looking to buy a welder

[Guest]

i want to get a millermatic 135, but im a beginner to welding. i notice it dosn't seem to have a cooling fan like the lincon. does it need one? will the aluminum welding attachment work in this welder. is there a better 120v welder i should be looking at? i want gas sheilding.. is this better than the lincon?

[rlarkin]

For a begginer or hobby welder, any of the top 3, Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, would do just fine.
I have a Lincoln 135+ on gas and love it.
I do not know about the other two, but the Lincold does have a nice fan setup.

I have done everything from body work to 1/4" non critical, and have had no problems.
The key is PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!

[Kafer_Mike]

Same here. I have a Lincoln SP135+ and love it. Some of the best money I've spent for the garage...

[bhowden]

i want to get a millermatic 135, but im a beginner to welding. i notice it dosn't seem to have a cooling fan like the lincon. does it need one? will the aluminum welding attachment work in this welder. is there a better 120v welder i should be looking at? i want gas sheilding.. is this better than the lincon?

Aluminum might be a stretch for a 110 welder. How thick is the material you are going to weld? If at all possible, I would go for the 220v models. If you look at the 110v models, they are rated at 20 amps input to get full output so since most outlets are 15 amp on 14 guage wire, you have to rewire anyway (to get full output). I have been pretty happy with my Miller 172 (now the 175).

Brian

[Muffler Mike]

if you dont have a budget and dont mind using 220volt. maybe you can think along the lines of a Tig welder. do some nice aluminum welding with these. i want one of these as the current welder i have takes up way too much space.
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ ... rmenbr=361

just a suggestion.

[bhowden]

if you dont have a budget and dont mind using 220volt. maybe you can think along the lines of a Tig welder. do some nice aluminum welding with these. i want one of these as the current welder i have takes up way too much space.
http://www.jegs.com/cgi-bin/ncommerce3/ ... rmenbr=361

just a suggestion.

I agree that if money was no object, a TIG would be a great addition and unless you are building bridges, probably the only practical route for aluminum but I would probably still want a MIG as it is much much faster for glue gunning steel together. I like the Lincoln (and have a couple of friends with them) but I would probably go with the thermal arc inverter of similar capacity. The inverters have specs that pretty well look like magic now and they fit under your arm to boot. My dream machine isn't built yet but as a hobbyist, I would have thought they could build a multi purpose box that could do TIG, MIG, stick and plasma cutter all in one. I could live with the setup hastles that a commercial application couldn't so the company that built it would not be eating their own market. They build inverter supplies now that can do CC and CV so I don't think there is a technical limitation that would stop them from building such a box.

Brian

[theo_m24]

Is it me or does seem the prices on Tig Welders has really come down in the last few years??

[helowrench]

for a 120 volt welder with the best duty cycles web search for HTP welders many many things make them better than Miller or Lincoln or even the Hobart units.
Got one a year ago and among other things have welded 360 feet of fence and have not found any thing about it that I do not love.
Rob