For you welders out there.


 
Interesting review. He does pretty well highlight the "right, fast, cheap, pick 2" sort of thing. The economy machines do appear to have significant consistency issues with wire feeds, and the range of power delivery. I'm sort of surprised that he didn't test anything from Miller/Hobart, which are also pretty darned good welders.

These are all the "new" style inverter machines. They are a lot lighter and far more portable than the old style transformer based machines.
 
Just for the record..... I have 2 welders out in the garage. An absolute monster Miller 200 tap based transformer MIG process welder that's at least 30 years old. I can get replacement parts for practically everything except for the wire feed motors which have apparently never failed anywhere. This thing is a beast, I fillet welded up the firebox in my smoker with 1/2" plate with it cranked up all the way in a single pass, starting to show burn through on the back side (yes, I do have a 200 amp gun.) I also have an inverter based ThermalArc (now owned by ESAB) 186 Worker TIG/stick welder. As noted in the review, the control capabilities on the economy machines are frequently rather limiting, one of the reasons I bought this machine was for the extensive TIG parameter controls.

There certainly is a place in the world for the economy machines. However, if you're just learning to weld, the noted inconsistencies in wire feeds and power delivery can be enough to make you tear your hair out, as you will have a hard time discerning between something you did vs. what the machine did.
 
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