I got a Lincoln 125 Work Pak for Christmas, but as I found out it is not anymore convertible to gas .

So as a newbie to welding I dont know much and would like to get an overall feeling what you guys like!
I also would be happy about some feedback from you guys!
Especially when you selected 'other' or why you think its the best!

Feed my family with Miller.Nothing runs as well,or is as bulletproof.

I voted miller 140. just got one and is working for me so far.

I voted Miller but only because I have a Miller 180...

I bought a Miller 140. Cost a bit more, but from what I read, Miller uses metal rollers where the others use plastic. Also, from what I understand, Hobart is made by Miller to compete with Lincoln. The autoset works great on sheet metal in my limited experience.

Bought a Hobart 140 from a tractor supply company about 4 years ago and she's never let me down. I welded GT flares to the teener, Engman kit and many other items never had a problem. I've used gas and flux core it works fine with either. And it has metal rollers. If you need all the bells and whistles then Miller will be your choice.

Got a Millermatic 135. Great 110V machine with continuous power and feed controls. Whatever you purchase, make sure it has continuous power and feed controls.

All the choices in the poll are good candidates.

Miller will make a big difference in the quality of your weld. .
I had a new Lincoln that always required fiddling with the controls to get to run well. . took it back and got a Miller 180. .
Same metal, same guy using it and great welds. . Now all my stuff is Miller, Mig, Tig and plasma cutter

What did Lincoln do to not make it upgradeable to gas? They still sell the K2526-1 MIG kit for the 125. I've had mine for 10 years, local welding shop fixed me up with the gas kit, tank, and changed to the big wire spool. Only thing I've noticed is the 110-120V welders are more sensitive to voltage drop on primary input. So if you have maybe 25-50 ft from the breaker panel on #12 house wiring in series with a 50' #14 extension cord you'll have problems keeping an arc and feeding the wire motor at the same time.

Some of the new low end Lincolns have omitted the two terminals on the ciruit board that switch the gas solenoid. These are flux core specific welders marked as retail units (Lowes, Home Depot etc)

The packaging on these units have some revisions that make it difficult to reverse the polarity from core to gas also.

Models
K2278-1
K2188-1
K2696-1
K2479-1
K2513-1

No miggy!

I have an Esab Migmaster 250 for heavy work, but for sheet metal I got the Lincoln 140C.......You have seen it in action on your engine lid hinge....I have been very happy with it........ Look at it here LINCOLN ELECTRIC

What are you willing to spend?
My brother just told me that Miller has a suitcased size welder that offers:
High frequency TIG
built in MIG feeder
runs on 110
for ~$2000.

I didnt get the model number, but I am thinking of selling my Powcon Mig with feeder to finance one of these things. ;-)

I would also bet that the same machine could power a small plasma cutter as well ( just add the torch & high flow regulator/solenoid).

With the high frequency option, we can now weld Aluminum!
(and not have it look like biird poop ;-)

Stu

I would like to see the specs on the Miller suitcase. MIG is DC. TIG for aluminum is AC and AC Squarewave. Thick aluminum AC.. Aluminum can be TIGd with DC but use helium (or tri-mix) with lots of juice behind it (spray arc) .. With AC the cycles disperse oxides in the weld. Constant current DC tends to attract until something dirty gets in the path. Those artful TIG welds we all like to stare at are only achieved with pulsed cycles. Stainless TIG is DC SP in high frequency.

Not to say the suitcase cant handle it. Its just a lot for one suitcase to do when its the bigger machines that tend to have all the multiple capabilities built in.

All my welding up until now was on a hobart 140.

Great welder for less money.

Millers have infinite voltage control where the Hobart has 4 settings, which 95% of the time was fine.

Got a millermatic 211 for Christmas, seems very similar to the hobart.

John

That's what I have. So far, most of my welding has been thicker stuff, 1/8 to 3/16, and I love the flexibility of the 211. 220 for the thicker stuff, and I have the flexibility to go to 110 when I need to.

I love my Hobart Auto Arc 130 mig welder. An affordable Miller built flux welder that comes with the gas conversion kit.

alright thank you all for your answers.

First I am on a budget but do not want to buy another welder soon.

The hobart only has 4 fixed settings that wonders me. Am I right?

The Lincoln 140C seems to be up there with the miller everybody likes.
Does the Lincoln 140C has like the Millermatic 140 infinitive Power Settings?

Am I right with the fact, that the miller 140 would work on flux core too but with them I need to buy all the flux core parts extra?

On most of these welders there isn't anything " extra " you have to buy to run flux core. All you have to do is change the polarity in the machine which is very easy to do. On my Hobart if I remember correctly all I have to do is move one cable from location A to location B and good to go. Takes all of 30 seconds to do. You change your tip for the wire size and you make sure your drive roller is set for the wire size and your good to go. Go to HD or Lowes or a local weld shop and just look " under the hood " they all have instruction labels which makes it very easy to understand. The Hobart I have has 4 power settings and infinite feed rate, I have yet to find a situation where that is a problem. Good luck with whatever brand you choose.

I prefer the Miller. I bought a Lincoln 135 a few years ago when I was rebuilding a car and sold it as soon as I was done with the project. It was a nice machine. More recently, I bought a Miller 211 that I don't think I will ever part with.

The best advice I got when I started shopping for a welder was to buy a 230V machine and install a dedicated circuit in the garage for it. I constantly tripped the breaker for my garage receptacles with the both of the 115V machines I owned. There was no way to run a fan, the lights, and a 115V welder on the circuit. I installed a dedicated circuit for the welder and have much better welds, a fan, lights, and a much easier time in the garage now.

The Miller and Lincoln machines are both nice. I don't think I am a good enough welder to realize any real difference between them. I feel like I do a better job with the 230V Miller, but that is probably a limitation of my skillset more than a specific tool. For what I am doing on this car I'm sure either machine would work fine as long as it was on a dedicated circuit in the garage.

I have had Lincoln Welders for decades. Lincoln has been very Reliable and have more than paid for themselves in great service. I currently have 2 Lincolns (TIG, MIG) and have had 4 of them overall.

The one and ONLY time I considered switching from Lincoln, I bought a new Miller Inverter TIG it crapped out on me right out of the box. I took it back the store, they confirmed the failure and the Miller Rep. (got back to us after 3 days) offered to get it fixed under warranty and I would get it back in a few weeks ........ I just bought the damn thing and brought it back the 'next day' and now they wanted me to wait a few weeks ?? Needless to say I demanded a refund.

That was the first and LAST time I was ever going to consider a Miller (even though some of my friends seem to like them). The poor customer service from the Miller Rep. himself, was enough for me to NOT ever consider Miller again. Lincoln on the other hand has always treated me right when it came to any issues.

Yes, things do change and others have different opinions but this was just my personal experience.

I've been a 30 year + customer of both Miller and Ingersol Rand. Products have failed.. they are made by humans. Stuff happens what can I say? They have made things right by me at very high expense to them. Each of us has product loyalty. We have been there and used them. I have had product experiences that were not pleasant but I provided enough technical feedback to these manufacturers that have ended up making future products better even to the point of THEM trading up at no cost to me. I truly believe if a manufacturer is reputable they will listen to the customer. They DO understand what downtime is. If they are on top of quality they will make things right (before a letter writing campaign starts) in making you satisfied.

I approached Lincoln seven years ago about offering infinate voltage variability on the low end 110 welders that had the option of being adapted to MIG with a conversion kit. Infinate voltage capability would have cost them $3.00 a unit during the manufacturing process. So what if they charged $20.00 more at the end user retail level? They would have sold more units and captured there market share. They did acknowledge I was correct in the cost assumption but they did nothing. This is not to say Lincoln is a bad product but seven years later you can get more for the same price. A LOT MORE!

I had one of those Lincoln 135+ Mig Pro (or something like that) and it had that infinite Amperage selector, which was kinda nice.

However it seems that almost ALL low end welders from all makers, use the fixed Amp options. I personally think ALL low end welders should have at least 6 fixed Amp options instead of the usual 4 (or sometimes 5). I think they use the fixed Amperage switches on the low end models, because they are not only cheaper but also more reliable than the infinite version. At least in my experience.

If it were not for the bad Miller TIG machine right out of the box AND the very bad customer service from the Miller Rep. they could have kept a new customer. That was two strikes from the get go, I was not gonna give them the chance to make it a third.

As mentioned 'down time' can be very expensive and that Miller Rep. could have cared less about that.