Miller 140 Mig

[Three Peaks]

The 120V Miller and Lincoln machines will be fine for chassis mods and sheet metal. If you need to do heavier welding- 3/16" or heavier metal or an aluminum spool gun or production type work, you would be better off to step up to a 220V machine like a 180 or 210.
Keep in mind these machines have a very low duty cycle, in the 20% area and need to rest frequently (20% duty cycle means for every 2 minutes of welding, you'll need to rest the machine for 8 minutes, if I understand it correctly.)
When I use my Miller 135 doing chassis work on my scratch build, I am constantly up against the duty cycle, wanting to get something done but the machine won't perform when I need it to until I let it rest awhile.

I'll be selling my machine soon and moving up to a 180 or 210 for heavier and more production quality work. Hoping to get into roadster building and repair/restoration in a couple years and will need a better machine.

Puppster, what amperage are the 220 plugs you wired in your garage? Many of the 220V machines will need at least a 30 Amp 220 circuit to run. Best to check into the requirements up front. I'm an electrician and I run into this problem with customers all the time.

Bob

[KarlCSX2498]

Hello, I have a small fabrication business and I have purchased 3 Millermatic 185s and 1 Millermatic 251 over the last 11 years. I agree with Bob that the 185 is a good size machine to start with, it will handle most normal welding jobs on light and medium thickness steel. I use the .035 solid wire with 75/25 gas on most of the welding, and 045 solid wire on the 1/2" plate.

I had to buy the 251 because we started making rifle targets out of 1/2" AR500 and the 185 was not able to handle the 1/2"

I purchased the Miller Dimension TIG to use on my cobra project car and it is a very nice welder.

good luck, karl