John Viviani wrote:
> The sheetmetal guy at work (I work a well known auto
> restoration
> shop), Won't touch anything else, of course an entry level
> Miller is a
> little more than a Lincoln etc... But is well worth it in
> quality and resale
> value
This is not accurate. The price/quality difference between Miller and
Lincoln comes down to marketing. ITW (Illinois Tool Works) sells their
lowest-end welders under the Hobart name through mass market channels (e.g.
Home Depot), and their higher end machines under the Miller name through
welding shops. Lincoln sells their entire line under one brand name, but
similarly partitions their line between the channels, again selling only
their lower end machines through the mass market stores. There are very
comparable machines from Miller/Hobart and Lincoln at virtually every price
point and every process or style (MIG, TIG, Stick, engine driven, inverter,
etc). Dealer support and resale value is virtually identical as well. I've
used several different machines from both Miller and Lincoln, and my choice
between the two would depend on the exact price/capability point I was
looking at. I would also recommend looking closely at ThermalArc machines.
ThermalArc and ITW bought up different parts of Hobart's product line, with
ITW getting the Hobart name for machines, and ThermalArc getting at least
part of Hobart's engineering staff as well. ThermalArc have some very nice
looking MIG machines in their "Fabricator" line. I own a ThermalArc TIG
machine and have nothing but good things to say about it. I also recently
bought a Lincoln PowerMig 255 after having used a Millermatic 250x quite a
bit. I much prefer the PowerMig to the 250x. The 250x was good when using
reasonably big wire, but did not work well at all with .024 wire. The
PowerMig has a very nice arc on everything I've used it on, from 22 gauge
steel to 1/4" aluminum.
Harry Phinney
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