Looking at a Millermatic 185 mig , with tank and reg. Supposedly used 20 hrs, gun trigger needs replaced. Guy wants 700 for it. It’s a Craigslist deal, so I will see it up close and personal before pulling the trigger( as it were). Thoughts, comments, etc. will be appreciated.
Steve
Replies
If you get it, running the wire through a disposable earplug will help keep it clean, particularly with infrequent use. I don't understand a 20 hr trigger failure.
My lesser US brand (Century) cost me $175. Previous owner had never been able to get it to feed right. Took a downloaded manual and 3 minutes' adjustment. They wasted 2 tanks of gas, didn't occur to them to turn off the gas while fiddling with the feed. Considerably more than 20 hrs here, still working fine.
PAHS works. Bury it.
I bougth a miller 185 mig brand new for $600
Bran' spankin new? Verrrry interesting. He should have some leeway, then. Darn well better had, at least.No further contact with the guy other than expressing my interest at this point. We'll see what happens.Steve
New for $600? Here's another one used for $1500.
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/tls/834294231.html
Miller no longer makes a Miller 185 MIG, it was replaced by the 210 or 212. List price on a new Miller 212 MIG is $1895. They do make a Millermatic 180 Autoset MIG with a list of $897. Haven't kept up with them enough to know what is supposed to justify the $1k difference. One difference is the duty cycle which is 30% for the 185 and 60% for the 212. Duty cycle, of course, is the amount of time out of a ten minute cycle that you can weld with the unit without fear of it overheating. A couple of years ago I bought a Hobart 135 Handler only to find out that at full throttle, one is only supposed to weld with 48 seconds out of every ten minutes - which makes for a lot of long coffee breaks... (Reportedly, if you keep pushing the welder until the thermal cutout trips, it can eventually weaken the cutout and cause problems.) You can usually get Miller welders at a discount (although not necessarily a large one). Shipping can get expensive, however. For example, this outfit (with which I am unfamiliar) offers the 180 for $805 with free shipping. Miller also makes an engine driven 185 (Miller Blue Star 185)with a list price starting at $2857, so you need to know which unit is being talked about. Miller's page on their small mig welders:
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/mig/onephase.php
I bought a new HOBART 185 2yrs ago for 400 new. tank was about another100.
larry b