Miller Welder

[gemini5362]

My Wife bought me a new Miller Wire Feed Welder for Christmas. It is the DVI model. I have been working on my new garage and rental houses all year and finally decided this weekend to make time to get to use it. I am very impressed with it. I had to do some work on my 16 foot equipment trailer. I only had the current turned up about half way which on that welder will be about an 80 per cent duty cycle. The nice thing about this welder is that if I have to take it to work on something it can plug into a regular 115 volt house circuit without having to do any changes to the input wiring. To change the voltage on it all you have to do is plug the proper adapter into the power cable and plug it in. The unit automatically does the rest. I bought one of the auto dimming helmets that they sell at Harbor Freight. These helmets are inexpensive and have a control to set the level of darkness it dims to. This is the first time I have used a welding helmet that you can set the level of light it allows through and it was a lot easier to use. For someone that makes a living welding it might not be heavy duty enough for them but for someone that uses a welder to make projects or repairs it works pretty well.

 

[familyman]

How thick can you weld?

 

[gemini5362]

Familyman that is a dangerous question on here. You will see lots and lots of people tell you that you can weld as thick as you want if you grind and fill and make multiple passes. I dont have time to do that and I dont do commercial welding. The specs for the welder say that it will weld 3/8 inch. I was welding 1/4 inch angle and the power is set by a switch. The switch goes from 1 to 6 and I had it set on a 3 which did a very good job of penetrating.

 

[excelagator]

I was concerning that welder. In fact I just picked up a Millermatic 210 friday. I do some light aluminum and steel welding at work for a window company I work for. Our Millers are quite nice!

Dan

 

[gemini5362]

I was concerning that welder. In fact I just picked up a Millermatic 210 friday. I do some light aluminum and steel welding at work for a window company I work for. Our Millers are quite nice!

Dan

If you are doing aluminum welding then I assume you have a spool gun. I did some looking at the difference between the two and if you are going to do aluminum welding at work then you probably made the right choice. I have a spool gun for mine but it is a bit harder to use than the one on yours. The 210 has two connections for the gas. On mine you have to switch the connection between whichever tank you use. You also have a second trigger connection for the spool gun I just have the one. I probably wont be doing any aluminum welding or if I do it will be a rare occasion. But I do agree with you they are a nice welder

 

[excelagator]

My welder stays home with good reason!! At work welding aluminum we do not have a spoolgun. We should and Miller strongly suggest it, but they will not spring for it. The Miller at work is an older Miller 175. A co-worker and I got the settings set for 16 gauge aluminum. It is a bit tricky with thin wall material and not kinking the cable.

I would like to get a spoolgun, but i'll have to wait for now.

Dan

 

[gemini5362]

My wife bought my welder for me for christmas. I dropped her a small hint about which one I wanted. I took home a miller catalog circled the welder I wanted then highlighted it, then ripped out all the rest of the pages in the catalog. For some reason and I still do not know why she told me that I was not very subtle. When she went to buy the welder she told them this is what I wanted and she wanted everything I needed to go with it. To the welding company salesman everything included a spool gun. I did not really need one but I was sure not going to complain when i got it. I am happy just to have the welder now all i have to do is get my rental house projects done so I have time to play with it.

 

[excelagator]

I should try that next time around. I have to rub her feet for 6 months to get mine!

Dan

 

[cp1969]

Familyman that is a dangerous question on here. You will see lots and lots of people tell you that you can weld as thick as you want if you grind and fill and make multiple passes.

Did anyone else see the "Tank Overhaul" series that was on the Military Channel?

One of the projects was grafting the undamaged halves of two Sherman tanks together to make one good unit. Both tanks had apparently been on a firing range and one was heavily damaged in the rear, the other heavily damaged in the front. IIRC they said the cast steel hull was 1 1/2" thick where they cut them apart, right through the center of the turret ring.

They MIG welded them together. I did not see the welder, all I could see was the wire feed head.

 

[excelagator]

Yup, that was incredible!!! I was up till 2 am watching that and drooling!! Talk about patience and a steady hand. He used like 15 KM of wire too.

Dan

 

[em14]

That was a good show.
Leo

 

[bones1]

What would it take to weld 1 1/2 ?.

 

[Defective]

What would it take to weld 1 1/2 ?.

Power!

 

[mjncad]

I have a MillerMatic 210 and I'm happy with it. I'd like to get a spool gun so I can try welding aluminum.

I have a Jackson NexGen auto darkening helmet with the largest window available, and that too sure takes a lot of the frustration out of welding.

I remember learning on stick welders with flip up helmet windows in junior high school. I always had a heck of a time getting the weld going; but was good at getting the electrode stuck to the workpiece. What a pain!

 

[excelagator]

What would it take to weld 1 1/2 ?.

I had a one on one with my instructor and given the skill and right equipment you can weld anything.

The welding pro that welded the tank back together did it in many, many passes. and used 15 KM of wire.

Dan

 

[excelagator]

I have a MillerMatic 210 and I'm happy with it. I'd like to get a spool gun so I can try welding aluminum.

I have a Jackson NexGen auto darkening helmet with the largest window available, and that too sure takes a lot of the frustration out of welding.

I remember learning on stick welders with flip up helmet windows in junior high school. I always had a heck of a time getting the weld going; but was good at getting the electrode stuck to the workpiece. What a pain!

I weld aluminum at work with a Miller 175 without a spoolgun, I wouldn't suggest it. You have to keep the cable straight and given we are doing thinner that what is suggested.

A wider viewing area would be nice, but I have too much tunnel-vision on what i am welding.

 

[toy]

I know that each have their preference on which mig is the best so I am not asking that. What I want to know is the hobart 210 mig welder a good quality welder. I beleive it was a hobart 210 ironman if Im not mistaken.

 

[schmism]

ive wondered about the internal diffrences between an hobart 210 and a MM 210.

Sence i work for ITW, i wonder if i could get an to an inside engineer at miller/hobart as they are also owned by ITW.

 

[excelagator]

Hobart and Miller are owned by the same company. I asked around a few suppliers what is the difference between the Hobart and Miller given the same output amps. I was told the the wire feed wheels are different. Hobart uses some composite parts where Miller uses cast parts. Still Hobart is a good machine.

Dan

 

[toy]

Hobart and Miller are owned by the same company. I asked around a few suppliers what is the difference between the Hobart and Miller given the same output amps. I was told the the wire feed wheels are different. Hobart uses some composite parts where Miller uses cast parts. Still Hobart is a good machine.

Dan

Thanks.