Millermatic 200

Do your pricing homework regardless of what you buy. For some reason welders hold their value pretty well. Your buddies Miller may not be the smokin' deal you think it is.

As for value, for a brand new welder, I think the Miller 211 is an excellent deal at 1040.00 at Cameron welding. This is without a cart or bottle though. But it is a genuine miller and will weld 3/8" material in a single pass. It is NOT the production machine that the 212 it is but at $600.00 cheaper it offers a lot of bang for the buck.

Yes the Miller 200 will weld 24 gauge sheet metal, but will YOU be able to weld 24 gauge sheet metal with a Miller 200. The BIG advantage of a miller 140C over a Miller 200 is the wire feed speed. The 140C will feed the wire as slow as 15 inches per minute vs. 60 inches per minute with the 211. Having the ability to slow down the wire feed speed will greatly lesson the chance of blowing holes in the material.

As for the quality of the Harbor Freight welders. Is the Harbor Freight 180 welder the same quality as the Miller 200? No, the Miller 200 is a production machine, which has a very high duty cycle and is often used in fabrication shops 8-10 hrs per day for years on end without issue. Clearly the Harbor Freight welder would not hold up under those conditions.

That being said, I own an Italian made Harbor Freight Welder (Their welders are branded Harbor Freight, but they've used a variety of manufacturers over the years, they now have a new MFG that seems to have upped the quality slightly.)

I am very happy with my Harbor Freight Welder, which I bought used! It lays a beautiful bead with good penetration and has welded everything from sheet metal to 1/4" bar stock without complaint. You have to pay attention to duty the duty cycle on thicker material, but guess what, it's duty cycle is comparable to a Lincoln 180.

A lot of times people compare the quality of a welder based upon the look of the bead, and if one welder is using a mixture of 75% Argon and 25% CO2 gas and the other welder is using flux core wire, the gas welder is going to lay a nicer bead every time. So compare mig to mig and flux core to flux core. Incidentally flux core has some advantages, particularly if welding outside in the wind, something you simply shouldn't do with a mig welder.

For the best quality of welds on sheet metal with a mig welder you should do the following. Weld with a mixture of 75% Argon and 25% CO2. Use .023 wire, this will put less heat into the metal, this is critical if welding with a 220 volt welder. Start EACH weld with a freshly cut piece of wire, if you look at the ball on the wire after you finish welding, it is like a little piece of slag.

Regards,

Joe Dokes