Had to choose between a Miller and a Lincoln welder for the shop yesterday

Been running my little roofing company for 5 years now and finally needed a proper welder for fabricating brackets and repair plates. I was stuck between a Miller 211 and a Lincoln 210 MP at the supply house in Akron. Went with the Miller because a buddy who's been a boilermaker for 20 years said the wire feed is smoother on thin metal. First job with it was patching a 1/4 inch steel plate on a boiler jacket and it laid down perfect beads without any spatter issues. Anyone else have strong opinions on one vs the other for light fab work?

2 comments

2 Comments

cameron96313d ago

Mileage varies a lot on those two machines, honestly. I tried a Lincoln 210 MP at a job site a couple years back and the wire feed on thin gauge stuff just felt jerky to me, like it was fighting itself. The Miller 211 seems to idle along smoother, which matters when you're doing patch work on thin boiler jacket metal where you can't afford to burn through. A good boilermaker friend of mine swears by Miller for that reason alone, though Lincoln fans say the 210 has better multi-process capability. For light fab work, I'd take smooth wire feed over flexibility any day, but that's just my two cents.

the_henry13d ago

Yeah, you nailed it with that smooth wire feed thing. I've run both machines and the Lincoln 210 MP always felt like it had a slight hesitation, almost like the drive rolls were slipping on the wire before catching up. The Miller 211 just feeds constant, no hiccups, which is a lifesaver when you're trying to stitch together some 18 gauge stuff without blowing holes. That jerky feed on the Lincoln might not bug someone doing heavy structural work, but for us guys messing with thin metal, it's the difference between a clean weld and a repair job that takes twice as long. I've seen guys swap out the drive rolls on the Lincoln to try and fix it, but it still never felt as buttery as the Miller out of the box. Give me the smooth feed every time, even if I lose some fancy multi process stuff.