I'm about to dive into my first attempt at welding a few small patch panels on my '74, the worst of which will be a new RS door sill. I've looked around and came up with 2 MIGs --- a Miller Autoset 140 and a Hobart Handler 140, both using gas. The Miller is about $150 more than the Hobart. Any suggestions or recommendations before I jump in on one will be greatly appreciated.

Paul

I just ordered a Miller 140 with Autoset. The Autoset was only a few bucks more than the one without... it's probably a gimmick feature, but I figure what the heck for a couple more bucks...

The two big differences between the Miller and Hobart are 1) Miller has a cast aluminum feed system, Hobart has a plastic feed system with an aluminum roller 2) Miller has infinitely adjustable voltage, Hobart has 4 taps. I got the Miller for $584 shipped from Indiana Oxygen using an eBay 10% coupon.

Talk to your welding supply shop about the availibility of repair parts!

Not that Hobart would be bad, but I think you will do better with the Miller.

Stuff does wear out regardless of design.

Wes

Hobart and Miller are sister divisions you can't go wrong with either. I bought a Hobart 140 last year and have welded flares,chassis stiffening kits and various patch pieces and it performed great.

although they share the same power supply, the Miller has tip short protection. this alone will save you consumable tips and time not having to free it from teh gun body if or when you touch the tip too close to the work piece. this helps if your power setting is wrong for your feed speed but if you get teh Auto-set feature it's a non issue.
teh Miller has steel wire feed mech while teh Hobart is plastic. the Hobart feed mech holding chassis is also composite while the Miller is coated steel
teh Hobart has 4 power settings while teh Miller has a power setting knob like a volume control, it is fine-tunable
teh hobart has 8 or 10 wire speeed settings. the Miller is infinitly adjustable (volume control)