Best welder for the money?

crawler 129 · Aug 21, 2014

I have the Lincoln 180 hd . No problems good little welder.

ranger11 · Aug 21, 2014

Re:

09zkrankin said:
You will love the 211, it is a great little machine and the ability to run 230v or 115v makes it even better. It is a little less harsh when welding on the 115v side which is great for thin stuff. The only complaint I have about it is them trying to make idiot proof machines makes it harder for people who know how to weld. It has a feature they call "soft start" which I think sucks, pretty much your wire starts off slow and then jumps to your desired speed and I have trouble with it wanting to burn back to the tip. And the auto set is ok if you don't have a clue how to set a welder up but I never use it. Easier just to dial it in where I want it.

The big thing the miller has over the Hobart is more adjustment, it has infinite adjustment knobs where the Hobart is tapped settings

Almost all big name welders have soft start feature. YOu can change it. Its in the manual.

09zkrankin · Aug 21, 2014

Re:

Awesome, to be honest I've never read the manual. It's doesn't seem to do it on 230v, but it's awful in 115. I'll have to read up on that and turn it off

EsPowell · Aug 21, 2014

All the new features on welders throw me for a loop. I'm a welder and been doin it for 12 years. Recently we got some new Lincolns at the shop with features like soft start that made me feel like a rookie. I like the simple machines the best until I'm actually shown what all that crap is good for

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5BrothersFabrication · Aug 21, 2014

Elliott said:
If you have 3 broken millers then someone is mistreating them, Ive got three Millers that I use in my shop every day and never had a minutes trouble with any of them.And Ive been running two of them for over 10 years.

They just get used all day every day. And my Snap-On welder's liner **** out on me so I borrowed a buddy's Hobart 110. It was amazing for a lil 110 box. I've just had bad luck with Miller in commercial applications.

railman · Aug 22, 2014

We have some new Miller 350 Axxess power supplies... have already sent 3 back for warranty repairs...after only 2 or so months...the ESAB's seem to last forever...lol...and yes they are used in production...

L8r, John