out on our farm we have an old lincoln arc welder for welding big stuff but i find myself needing to weld smaller more presice stuff know like exuase pipe and stuff that the arc will blow through. it needs to be able to weld about 1/4 inch metal and i like the mig idea with the gas. i really like lincolns becuase i know they are heavy duty but what about hobart and miller. i would only like to spend about 500 bucks. what welder do you think would be the best

 

My neighbor just bought one of those little hobart mig welders and a hobart plasma cutter. He was been doing craft stuff for his wife to sell.

All the stuff he has been welding and cutting is all light weight. Both are super small and easy to use. As far $500.00 I think out of the question for new. I think he paid around $1200.00. You may try a pawn shop... Good luck....

 

The Millermatics are nice welders I have a 135 paid about $530 for it check ebay the have some good deals sometime free shipping and what not I bought mine local at toll welding about a year ago or so great hobby welder they also have a 175 that is a 220V welder I may buy this one when I get 220 in the garage and take my other one to my parents place

 

We sell Lincoln and Miller. Miller bought out Hobart. Stick with these 2 machines if possilble. They are the best out there, and parts should be easy to find if need be. You can get a 110(volt) mig for under $500. If you are going to use this alot, my advice is to buy a good unit. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.

 

The Hobart and Miller are both good, Miller is the best out there IMO. My advice though, is to get a 220V unit, if at all possible. If you plan on doing only body work, or light sheet metal, 110V is ok. Anything bigger, the 20V machines are the way to go. I know in the specs a lot of the 110V machines say they'll weld up to 1/4'' steel, which they will, but if you plan to weld a fair bit of this size stuff, you will be very disappointed. What you need to look at is the duty cycle of the machine at a given output.

My opinion is to go for the Millermatic 175(it's the same as the Hobart 175(cheaper) but more adjustable). It's a 220V machine(you said you have an arc welder, so 220V is probably not a problem), but from experience you will be a lot happier in the long run. You can still turn it down to weld sheetmetal, but will be able to much more easily do bigger jobs. It will have no problem with the exhaust or 1/4'' work you mentioned.

I don't think that you will find this whole setup for $500 new, though I'm in Canada, and your pricing might be better than ours. I know the machine alone can be found up here for $900 CDN if this helps for comparison. Good luck, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the big name brands, this is just my opinion.

 

I want to buy that red colored welder we had in high school like 8 years ago, it was state of art back then with digital display on the front and this awesome "toggle switch" on the wand, you could adjust the amps and gas just by pushing the toggle up or down on the wand for thicker or thinner metal.

on that note I too am in need of a MIG welder,
I want one that is easy to set up, and will weld alum. and steel. But I don't want the kind with the small spool in the wand, I might have to buy two whips and that gets spendy, and I don't want the wire with the flux core as they are so sloppy.

 

I use a Millermatic 251. Its a 240v machine, may be overkill for what you need, but will do up to 1/2" steel without flinching....