I know this is probably in the wrong spot, but here goes anyway.

I had been looking at mig welders for about 2 months now, and had pretty much decided to go with a Lincoln tapped 220 from lowes.

One night talking to the wife about finances, and tools needed for the two projects we have. She said "you need to get the one you want". That was license to go for the MM 180c. I started going to my local National Welders supply and talking to them. They cut me a deal on the 211 for just a few more bucks. All told today I walked away with the 211, 11lb roll of .030 mild steel wire, 2lb roll of .030 core shield, helmet, and 160 cu/ft tank of 75/25 for under $1200.00. It is still in the box in the garage. I wont be able to get it out until tomorrow night.

On the way home, I stopped by work and found some different size scrap to practice on.

Unfurtunately I have not found a steel supplier in my area that sells small quantities to the public. So I went to lowes and picked up some 1"x1" tube to make a cart out of.

No real projects for the immeadiate future. Just lots of practice, in prep for body work, bumpers, sliders, and such.

I will post some pictures tomorrow night.

Yeah I got a good wife.

 

Right on man. I think it is awesome you got the set up you wanted. I know I always hum and haw about weather I should just drop the coin or get the cheaper one. I hope you have many years of fun burning steel with that thing.

 

Yea I bought a campbell flux core 85 about 3 yrs ago as my first welder . Worked great all this time .
But it was time for a stronger one so today I went and bought the lincoln 180HD, man what a difference between the 2 .

Now I need to hit craigslist and get a couple tanks .

Good luck with yours .

 

Thanks RMA, I am sure you will have a good luck with your Lincoln 180HD. I know several guys that have them and they really seem to like it.

I was able to unpack the MM211 today. What a nice piece of gear. It's heavy especially with the 11lb roll of wire in it. Right now I dont have 220 in the garage. So everything I welded was on a 115v 15amp circuit. The unit is supposed to run on a 20 amp circuit for 115v, and a 30amp circuit for 220. On the guage steel I did not pop the breaker. But on the 1/8" steel, it would pop the breaker pretty quick. Tomorrow I am going to look in the breaker box and see what wire gauge in that circuit, hopefully it will handle replacing the breaker with a 20amp. If not I am going to have to run a new 220v 30amp out of it anyway.

First attemps were with the auto set feature. The auto set runs hot. I am sure for a true welder it is perfect. For me it was hard to run fast enough that I did not blow holes all over the 14 and 16ga that I was playing with. On the 1/8" it was not to hot. But hotter than I set it at in manual. After a bit of playing I stepped down the auto set to the next lower gauge setting. So if I was welding beads on 14ga, I set it to 16ga. Then I had good results.

On Manual I looked at what the chart in the lid said for each ga thickness, and set the initial beads to that setting. Still felt is was a little hot. So after some playing I found that if set the wire feed and amps to 5 below what it recommened it was about perfect.

I am going to draw up a cart for it tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I will put it together.

Here are some pics.

 

After have the problem blowing the 15amp circuit with the MM211, I went to lowes and picked up two external outlets, breakers and wire. One for 120v 20amp, for doing lighter work, and one for 230v 50amp for the heavier stuff. Man what a difference in just bumping up to a 20amp circuit the arc was much more stable. The tickest stuff I have is 1/8", but on the 120 20amp circuit, it did not miss a beat. And I tried to take the MM211 to its duty cycle limits but could not get it to shut down.

Made a little cart for it today. Still needs a few more mods, but I am out of steel.

 

Good luck with your new welder !!!

I can`t understand why you can`t find a steel supplier. Maybe you could talk to the local welding Fab Shops I would bet they would sell you just what you wanted and if they didn`t have it order it in Paid up front of course.

I know if you were in my area I would do it . I am sure you know that a full length is cheaper and if you want a small piece of something odd that could pose a problem