[zakthor]

I’m doing some rusty thin bodywork stuff with this hot metal glue gun thing, a gas mig I got on Craigslist for $125. It really sucks, the high and low settings are unstable and the wire feed is really touchy.

My friend has a miller 211 that I tried out and it’s great and makes me a better welder, especially on thicker stuff but…

My old mig has the gas valve in the torch. If I feel like it I can keep the gas flowing until the metal cools. And I can put out sealant fires…

and with my machine I can pre flow and get a great splatter free arc right from the get go (if the wire feeds…)

My friends miller has a gas solenoid in the box that turns on with the wire and arc, and I’m hating it. Yes his welder makes a reliable spark but I miss that gas control. Sure I’m a terrible person and a terrible welder and a good welder would do all the prep and cut out all the rust and would be happy with the miller, but it still seems like a big step back.

The miller makes a hard dark angry brittle bead, my gassed welds are shiny and soft and easy to shrink.

I’ve gone searching and my understanding is that it was only cheap bad welders from Europe that had valves in the torch? Why isn’t this still popular? I like being able to simply control how long the gas flows, why should I need to choose a digital pre/post purge?

I see a bunch of new migs with Bluetooth control. It’s almost like I could control gas and wire speed with my phone while in the wheelwell while wrapped around the rear hub, but then I cant use my phone with those gloves on.

Why the hell aren’t there migs with on torch wire speed, power and gas controls? Seems like child’s play to implement. I have been emailing welder makers and one has a $2k torch with wire speed control, miller makes some crazy expensive stuff, but looks like there are no bottom of the barrel cheap migs with these features.

Doesn’t it seem insane that the torch control doesn’t exist? Should be child’s play to make. I’m tempted to rig up a Bluetooth board with some control knobs but then no one quite wants to make their ble interface public.

Thanks for listening. Rant over.

Tell me there’s a cheap Chinese mig that does what I want. Sure won’t get any cost effective innovation from that monolith that owns all the welder ‘companies.’