[Shop-talk] mig welder

[Mark Andy]

Howdy,

On Sat, 18 Oct 2008, scott.hall at comcast.net wrote:
> so I was going to buy the miller 180...because I thought that's the one 
> I wanted (clarke is a knockoff, apparently).
>
> it occurred to me I never asked here.
>
> so: which mig do you have, and which one would you get if you could do 
> it again? I'm looking to do this just the once, and I'd like to make it 
> the last mig purchased.
>
> and then, where'd you get it? the local guys are nice to talk to, but 
> not worth the 100% increase over ebay at al.

I have a Lincoln SP175 Plus.  If I were doing it again, I'd lean toward 
the Miller 212 or the Lincoln 215 styles.  They're significantly more 
money (not quite double the cost I think), but they've got more power & 
more duty cycle while they do it, plus tend to be compatible with all the 
"real" optional stuff.  For instance, I can't buy a spool gun for my 
SP175.

I ended up buying mine as a floor model, but www.weldingmart.com seems to 
have pretty good prices from what I've seen.  I've bought consumables from 
them and always been happy.

Mark