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Thread: Welder choices - Miller 211, Miller 180, or Lincoln 180

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    Jon,

    I got my machine on the Build With Blue discount when it first started. Maybe you will have your new machine by Christmas.
    Good Luck!
    .

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Yorktown, VA
    Posts
    2,754
    Keith,
    You are fortunate to have known Dallas Quick and been able to tap into his repertoire of welding skills. I have been looking for an adult ed welding class to get me started and just discovered that a gentleman who is a welding supervisor at the ship yard lives two doors down. I plan to ask for a little help when I can get my set up finished. I need some argon to test out the spool gun too.

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    Ted,

    Dallas and I were a team at North Anna, we worked together almost every day. Every welder on the job knew Dallas and respected his expertise. He lived in Newport News just a couple blocks from Casey Chevrolet and had a temporary residence in Louisa County near the power plant.

    Jim Shook was also at North Anna, he was a welding supervisor. Jim was considered to be one of the top ten welders that ever worked at the Shipyard. It was rare but when we had a weld that required stacked mirrors the union looked the other way and let Jim do the work. I used to watch Jim pull EB rings on Reactor Coolant piping, it always made my day to watch him weld especially when I got the chance to assist him watching the ID when he pulled an EB ring.

    At the time I had no idea how lucky I was to be part of the welding group at North Anna and later at Surry. My Dad was a member of this group, the best of the best the Shipyard ever produced. He knew every one of these guys, worked with all of them in the Yard. I worked with Cliff Poole at Surry on a silver braze project that was near impossible to accomplish. My Dad recommended Cliff to me for the job on the silver braze system, told me he was the best in the business and it was true. My Dad taught Cliff how to braze pipe.

    Seems like a million years ago now.
    .

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Oct 2007
    Location
    Redford, MI
    Posts
    155
    Probably get stomped on for this, but check the duty cycle ratings of the units you are considering. I have a firepower unit made by Themadyne and was surprised to find out the duty cycle on my unit was much much higher than the comparable Lincoln or Miller welders.

    Odd thing is, you don't hear much about them and they can be had very inexpensively compared to the big two...

    Might be worth a check.

    JT

  5. #20
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    Julian,

    That's good advice, complying with the manufacturers recommended duty cycle is a must but it isn't always easy to do. My old Miller buzz box had a copper transformer and we never considered the duty cycle. These days the machines, particularly the light duty machines, can be damaged much easier so if a short duty cycle is a problem it should be part of the purchasing decision.

    Stick welding on the Miller Multimatic 200 the duty cycle at 150 amps or above is 2 minutes of welding out of ten minutes. This varies a bit depending on the process but 100 amps and less continuous welding is allowed. If your using 110 volts to power the machine the duty cycle is 70 amps or lower for continuous welding. I don't think this is a machine that a professional would want to use all day long in a shop for large fabrication projects. For my sign shop I got a portable three process machine that fits the work I do on a daily basis. If I'm building a tractor implement and I expect to be stick welding most of the day I use my Bobcat.
    .

  6. #21
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Fort Collins, CO
    Posts
    946
    Quote Originally Posted by Julian Tracy View Post
    Probably get stomped on for this, but check the duty cycle ratings of the units you are considering. I have a firepower unit made by Themadyne and was surprised to find out the duty cycle on my unit was much much higher than the comparable Lincoln or Miller welders.

    Odd thing is, you don't hear much about them and they can be had very inexpensively compared to the big two...

    Might be worth a check.

    JT

    I don't know much about the Themadyne products, but my decision on the Miller/Lincoln is less to do with value and more to do with product support as my welding shop carries parts and service for these machines.

    Duty cycle certainly is important. The Miller 211 that I am looking at has a thermal overload protection feature that shuts the machine down if it exceeds the duty cycle or overheats for another reason. It is probably really irritating to have the machine shut off automatically, but still better than burning up or something. I won't be relying on this machine for production work, so the irritation to me should be minor.
    Man advances just in proportion that he mingles thought with his labor. - Ingersoll

  7. #22
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    Fort Collins, CO
    Posts
    946
    Okay, now I'm in a real bind. I found a nearly new Miller Maxstar 200 SD for $900 on craigslist. It comes with a foot petal, TIG torch, and stick weld clamps. This machine is listed at $2900 plus another $500 for the connections and foot petal. Any reason this machine would not be a much better choice at a lower price?
    Man advances just in proportion that he mingles thought with his labor. - Ingersoll

  8. #23
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Paradise, CA / Enterprise, OR
    Posts
    147
    I have a Maxstar (DX model though) and it's a great little TIG machine, I use it almost daily for thin stainless steel fab work. I haven't used it for stick work really other than a trial after I first bought it but it seemed to work very well in that regard as well, keeping in mind it's power (current) limitations. The only negative I can think of it's a DC only machine which means you're not going to be doing aluminum work with it, or at least you shouldn't unless you want poor results.

  9. About 10 years ago I got interested in doing some of my own fabricating at home. My first buy was a Hobart 140. Great but very limited. Second was a Miller AC-DC stick.Good Machine But I am not a welder. Third purchsae was a set of Torches.Well since then I sold The Hobart for almost what I paid for it. Hobart holds there value.Sold the Stick welder. Kept the Torches. Now I have a Miller 211 and a Hypertherm Powermax 30 Plasma cutter and never looked back. I use the Plasmer Cutter and the 211 a lot. The torches only get used if I have to Heat or bend. Now I am a carpenter by trade and never to old to learn. But I do not want to learn the wrong way so stay with Miller or Hobart get the largest you can afford. You could always turn it down And if you want to cut some Metal A plasma cutter is nice. Especially Hypertherm. If you decide to sell any of them you will get most of your money back.
    Last edited by tony liberati; 12-10-2013 at 1:06 PM.

  10. #25
    Keith,
    Are you still happy with the Multimatic 200? Any advice on using one or on any of the processes?
    Is there a trade off on this machine verses a dedicated machine for each welding process? Any issues on the machine?
    Thanks.
    Mac


    Quote Originally Posted by Keith Outten View Post
    Julian,

    That's good advice, complying with the manufacturers recommended duty cycle is a must but it isn't always easy to do. My old Miller buzz box had a copper transformer and we never considered the duty cycle. These days the machines, particularly the light duty machines, can be damaged much easier so if a short duty cycle is a problem it should be part of the purchasing decision.

    Stick welding on the Miller Multimatic 200 the duty cycle at 150 amps or above is 2 minutes of welding out of ten minutes. This varies a bit depending on the process but 100 amps and less continuous welding is allowed. If your using 110 volts to power the machine the duty cycle is 70 amps or lower for continuous welding. I don't think this is a machine that a professional would want to use all day long in a shop for large fabrication projects. For my sign shop I got a portable three process machine that fits the work I do on a daily basis. If I'm building a tractor implement and I expect to be stick welding most of the day I use my Bobcat.
    .

  11. #26
    Join Date
    Feb 2003
    Location
    Hayes, Virginia
    Posts
    14,760
    Mac,

    Yes, I'm still happy with my Multimatic 200. There is a tradeoff when you select a multi-process machine over individual dedicated welders. There can be a gain as well depending on your needs.

    I have watched videos of people who run welding service companies who really like the Multimatic 200 for small remote welding jobs. A weld repair on a piece of farm equipment where you need to get a small repair done quick in the field and other situations like this. I don't specifically need the portability but my sign hanger types of jobs are always very small projects. I doubt that you would want to use this machine to make a major repair on large construction machines though, there are definitely better machines for that purpose.

    A machine that provides MIG, TIG and Stick welding in one small box is pretty slick. Its also my first time using an inverter style machine and I am impressed how smooth it welds over the very old buzz box I used in the past. This makes the Multimatic a good choice for home owner and light commercial work when an operator is new to welding. The down side is that it will never be as good a MIG/TIG or Stick machine as a commercial unit designed to weld with as a single process machine all day long.

    I don't really offer sign repair services but its nice to know that I have the capability to weld remotely if I ever have to go in the field to help a customer. I have a Bobcat but stick welding sign hangers is about 70% of the kind of work I expect in the field, the rest would be MIG welding. In my workshop I do about 50/50 MIG and Stick welding and most of the MIG process is plug welding steel scrolls for sign hangers.

    So the Multimatic saved me money purchasing one machine rather than two and gave me portability if I need it. The ability to TIG weld is nice but its something I would do for fun more that work although it is possible that I could start offering channel letters to my customers now that I can weld thin sheet. When I feel the need to make more attachments for my tractor I would use my Bobcat.

    Hope this helps!
    .

  12. #27
    Thanks for the information.
    Mac

  13. #28
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Lugoff, SC
    Posts
    75
    Any suggestions for a small spot welder with someting like a 15-18" reach? I am still toying with the idea of building my own Pentz-design dust collection cyclone, and a spot welder sounds like it would be very, very helpful...

    Michael

    Lugoff, SC

  14. #29
    Michael,
    If by chance you already have a Mig Welder on hand, have you thought about a Eastwood Spot Weld adapter #13901 for it? Appears to be a pretty neat outfit. I used one of their spot welders year's ago on a 1951 GMC restoration and it worked surprisingly well.
    Mac


    Quote Originally Posted by Michael Stockdale View Post
    Any suggestions for a small spot welder with someting like a 15-18" reach? I am still toying with the idea of building my own Pentz-design dust collection cyclone, and a spot welder sounds like it would be very, very helpful...

    Michael

    Lugoff, SC
    Last edited by Mac McQuinn; 07-10-2014 at 9:51 PM.

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