midlife fifty fan

can anyone offer advice on MIG welders.....i want to weld sheetmetal..
or more precisely...repair rust on ford pickup trucks...i can find a few on craigslist....but i dont want to end up with "Harbor Freight" jobs...get it?

loganhorse

Haven't done a lot of MIG. I'm AWS certified stick welder. Sorry not much help

pooch

I would stick with the good brands like Miller or Hobart. You don't need a lot of amps for sheetmetal, but you should still get one of at least 130amps and gas capable. The cheap welders can do a decent job, as there's not that much in a welder, but the difference shows in the wire feed mechanism over time. The better welders will feed the wire more reliably and obviously with more longevity.

driver444

I have several Hobart products. They are all excellent. As stated above, the Hobart "Handler" series would be perfect for you. They make several different sizes, both 110v and 220v, and all of them are available at places like Tractor Supply.

For basic sheetmetal work, any 110volt machine that has the gas setup will do well. And usually you can weld up to 3/16", (I'd say 1/4") with them.

Miller and Hobart are made by the same company. And Lincoln (available at Home Depot, and Lowes, are very good too.

Having said all this, I have a 10 year old Craftsman ( I think made by Century) that has been very reliable, no complaints.

bubbabud

I highly recomend the miller140 with the millermatic wire feed control and for sheetmetal the .023/.025 wire and practice, practice, practice.

Hunttman01

Our school has millers. I don't remember what size, and Lincoln stick welders. From what I've experienced, these are good brands.

ellis4pa

Lincoln, Miller, Hobart, and in that order. But look at the duty cycle on any welder you choose, the higher the cycle the higher quality internals. I am a certified bridge welder, i weld modular bridge sections and we use 100% duty cycle which is overkill for what you want, not to mention over 5k for the power supplies.
The welder should be listed at the thickness its rated for so choose the max thickness of sheet metal your going to weld for this, and if your going to do a lot of sustained welds you want a 50% duty cycle or better.

Dyewild

Another option you could consider since you're working on body panels is epoxying them in. In all my experience doing body work, the epoxy holds up great and there is no heat to distort the metal. Just something to think about IMO.

Scraptor

In my experience epoxy doesn t work well in joining patches in the middle of a panel, and will crack if subjected to twisting , i won t use it. For replacing whole panels , that were factory bonded on , great stuff.

Miller makes good welders, lincoln ,meh.
Lincoln makes, century as a cheaper line, and Deca,also a cheapy.
I have a licoln 180 at home, and use millers at work, the linc does good for a home depot welder, but its just feels cheap. Millers entry level welders seem to be alot closer to their industrial machines in quality, in my opinion.
If you have a shop to work inside, get one and run gas and solid wire, if your stuck working outside, you ll have to run flux core, any wind blows away the gas, even a fan running inside a shop.
Another option for sheet metal work, pick up an ACDC stick welder, then buy a tig torch, and gas regulator, hillbilly tig, scratch start, you won t be able to weld aluminum. But you re covered for steel, cro moly, stainless, copper, nickel, and god knows what else, and Tig IS NOT HARD TO LEARN, once you can carry an arc, its easier than torch welding, and you can hammer and dolly your welds easyier than with mig, because your welds usually are closer in hardness to your base metal. Plus with some abuse, you can heat with the tig like a torch.

PistonPuller

Miller hands down. Second choice would be Lincoln