Mig Welder

I am looking at a couple older Mig welders in my area, one is a Millermatic 250, the other a Millermatic Vintage. Thoughts? Opinions? I want (or at least think I want) an older transformer welder, trying to avoid circut boards and other modern wizardry. I know the newer stuff might be easier to use and weld better, but I really don't want to spend $5,000 on a welder in the first place, and have circut board issues in the future. I believe this class machine will also do what I need as far as welding goes; work on single phase 220 power, and deal with heavy steel at times. Periodically there is stuff up to 1/2" on buckets and such, a smaller 180amp mig won't really do what I need. Both machines I am looking at are listed at the $1800-$2000 mark.

What ever you buy...it had better be a Miller Welder..... I just found that Miller is not supporting the older stuff as much. Check with a independent repair shop. 1/2" plate I want to be in spray mode, I don't know if the Millermatic 250 will be big enough, IIRC it's real close. You do know about white vs black front panel ? White is the older stuff, change was made to black (exact time frame I do not know) Sort of a quick way to gauge the machine's age.

Bought my Millermatic 250 in 1996 iirc, first of many Millers. 1500 brand new. Added the 14 pin for the 30a spool gun. Used in a professional capacity it's entire life and using it today as a matter of fact. Plenty of power for .50" plate. On Millers web site you can look up serial numbers and find out the age of there products. Last year I bought a new 255 so I could run a push pull gun for aluminum. I had several crossmembers to replace on a quad axle dump trailer. Very tight working area I could not get the 30a into. I'm only going to use the 255 to run the spool gun for aluminum.

Millermatic 250, is the cats ass, for anything over gauge steel.

Got pictures or links to the listings? Too bad you don't have 3 phase, big welders are cheap then.

There are several reports of issues with the Millermatic 250. Poor arc, feeding issues etc. I wouldn't buy one. A 250X, 251, 252 are better. The Millermatic Vintage is a better machine. A Lincoln Wirematic 255 is also a good machine. I had one. I liked the arc better than a Miller. There are some other Lincoln 255's but I can't remember the models. The newer versions are 256 models. An Esab Migmaster 250 isn't a bad machine if you found one for under $1000 but I'd probably stick with Miller or Lincoln. Just not the Millermatic 250. Some people like them but there's too many not liking them that I'd be leery of buying one. The Esab Migmaster 250 are carried over L-Tec machines and made for many years. Millers are very easy to tell the year by the serial number. Manuals are all easy to find on their website as well.

Welder Dave said: There are several reports of issues with the Millermatic 250. Poor arc, feeding issues etc. I wouldn't buy one. A 250X, 251, 252 are better. The Millermatic Vintage is a better machine. A Lincoln Wirematic 255 is also a good machine. I had one. I liked the arc better than a Miller. There are some other Lincoln 255's but I can't remember the models. The newer versions are 256 models. An Esab Migmaster 250 isn't a bad machine if you found one for under $1000 but I'd probably stick with Miller or Lincoln. Just not the Millermatic 250. Some people like them but there's too many not liking them that I'd be leery of buying one. The Esab Migmaster 250 are carried over L-Tec machines and made for many years. Millers are very easy to tell the year by the serial number. Manuals are all easy to find on their website as well. Click to expand... There is a 250X also, is that a transformer machine also? Pre-inverter?

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I did some more looking and apparently the MM250 was a disaster for Miller. The 250X was an improvement but still not the greatest. The 251 is much better but not many around because the 252 came out not too long after. The Vintage gets good reviews. It is a transformer machine and they were made from 1994-2003. The long production run tends to indicate it was a well liked machine. The serial number should start with a K or L. K is 1990's and L is 2000's. Next letter indicates the year. A is 0, B is 1, C is 2, etc. If it's an earlier production machine you might be able to negotiate a little better price. It looks like it might have come from an auction. There's a sticker on the front. If it comes with the cylinder is a bonus but make sure it's not a leased cylinder. Those can't be sold and will be confiscated if you try to get it refilled or exchanged. You want to try out any welder you're considering. If you're not too experienced get the seller to show you some nice welds. If they can't points to them being reseller and a lower price too. If there's no way to hook it up see if a welder repair shop could test it for you. I'm not sure what's in your area but Red-D-Arc welder rentals sells used machines and will test them so you know they work properly. They have warranty on some but might be newer and over your budget.

Other than wearing out a few guns my Millermatic 250 has never failed. The 255?? Time will tell. It will only run the push pull and spool gun for aluminum. It is loaded with all the features. But for general steel fab give me a MM 250,X,251 or 2. All are old school transformer/ rectifier machines. The 252 will run a push pull gun and does have board(s) inside giving them something that may fail. My understanding is Miller is phasing out the 252.

What are the best older mig welders with no circuit boards? When did curcuit boards start showing up in mig welders?

Acoals said: What are the best older mig welders with no circuit boards? When did curcuit boards start showing up in mig welders? Click to expand... "Circuit Boards" are not bad. Circuit boards with proprietary chips & other components, along with no replacement boards available is the problem. Older circuit boards with standard components, you can find independent tech's that can repair them....sometimes.

I find it much easier to weld 1/2" and up on my 300amp 3 phase Lincoln. Our single phase shop has a "300" amp single phase miller shop master. But duty cycle is only 50% at 300 amp. I will say, we probably need to upgrade the wiring we have to our plug, I think we are starving it for power a little , in the shop wiring. If you do a lot of 1/2"-5/8"- 3/4" , I think you are going to be disappointed in what either of those machines are going to do. You're going to be bevelling and multi passing a lot. I do prefer the bigger machines like my shop master, with separate wire feeder and power source. I think they are built heavier for production, and you can stick or tig if you want. I never do, but I could. This is our single phase miller

You can run dual-shield flux-core for thicker plate with a 250 amp welder. Using a higher argon content (80/10) shielding gas will give better penetration with solid wire as well. 250 amps with solid wire is still good for most 1/2" plate. Lots of smaller fab shops run 250 amp single phase Mig machines. The Shopmaster being a dual process machine is OK as a Mig machine but is pretty power hungry (91.2 amps/230 volts). The nice thing is you can burn stick if desired on thicker plate. The separate wire feeder is nice but costs more. If you're going to be doing lots of heavy fabrication then a 3 phase or inverter that runs single or 3 phase with a higher duty cycle would be a better option. I'm pretty sure circuit boards have been in Mig welders for decades. Miller, Lincoln and Esab are generally pretty durable Mig machines. Newer inverters use way less power. I remember hearing years ago from someone who sold them the MM250 wasn't well liked and looking online on welding forums confirms this. Maybe later models were better but I wouldn't take a chance with my money. I had a 1999 Lincoln Wirematic 255 that I really liked the arc on. More than a Miller 252 which is a good welder. There was a later model 256 that early versions used a common Lincoln gun and for some stupid reason Lincoln changed the gun half through the year. That meant the new gun used totally different consumables. A PIA for customers who have older machines as now they need to stock two different sets of consumables.

Generally Millers are very good Mig machines. In 3 phase machines they are by far the most popular in shops. Here's why I wouldn't risk a MM250 or 250X. There are some decent newer Hobart machines that are rebadged Millers but don't have all the fancy controls. Millermatic 250x - Welding Tips and Tricks

Thanks for the reccomendations guys! I don't weld heavy stock often enough to need anything bigger than a 250 sized machine. Up to this point all I have had for years is a old Lincon Ranger 9 and a little Hobart inverter stick welder that goes to like 165amps or so. I am just tired of stick welding everything . . .

There are several good 240-250 amp Mig machines worth considering. If you find something post it here before you buy it. The Miller Vintage you posted is worth considering.

With this all said we ran many spools of 1/16 nr211 out of a sp200 lincoln till it blew up last spring from 40 years of going way over the duty cycle. May it rest in pieces. Any how after that i got a deal on a miller 251 and bought a 400 amp gun for it loader the flux core up on it and put my amp clamp on the ground lead. Come to find it was pullimg way more then it should even male a very cold weld. Learned why the old sp died. We have a phase converter some we then found a dc 400 lincoln set it up works good its nice to beablw to air arc with drqging out the engine drive. Moral of the story is welders are like truck engines and trailers fet the biggest one you can possible get and male use of! (Id have a single axle dump with a 600 horse if i have the frog skins!)

NR211 is a low penetration general purpose wire. It's not the wire to use when you need high strength welds. Good for general stuff though. Lots of smoke. 3 phase machines are cheap if you have 3 phase power.