance to look at one in person) - I am wondering if they are easy enough to push with gloves on.

- The Miller feed rollers are a little easier to use/change, but I don't know in practice how well they work. Do you know if one works any better than the other?

- Miller costs a little more - any advantage for the extra couple hundred bucks?

- Did you look at any other machines like ESAB or Tweko?

- How has the machine been now that you have had it a few months?

Thanks a bunch!

Jon

Hi Jon,

i have / had several Miller Machines, including a 40 year old Thunderbolt, a Trailblazer Pro 350d, Syncrowave 250dx, Suitcase MIG and a Miller 130.

When my Syncrowave had less than 20 hours on it a board went bad. Miller made me pay for a $1,200 revision to the machine in addition to the board replacement. To say the least, that really soured me on Miller products. The Lncoln was my next purchase.

I've been very pleased with it, but wish that it had more power for welding up to 3/8" steel. It had a great reputation when I bought it (still does), and I have been happy with the purchase.

There are some other, lower cost machines that have good reviews, but I've found that the Lincoln and it's built in MIG settings work well for my needs.

Thanks Scott! I really appreciate taking the time to reply.