Comparing Miller and Hobart MIG welders

• Wheatfarm.com

They are both fine machines but they have cut corners on the Hobarts to reduce the price . I can't say anything for sure about the 2 models you are looking at but I do know some about the differences between the little 135 Amp mig machines .

The Miller has more windings on the transformer and has cast aluminum brackets on the feed rolls ( Hobart is plastic ) . This info came from a Miller/Hobart Rep . He says that Hobarts are good for lighter use but Miller is the best for use everyday .

You may also want to look at Esab . I used an Esab mig at a friends house . It was a 225 or 250 amp machine ( I can't remember ) and I was definately impressed .

Just my $.02 worth .

Ford Man

Both machines will run an all position gas shielded fluxcore wire. This would be my choice of wire for welding out of position on thicker sections of steel.

Also, on the Miller the drive rolls are meshed together so that both rolls are pushing the wire thru the cable to the gun. The Ironman 250 doesnt have this.

However, the Ironman 250 is a very good machine, especially for the price that it sells for. I almost bought one instead of getting my Millermatic 210. Went with the MM 210 though because Miller was offering it with a free spool gun, which allows me to weld aluminum a lot easier.

Actually, Illinois Tool Works, bought Miller and Hobart during the 1990's.

Hobart and Miller are in fact owned by ITW as stated above. As per Miller reps, the Hobart plant is building all of the 250 amp and smaller plug-in machines while the Miller plant is building everything above 250 amp and all the engine drives no matter what name appears on them.

The Hobart labled line is geared more toward the hobbiest, IE: people who do light art work and restore old vehicles. Basically a lighter duty machine with less frills than the Miller line. Reason for this is so that they could produce a lesser priced machine with decent quality and compete with brand like Century, Campbell-Hausfeld and Lincoln. The Miller line is geared toward the commercial end use.

I've never dealt with Hobart machines much but have used a few here and there. Not a bad machine from what I know of them and I'm given to understand that most of Hobart/Miller use common consumables that are readily available and some are interchangable.

I can tell you about Miller since I personally own 5 Miller welding power sources and five Miller wire feeders. I have an older style Millermatic 250, currently sold as the 251x. Excellent machine, infinite voltage & wire speed controls, quick change drive wheels and the new 251x comes ready to plug in the spool-o-matic 30 gun as well. There was only two things I did not like about the 250, 1- I work on heavy equipment much of it with tracks so my driveway is gravel, the hard plastic running gear that came with the machine works great on concrete floors but ain't worth nothing in gravel. I replaced these with pneumatic castors but extended the footprint to keep the machine stable with a 390cuft gas tank on it. 2- The auto fan control did not seem to be turning on at a low enough temp, you could actually smell the transformer coils getting hotter than I'd like. I installed a manual bypass switch so I could run the fan full time when I wanted and as automatic when switch was in the off position.

I've run everything from .023" solid to .045" dual shield flux core on the 250 with excellent results. Put about 1000 pounds of wire through this machine so far with not one problem. Running the 30a spool gun off it is a dream, super results on aluminum and stainless steel. Great for when you don't want to switch large spools of wire to do a small job too, can be running .045 flux on the main drive and flop a spool of .023 solid in the spool gun in a minute or two to take care of a small job on thin metal.

Now, I have to ask what you plan to do with the machine. Can your work be limited to MIG only or would you need to do the occasional stick job as well? If the answer to this is "yes" then you need to consider a different machine. You have several option as to how big a machine you need, how much you will use it, power supply available and can you do all your work in the shop.

Miller's engine drives are an excellent choice for when you don't have enough power available or you want to go to the work instead of bringing the work to you. The Bobcat CC/CV is a good choice for most all general purpose work capable of handling all your stick work up to 225 or 250 amps on the CC side and MIG on the CV side. Adding MIG to the engine drive can be done with the 30A gun for smaller work or any of the wire feeders from the 10# spool suitcase to the 60 pound coil capable 60 series.

If you're planning on staying in the shop, take a look at the Shopmaster, Dimension or XMT machines. All of these are excellent power sources for multi-process, stick, mig and tig by simply adding what you want to them. Miller has about 15 differnt wire feeders to choose from for MIG and you can use almost any brand TIG torch as well. Personally, I use Weldcraft brand TIG torches but you can use any provided you have the proper adpaters as needed. Of course, the more you add, the more you are going to spend but it all depends upon what you want to do. You can epect to spend anywhere from $500 to $2000 on a wire feeder and from $1100 to $20,000 on a power supply depending upon what you want.

I don't want to scare you off but would rather point out that if you plan on spending around $1700 on a mig only machine, perhaps spending an extra $500 or so will give you both MIG and stick addind about $150 more will set you up with a good TIG torch and foot control as well, then you'll be ready for anything.

Shopmaster is a good GP machine for medium to somewhat heavy work while the Dimension and XMT's are in the super duty line. A plus on the XMT side is the 304 will run either single or 3 phase power from 230 to 480 volts without doing anything but plugging it in and flipping the switch on. I can't tell you what you want or need so all I can do is point out some options and give you the following links so you can see whats available and look at some pricing too. From here, it's your ball game but I'll be glad to answer any questions you have. BTW, I don't work for Miller, just very happy with their machines.

Link
http://www.cyberweld.com (good place to buy)