MIG Welders????

[rumplecat]

I am going to buy a Mig welder this weekend. The local welding supply has several brands. Of them all I like the Miller 135 best, runs on 110, it is light and I can run it off my generator. Has anyone had any problems with this machine?????
THanks,
James G.

[JimmieD]

The little Miller 135 is a great machine for it's designed purposes. It's fine for bodywork and within its duty cycle it can do some heavier fabrication as well. I think the suggested limits on it are about 1/4" steel. Miller builds very good quality and from what I've seen their dealer support is good. It's my preferred brand overall.

Wise move to buy local. They're always cheaper online, but far better to spend a few extra bucks now and develop a good working relationship with your local welding supplier. With that said, 2 different dealers only a few miles apart may offer far different pricing, so do your homework on local offerings!

I suggest you get good solid opinions on the capacity of your genset to make sure it can carry the welder. One other thought: Miller now owns Hobart, so you get the same quality between the two with slightly different features offered. If Hobart is on sale and Miller isn't, or vice versa, it's about the same machine for the most part.

JimmieD

[DDEMILLE]

Small Miller MIG

I bought the small Millermatic MIG several years ago. Back then they were rated @90 amps, but with a pretty poor duty cycle rating. I thought the machine was pretty good, as JimmieD says, within it's rated duty cycle. Several times it didn't have the power I needed and never the duty cycle. It also used to pop the 20A breaker on the dedicated circuit it was on. I ended up giving the little Miller away and buying a 250 amp machine. Always buy more than you think you need, because you always want to do more than you originally intended. Save your money and get a bigger machine.
Doug

[JimmieD]

Like Doug said! And there's a large difference between the older 90/100 amp Miller and Lincoln MIGS and the hotter 130-140 amp units. The higher rating effectively increases the duty cycle [amount of time the machine can run continuously at a given amperage] so that the many tasks the old 90 amp unit could do can now be done better and for a longer time before cool down.

If you've got the jing-a-ling the new inverters are sooooo hot!

JimmieD