Mig Welders ??

I have a Unimig 175 which has been great for the home workshop. Have not had any issues with it for the past 8years. I am a light user though, and no expert at welding.
Only thing i can add to the peanut gallery is are you looking at welding Aluminium - if so you I have been told that you will need a min of 200amps to do it properly, and also your wire feed needs to be teflon coated, and need to change the wire feed wheel.
Any gas MIG can use gasless wire, all you need to do is reverse your polarity.
I have gone to gasless wire due to the expense of bottle rental VS useage. The thinnest gasless wire that I have found has been .9mm, where I have seen gas wire down to .6mm. - something to consider depending on the thickness of steel you want to weld.
As always - buy the best you can afford. You will be surprised at what jobs you will think to use it on once you have a welder in the workshop.

I have a CIGWELD Transmig 135 - cost my $690 at Bunnings and is very common so no parts issues. Make sure you budget for a decent mask and any other safety gear you don't already have.

The 135 is on the smaller side of MIGs, but I decided to buy a slightly smaller Welder and put myself through a 6 month welding course with the change.

You can have the biggest, baddest machine in town but if you are a crap welder (or just have bad habits...) then all that power goes to waste. I'd rather get the most out of a smaller machine by being a skilled welder.

Thanks for the replies, Its always good to get others opinions. I have been looking at a MigoMag 170 Amp unit and feel its leading the race so far for price and quality.

I've got the Minimig 120 which is made by Unimig. It's a great little unit for home use - but wouldn't really be suited for constant heavy work.

As for previous comments made about avoiding the 120/140 amp gas / gasless units - well there's nothing wrong with them if you get a decent brand. The only people who have trouble with these are those who don't know how to use them, or try to use them outside their intended use.

As per plenty of comments already made, buy a unit that you can readily get spares and consumables for, and most importantly, keep it clean and the wire spool & feeder covered.

Another trick to stop the dust and crap getting into your wire feeder - get one of those disposable foam ear plugs that they hand out at most workplaces with noise these days. Before threading your wire into the feed tube, poke it through the middle of the ear plug so that the plug sits on the wire up against the entry to the feed tube. It acts as a "wipe" and cleans any dust, moisture etc off the wire before it goes into the wire feeder. Common practice on many mine sites that I've been on.

a little bit of cloth and a bull clamp also works.

I have a Uni-mig 210. It's been a great unit for home - aluminium as well as gasless steel paid about 1100 for it. I wanted a portable unit so i can transport it easily if needed but at >75kg it's on the limit.

Migomag make a great unit - brother inlaw is a metal tradie and uses a migomag280 - beautifull machine - but very big not exactly transportable. He has always said "If you can lift it don't buy it" won't be copper windings.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

Yep, the red industrial ones which I understand are made by Kempi.

These are forever needing repair. Its not just the usual throwing contact tips and sheilds at them, but now also sheaths, handsets and wire drive repairs which turned out to be a manufacture problem. Even just recently an earth plug fall out of one... We've been running 2 of these now since Christmas and they are both similar. When you start running them hard they also dont have the duty cycle.

For a single phase home job they're probably fine, but I'm not sure if I'd have called them industrial. For home I would look at the MagMAtePro, but we haven't run these. If the money gods are good to us, well try one out and also an Air-Liquide for Al MIG work.

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sorry to hear your problems mate,

as im running mine at home im sure im not running as hard, but i have had it a 2-3 years now without problem, welded 12mm plate with it and i find it very smooth....

i also have a BOC inverter stick/tig which is made by kemppi, and youll find most onsite welders run these for there small unit.

Serg

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Originally Posted by uninformed

sorry to hear your problems mate,

as im running mine at home im sure im not running as hard, but i have had it a 2-3 years now without problem, welded 12mm plate with it and i find it very smooth....

i also have a BOC inverter stick/tig which is made by kemppi, and youll find most onsite welders run these for there small unit.

Serg

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For home use they would probably be really good. Our welders work all day every day though.

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Originally Posted by Slunnie

For home use they would probably be really good. Our welders work all day every day though.

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i would have thought that you'd be running 3 phase?

WIA make a very good welder as well. i would have bought one but my dealer is a dick!

Serg

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Originally Posted by uninformed

i would have thought that you'd be running 3 phase?

WIA make a very good welder as well. i would have bought one but my dealer is a dick!

Serg

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3 phase would be nice, but there are too many limitations within my work to use these. 15amp we can get around though.