I'm thingin bought buyin a weldin machine so I can teach myself how to weld. I gots a few questions though. I would like to tig and mig weld so what kind of machine would yall recomend. Also is dis sumthin I can figure out on my own or should I take some classes on it.

See Rod, you made me feel bad last night about not knowin how to weld.
My next step may be buyin a forlift.

As far as a tig/mig I couldn't tell you the first one to buy. I am a stick welder myself working on a farm. I am not sure if I would go as far as to take classes. Hook up with someone who knows how to weld and get some tips from them. All you can really learn from someone is the fundamentals. Running beads comes from hours of practice. Some people pick up fast and others not so much. The best thing to do is to do like I did and practice on other peoples chit. Good luck.

quack where u live at?? a personal friend of mine is a salesman for industrial welding supply in houma and could def. help u out in selecting a welding machine for whatever it is u wanna do.. if u want his number lemme know.

I own a millermatic 210. It's a nice machine, but you can only mig and run a spool gun on it.

I learned to tig on a miller syncrowave 250. Now that's a badass machine.

I'm sure you could get some sort of miller suitcase mig to plug into a syncrowave, I'm not sure.

Don't rule out used either. Those new syncrowaves are pricey and rather large. The older ones are smaller and reasonably priced in reasonable condition.

dey have da miller econotig also. i know u can stick and tig wit it fa sho.. it welds good and has da remote fa tig. not to sure about mig tho

qc i am a welder i weld it all tig fluxcore short arc and stick and some aluminum u can teach ur self but the most part is setting the machine u really need to have someone that knows what they r doing like me r anyone esle that does it for a living

If your looking to do it as an occupation, get a hold of Bechtel Corp. They brought bus loads of south americans and recruited others off the street here and payed them $20hr to train/cert them for boiler/pipefitter work. 90% finished the course and then left to better companies or back home once they completed the course.


I have a Miller 210 dual gun that seems plenty for the average home shop. Still need a stick, tig, and a plasma cutter tho.

I'm just lookin for sumthin affordable to tinker wit at home. Thanks for all da good info.

Miller has a Diversion suppost to be a good machine simple to set up. Never used one, we have the Dynasty at work and they are badazz. Takes practice thats for sure. I was lucky enough to have on the job training. Taking a class would prob be helpful. Theres only one way to learn gotta get out there and do it.

find you a used Miller 220v machine. Most 220v machines can do all process, GMAW short arc) , FCAW (flux core), SMAW (stick) and GTAW (tig). If you want to know what each one means, just ask. I've been in the manufacturing of oilfield production equipment for going on 11 years, started out as a drafter and then progressed into project management with a touch in QC of ASME Section VIII, DIV I in the meantime. Learned to stick weld when I was about 10 years old and my dad, 3 uncles and grandfather are all welders. Most south LA may know of the Baldwin Power Plant, my grandfather built that when he was working with the union. Same for Cajun Co-Op here in New Iberia. The old sugar shack on the mill side was their fabrication shop as they were building the mill.

That being said, the reason I say go with a 220v machine is that they are not nearly as limited as a small 110v machine. Worst case, get you a small 110v for learning, but if you really want to start doing some welding projects, you will need to invest in a 220v machine. Oh and once your friends know you can weld, you will get asked more and more to repair stuff. Start off with welding carbon steel and once you've learned that, get a spool gun for aluminum. TIG isn't that hard, but it's coordination. You have the electrode in one hand and filler rod in the other, and worst case a foot control for your "heat". Most people roll their fingers to feed the filler rod where some actually move their fingers back and forth to feed more rod.


Prolly more than you wanted to know, but can never have to much information.

MIG (GMAW) is the easiest, I call it point and click welding. Stick (SMAW) is a little more as you have to lower your hand to feed the rod. MIG is prone to getting the oxygen displacing gas blown away if your in a windy area or sitting in front a fan. This leads to porosity (air pockets) in the weld and in turn is a weaker weld.

biggest thing is are you gonna try any aluminum tig welding?

If so there is not a single "electric" (meaning shop) machine that is capabale of ALL processes

There are plenty of machines that can do DC stick, tig, wire (MIG/FC) but they ONLY put out DC

Then when you want to aluminum TIG weld you'll have to have another machine that is stictly a AC/DC stick and TIG machine

Then volts/amps and duty cycle all come into play to what you are going to want or need to do

I have no damned clue how to weld... but I can stick stuff together (as long as it's not thin) with a small mig machine as long as it has gas on it.

If you are just looking to tinker around, consider the miller 110v machine. We use two of them to do repair work and they run great. .023 carbon steel wire welds very easy and can handle 1/4" steel no problem. I have also robbed the poly liner out of a push pull gun, stuck it in the 110v miller, put some argon to it, and welded aluminum water tanks with it. I'm not saying it will handle production work, but its another machine to consider. Oh, its gmaw only.