Millermatic 211.

[ryanjones2150]

Millermatic 211.

This forum will provide you with fairly swift and accurate responses to most of your shop, not just welding, questions. It is the only one I actively frequent.

To your questions, my responses:

1. Correct drive rolls, correct drive roll tension, correct spool tension, an un-knotted mig gun lead, correct stick out, wire speed and voltage. Also correct polarity for solid or flux core.

2. There's nothing wrong with the M100 for your machine. It's not that big of a machine, and you can only push wire so far. It would be better to have a shorter lead and get your machine closer to your work. But there may be a more expensive replacement if you really want one, but of such I have no idea.

3. When you say "different tips", are you referring to the contact tip or the different nozzles?

4. Broc covered that one. My opinion is...I'm not a fan of multipurpose machines. The main reason is if something breaks, you could potentially be out of luck for all the processes it provides. I want a mig machine that wants to be a mig machine and a plasma cutter that wants to be a plasma cutter. And I am not familiar with any machine that migs and HF AC TIGs.

5. I say buy the nicest mask you can afford. One thing for sure is that we all could use with changing our sacrificial lenses a little more often. I'm a cheap prick, so I use mine until way past it's expiration date, for no good reason too. The lenses are fairly cheap and kept well in stock at my LWS. Buy something that has a replaceable battery too.

Practice. Practice. Practice.

If welding was easy, everyone would do it. The only thing easy about welding is screwing it up.

[Aeronca41]

Good words Ryan. I am clearly not an expert, but have welded for many hours with my mm211 / m100 and never changed the contact tip. Sounds like a need for practice Can't say the same for learning to use the spoolgun with alum. Understand completely now why aametalmaster came up with the mod to use standard tips on the gun. The originals aren't cheap and I toastedseveral
pretty quickly. Practice practice practice. :-)

[BD1]

bowfinger , placement of machine could create issues. Try to avoid any tight bends at the machine or in cable. I know it doesn't seem like much but maybe a concern. Buddy had his machine on floor at welding table and cable stretch straight up with a tight a$$ bend at machine and wonder why the wire was feeding poorly. Just mentioning.

[DATEC]

http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/communities/mboard/showthread.php?32242-Problem-with-Miller-211-since-it-was-new/page3

I believe your problem and answer is outlined in my post with what I had found with mine and did to fix it. Have a look and see if you agree. Chime back what you find hopefully this will correct it.

[OscarJr]

Good Morning Everyone,

It is with great pleasure that I present my very first Miller welding machine, a new Millermatic 211!




Always been a fan of Miller, just never got around to pony'ing up the cash for one. Haven't "welded" with it, just played around with the AutoSet features, but so far seems like a very capable machine. Even though I have an HTP 221 Invertig for AC TIG welding, I ordered the Spoolmate-150 since I opt'd for the $400 rebate in accessories. Very nice spoolgun indeed. Eventually, I'd like to own either a Dynasty 210DX or a 280DX.




Glad to finally join the ranks of "Blue".

[ryanjones2150]

Welcome to the world you cute little bugger....

[OscarJr]

So I wanted to open up my Millermatic 211 to blow out the dust to keep it in good shape. Lo' and behold, the top bolts that secure the handle are unaccessible because the holes in the plastic handle will only allow a very thin-walled socket. So much for preventative maintenance.

[Meltedmetal]

Can you use a nut driver? Some of them are thinner than a socket.

[Aeronca41]

I have solved this same problem in other applications by centering an old socket on a couple of pieces of dowel-one sized for the hex end and one for the drive end, holding them together inside the socket, and letting it spin slowly against a grinding wheel until it gets down to the right thickness. Do not push hard against the wheel and let it spin too fast. And a couple of washers, one on each dowel, keeps your fingers from hitting the spinning socket

[OscarJr]

I have solved this same problem in other applications by centering an old socket on a couple of pieces of dowel-one sized for the hex end and one for the drive end, holding them together inside the socket, and letting it spin slowly against a grinding wheel until it gets down to the right thickness. Do not push hard against the wheel and let it spin too fast. And a couple of washers, one on each dowel, keeps your fingers from hitting the spinning socket

I hear what your'e saying. It's not the grinding of a perfectly good socket that bothers me. I have a small metal lathe. I'm just complaining because it would have been nice if I didn't have to "waste" a socket from having to machine it in the lathe, just to open this thing up, LOL.

[Aeronca41]

I get it completely. One of the cases where I had to do this was to get the TFI ignition module off of the distributor on a mid-80s Ford. Of course they make a tool for it but late at night a ground-down 5/16 socket did the job. Why could they not have allowed a few thousandths more clearance? Had a similar issue on a 1950s Hobart welder with the magneto; almost 60 years later I still have the ground down wrench in my toolbox. There are charts for this stuff in engineering handbooks: you'd think by the 21st century the Miller designers could have referred to one. But, I suppose a small irritant compared to the great machine the 211 is.

[ryanjones2150]

Albeit annoying at times, it's still pretty cool to be able to make a tool for something. Things like that stop a lot of people in their tracks when they're working on something.