New Man

[dirty dingus]

Am brand new to welding. Will become just a home hobbyist and repair my own things. Always hear good things about Miller welders. Will probably buy one in the very near future. Just went to the local farm store and was looking at welders, and thought I spyed Miller welders on the shelf. Same color blue but were Clarke. Not the same I assume. Any info from veteran home hobbists or professionals would be greatly appreciated. What size MIG would I need?

[Frank865]

Am brand new to welding. Will become just a home hobbyist and repair my own things. Always hear good things about Miller welders. Will probably buy one in the very near future. Just went to the local farm store and was looking at welders, and thought I spyed Miller welders on the shelf. Same color blue but were Clarke. Not the same I assume. Any info from veteran home hobbists or professionals would be greatly appreciated. What size MIG would I need?

Depends on what you want to do...
More info will get you better & more correct answers.

[SkidSteerSteve]

I agree with Frank, if you have some specifics on what you will be doing, it would help out. If you're just do minor lawn mower repairs and such around the house then a small MillerMatic 135 might be all you need. I have a similar sized unit (execept that it's red/black) that I bought a few years ago to keep around the house because my bigger stuff stayed at the shop all the time. I still have it because it is so easy to grab and run over to a friends house or something without have to drag my welding trailer or load stuff in the truck. My brother uses it quite often for things at his place. Between it and a mini set of torches left over from the heat and air days, you'd be surprised at what you can accomplish. Because of its duty cycle limits (20%, which interprets to being able to weld for two minutes out of every ten) I wouldn't suggest trying to build trailers or other medium duty repair/fab work, but it'll do a ton of minor repairs and ornamental type work. Hope that helps.....SSS

[dirty dingus]

Thanx for the info. Would probably go one step better, just in case some medium duty stuff came up, say a MM175, HH187. I do have a boat dock at my cabin that is 10 inch I-beam stuff, that was made by the previous owner that will require some maintenance welding this spring. Wish I had learned to weld years ago. Again, thanx for the help.

[SkidSteerSteve]

I've made mention in the past some other new folks that you can always (within reason) turn a bigger machine down to do small work a lot easier than replacing a smaller one after you burn it up. Keep in mind that the 175 takes 220V so you'll have to make arrangments for it. If you do the work on the dock, you'll have to switch over to flux-core to keep from ruining your welds by being outside in the wind, plus you won't have to fight with a gas bottle while your moving around. Good luck...SSS

oh, and just as a personal side note to the dock work. I'm only making this remark because you said you were new to welding. If for some reason you do the work with a stick machine make sure and use a DC setting with an appropriate rod and not AC mainly for the sake of the added hedge of safety while being around water.

[m.k.swelding]

Get one that is bigger than the rating thickness that you belive you will be welding just for the reason you might want to do bigger projects one day.