Millermatic 211 MIG Welder

Anyone have any experience with the Millermatic 211 MIG welder? I am not a good welder but have had the 211 recomended. It has dual voltage 110 & 220 and will weld up to 3/8" steel and also aluminum with the spool gun. Not grassroots priced ($1100.00 plus $275.00 spool gun) but it seem you get what you pay for in upper end tools you plan to keep for a long time. Possibly more capability then I need. any other recomendations?

In reply to pirate: Guess I should have added this for reference:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxH4T-mPYlg

We have a 210 in my high school metal shop. It puts up with abuse from the students ~really~ well and still lays down nice beads. It's been out for repair only once in 8 years or so. I give it a thumbs up.

I cannot speak to the spool gun, as I ruined all my tips before I figured out the Argon tank I bought wasn't purged correctly when they filled it.

Never used one, but dual voltage is the way to go. I use a Lincoln Power-MIG 180, and if I had it to do over, I'd get the dual voltage version of it.

I have one, my first welder. Wonderful machine. Just give it the power it needs. Keep you extension cord short and sized appropriately. Run it on 220v if you can. The autoset feature is somewhat useful but once you know what adjusting the wire speed and voltage does to your weld, you'll be putting in your own settings to fine tune it. Buy it.

If aluminum welding is a goal - you will be disappointed by the results of a very expensive spool gun. Miller makes a sweet TIG unit (Diversion 180) you can pick up with all the trimmings except a gas bottle for $1800 that will weld anything up to 5/16" pretty well if you aren't married to the idea of a MIG.

My solution to this problem was to buy the smaller MIG - the 140 for all the steel fabrication stuff. It's $600-$700 and will do up to a 1/4 steel in a single pass. I have built everything from suspension components to roll cages with it. It plays bigger than it's specs. It is a really nice unit. Then, for pretty aluminum and stainless work I bought a cheap TIG 200 from Eastwood (sweet sale combo with plasma cutter and free shipping in GRM last Thanksgiving). It works just fine, honestly. It says 110/220 but it doesn't really work on 110. It does start nice and lay beautiful beads on 220 though. I had to send two of them back due to a bad batch but Eastwood's support was really good. A silver lining there... they over-nighted me a new one.

So, long/short... I got a MIG and a TIG for about $1400 to cover just about anything I'll ever need to make and I'm very satisfied with both.

I had a 140 and it was stolen. I replaced it with a Millermatic 211 and have never regretted it. It is awesome. The 220v does anything I need and the 110 makes it portable to do exhaust work, etc.

I bought an Aluminum spool gun and thick Aluminum and 220v is a breeze.

I have a Miller 180SD TIG also, but I generally choose the 211 first.

We have a Diversion 180 TIG in the metal shop as well, and it's a great simple AC/DC TIG for learning, or most hobby stuff. If you want to take welding seriously you will out grow it, but it's a darned nice unit for a reasonable price.

The 211 is what we welded the first 7 Exocet frames with. Good machine, not good enough for the duty cycle we need. With the right settings, even I could lay some pretty beads with the 211.

I've got 2 millers, a pulsematic and a dynasty, they've been great. Both still working well after laying miles of weld.