Looking to get a mig machine and was looking between Millermatic 212 or Hobart 230. Does anyone have suggestions?

Miller will be the better brand. I can speak for the Hobart. I know nothing about them. All we have ever used was Miller and Lincolns.

I had a Hobart and it was a decent machine. It will weld whatever u want but got overheated a lot more than my Lincoln. I would get the Lincoln or miller before the Hobart but the Hobart will also be An acceptable choice

Marsh have you thought about a good used Millermatic 250/251/252. I was hot on the prowl several months back looking for a 250amp mig welder for alum work and got talked into Lincoln Tig welder which I'm glad I was. I am going to buy a MM 251/252 this winter to go with my Tig machine. There are tons of 250amp MM welders on craigslist. I seen one that was a few months old with tank for 1000 bucks and the next day the guy dropped it to 600 because he had to move. I see the MMs for 1000 -1500 bucks all the time on craigslist. Alot of them are a good drive too but like my Lincoln Squarewave 255 Tig welder was a few years old but NEW with tons of filler rod,tank and a big box of tungsten and cups. I did not know how to tig weld when I bought it but now I'm doing really well. Helps when your dad is a retired welder and your buddy is a Union welding instructor and have access to gazillion pieces of alum,ss and steel scrap. Good luck on your hunt. I know I sure am alot happier person since I have learned to weld.
Randy

Stay away from the millermatic 250 if your going to weld alluminum it had a factory defect there was supposed to have a rememdy but never did work right, and ate contact tips using the miller gun when building my houseboat I used probably 500 and a tip should go at least 10-1lb rolls not the other way,they improved it and starting making the 251 which is a good unit. I thought is was me but talkng to my buddies that are all welders they saw the same thing at shipyards.

If your not doing it Full Time, it really dont matter which one you get.. Just Make sure to get a 220V unit. Miller will be your better machine.. I recently sold a MillerMatic 262 (i think) for 500.00. So, you might beable to find a good second hand one.

Have been looking for a used one but havent found a good price yet. So a new miller 212 with spoolgun is round $2000 but still lookin

What machine you runnin Uncle J your welds dont look too bad..

There is a Lincoln 215 mig welder with approx 4 hrs on it for 1100.00 over on the Hobart forum website. Its in Meridan,Ms

Hobart 210 with a bunch of goodies for under a grand on Hobarts forum too.

It was a Christmas Present from my Grandma.. She gave me that and a book "Mig Welding for Dummy's"

Seriously,
I am using the below machine:
Lincoln Invertec v350 Pro

Spool Gun:
Prince XL Spool Gun

Thats a nice setup.

For the machine, gun, and gauges, it would probably be around 4500.00 brand new. This machine was Junked.. I changed a 500.00 board, and its been kicken ever since.. I really want to get a Profax gun.. In Fact, I may order me one tonight..

I just checked it out on ebay. I think I'm gonna go for something cheaper.

I'm going to look a shops tomorrow to house my duck call and condom making business. I have been thinking about getting a welder for the shop but I'm probably gonna stay in the 500 dollar or cheaper range.

Your biggest question is what are you gonna be doing with the machine? What kind of welding and how much. If your getting something for around the house, unless you got money don't waste 2000 on a machine your not gonna use much. I prefer miller that's what I run at work and that's what my tig is at my house. Not that the others are no good just what I like. Like the others said look for used machines they got them all over.

Not to get off subject but buying tools is a dam addiction. A couple weeks after I got my tig machine for my house we went an got a plasma cutter. Those are badazz thats for sure.

Like the pics in the back

my dad has some kind of miller machine that welds mig tig arc whatever.

born and raised miller, so I would have to vote for miller. Either way, both Miller and Lincoln are great brands. As menioned, surely get 220v. The little 110v units are nice, but once you learn to weld, ou will quickly realize how limited they really are in ability to weld thicker metals.

BTW, here's what's all sitting up around our shop.

Miller:
Dialarc 250
Thunderbolt 225
Super S-32P
SCP-200C
HF-15-1
225D Plus


Lincoln:
Arc Welder SA-200


Victor:
315FC setup with fullsize bottles
J-28 setup as portable

[quote="MudHog"]born and raised miller, so I would have to vote for miller. Either way, both Miller and Lincoln are great brands. As menioned, surely get 220v. The little 110v units are nice, but once you learn to weld, ou will quickly realize how limited they really are in ability to weld thicker metals.


aint no lie about that!! go ahead and get a big one! we have a small plasma and it sucks! it cuts 1/8 carbon great but anything bigger than that aint no good! no matter how much you will say i aint never gonna cut/weld any thing bigger than 1/4...you will end up weldin/cuttin 1/2 one day.

nuc-j, you migin the hulls? do you do any tig? was wantin to get a strait tig set up, but havent done any alum, tons of ss, with one. if you blunted the tungston and went age shit with it could you tig with any speed or is the mig the way to go? what little alum mig i have done looked really bad. figured tig would be the chit.

I have a Lincoln 125 wire mig, and a larger Miller stick welder. I welded aluminum with the Miller, it was a bitch. A very nice welder, brand new. If I had a setup like you boys got, I would probably be making me a boat right now.


I can't get aluminum wire to feed through the Lincoln, need a spool gun.

I got a Miller 210 dual gun a few years back for Christmas and like it. I haven't used it on anything major as of yet, just little shop repairs.

Well found a used millermatic 185 older model but only had bout 2-3 hours use on it looked almost new. Came with spoolgun and argon bottle for $750. Seemed like a good price to me so I will try it out for now and see how it works, a little bit smaller than the one i was looking at but for the price I will give it a go for now and maybe sell later. Thanks for all the input.

THanks for the info about the Hobart/ miller. I did sone research and the Miller 180 and hobart 187 have VERY similar spec and duty cycle. Miller is 130A at 22.5 VDC 30% Duty cycle and the Hobart is 130A ant 21.5 VDC at 30% duty cylcle. Now that I have been shown something new, I can now Look at getting me a welder in the future. I'm and constantly borrowing a welder for my Toyota project and that gets old..

i picked up a millermatic dvi2 about 3 years ago and its really nice to have around the shop, main reason i got it was i can run 110 or 220 on it.ive also got an aluminum spool gun that i put my grab bar in my boat with and it does good