Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Welding advice

I have a Lincoln 210 MP that is a good welder.

He's thinking what he said, and common sense would interpret from that. Again, a huge imagination not required.

Oh, and GFY right back at ya.

I have a miller 180 autoset and it has been an excellent machineif I was buying today the miller 211 would be my choice!

I must be losing it. To the OP, I read the subject line as "wedding advice" and I was gonna tell you not to do it. Oh well, that's a discussion for another time and place. LOL!!

Dont even see Flux and rods much anymore.
MIG is just too easy to learn.
TIG too pretty and efficient.
Cannondale built their bikes here, several friends welded frames there.
Aluminum and Titanium. For production speed, they used TIG, holding the torch in one hand, and a wire spoolgun running filler in the other. Two hands, 2 thumbs, and a foot all going at once.
Place closed 10 years ago, those certified welders lost good jobs.
$15/hr building $7k bicycles. (Sacasm)

If you want to stick with a mig get a Lincoln easy mig 180 for thinner stuff and an older Lincoln tombstone for heavier stuff, and I say an older one as they have copper windings in them and weld better than newer ones with aluminum windings.

If money is not an issue get yourself a Miller 252 and cover all your bases, very expensive welder though.

Advice based upon imagination. Sounds like a chick.

Had one of those old "cracker box" Lincoln 220v welders.
Did everything I needed done.
Can't remember what happened to it! 🤔

These days, if I need welding done, I contact my buddy C.D.!

Hobart 187, 220 volt, mig welder.
I use flux core wire, like most new welders come with tank hose, dial connections for solid wire.
What ever you get, make sure it's 220v.
My 1st welder was a Lincoln 110v volt, and was never good for thick stuff.
Make sure it's going to be good enough for the thickest metals you will weld.

Tag for hilarity

Yesweld products seem to get good marks from folks for a cheaper alternative.

Wha?

A friend comes out and welds patches on my combine.

He used to run his wire welder of his engine drive.


Now he just uses 1/8th inch 6011 and his engine drive.

Does a nice job with the sheet metal. But he is about half a hand.

I have a Thermal Arc 210. It’s a mig, tig, stick machine. Only tigs steel. I got the welder in 2014, and mostly mig with it. I believe Victor or Lincoln bought them out, not sure who. Get a machine that will run .035 with ease, and has a good duty cycle. You can always run smaller wire. Thats if your going with mig. Any 250 amp DC stick welder would do for most things, and did for many years. Good luck!

Mtboomer is right. You haven't really told us exactly what you want to weld on. That could have a lot to do with what we suggest. I also don't know how many here are actual welders, or just home hobby welders?? Here's my suggestion for different jobs:

1. 110v miller 130, for very small projects. Being able to plug into a regular 110 outlet makes stuff real nice sometimes and fluxcore is all you need for some small projects. Steel dining room tables and chairs for example, or simple repairs on sheet metal or even handrailing.

2. Miller 175 220v machine is great, but you may want to step up to the miller 180 or 211 if you ever want to use an aluminum spool gun. Those work great when paired with a 180 or similar. Build your own car trailer with these units. No problem. Easily build handrail, gates and fences.

3. Miller inverter: These are a multi process machine, which makes them extremely nice. Run stick, mig or tig off of these units. They are powerful and lightweight. If you want to weld on 1/2" plate at home, you can do it. Weld 1" baseplates on steel beams, you can do it with this machine and the right process. Get a suitcase and run .052" dual shield. Build your own steel building, or a barge in your backyard. I recently saw a Miller 304 XMT at a pawn shop, and it was cheap. There's a lot of utility in these machines, but they are not inexpensive.

I’ve got a millermatic 252 and bobcat 250.

Covers everything I’ll ever do.


Bought years back, before Slo Joe inflation.

No telling what they run now.

PM JWP475 and I'd reckon he could steer you straight. I believe this was his profession.

IIRC, he was a pipeliner…

And he’d prolly say a Lincoln Sa200.

If you can find one in good shape it’s prolly higher than giraffe puzzy.

There’s a reason guys are making a living with a 60 yr old machine.

Don't get married and don't have kids. Oh, wait... nvrmnd.

I have a miller 351 ac/dc tig with cooler, thermal dynamics 400a inverter, Lincoln spt 175, Lincoln ranger 10lx with tig mod, magnum sg and ln25.....and a lowly yeswelder 240v mig/stick combo.

I rarely bust out the big tig rig because the little yeswelder will push al wire through the whip so smooth. It's unreal for the money. Stick function is solid on it too. For a machine that weighs less than the spool of wire you load in it....it's impressive.

If I were just buying a mig for hobby use I'd go hobart handler 210. The miller 211 is better, but not equal to the cost better.

There's some ltec/victor/esab multi process rigs that bring a lot to the table for the price too.

A transformer rig is heavy, power hungry and almost impossible to kill. These new inverters have incredible wave control.....but there's 27 miles of tiny copper traces to fail.

My $.02 after most of my life spent behind the lens.