You're right on with a Millermatic 210 or even better (ca-ching), the 251. I would opt for one with the spool gun plug, and buy that later if you plan to build something large out of aluminum. If you search eBay you'll find that several welding shops sell Miller direct with free shipping, it will get dropped to your house and you'll escape the sales tax. That's what I did when I bought my Miller TIG; after some checking Miller just drop ships them freight carrier right from the factory. At the time I requested a semi with a lift since I obviously don't have a dock, and they covered that as part of their free shipping. The guy rolled it off the truck and into my garage right on a pallet...
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Originally posted by TimT
All material to be welded should be preheated to some extent.
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Not totally necessary; the more important thing is to get your material at room temp (i.e. don't weld 30 degree F metal) for most projects. Unless you are preheating in a large oven with temperature control and welding an aerospace frame, you have almost no temp control heating with something like an oxy-ace torch, and the whole wax temp crayon thing is a PITA. Heat treating with a torch post welding is more b.s..
Quote:
Originally posted by TimT
Also you can weld steel thicker than 1/4" with a 110v MIG. You just have to make more passes. The higher powered welders allow you to make larger beads.
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Errrrr...sort of. Higher amperage welders allow deeper penetration into the material itself. You don't want to stitch weld a weld-bead to a weld bead-to weld bead-to weld bead (get the hint?). What you are doing is laying bead atop bead, and never really getting into the material to a decent depth. Not only is it not the soundest way to go, I'll laugh when I see it.
Make sure when you get the first spool of wire with your machine that if plan to do 1/4" plus material right away get .040" wire of larger, which will help with the correct bead size in relation to the heat setting. Get extra tips, etc. too.