By Bryan Irons
Having daydreams of insanely big shops with every conceivable tool known to man give us here, at 4WDrive, a euphoric high that’s easily read by the goofy grins on our faces during work hours. The slave labour conditions and peanuts thrown our way by the top brass make these dream shops in our heads out of reach... dammit. A new series, Garage Gear, is here to show what kind of shop tools the average wheeler with a two-car garage and mortgage can, and maybe, should have in their arsenal to make their off-road dreams come true. We’re going to cover everything we can that us nut fed editors believe make a worthwhile addition to your concrete happy place.
Nothing depletes a beer fridges’ inventory like announcing to the world that you have a welder. Let me explain; if you have a cheap neighbour, buddy, family member or co-worker, telling them that you can now stick metal together is like running through a weight watchers clinic with a box of doughnuts. There, you’ve been warned, stock up on wire and gas, and remind your friends, new and old, to BYOB and cash.
Had we kept our mouth shut once the new Miller 211 was in the back of the truck, a few of our own projects might be further along. Nonetheless, the 211 has never let us down. The decision to add it to our collaboration of both new and old shop tools was pretty simple. It’s a great company with a long history of quality products they stand behind, so it’s hard to pass up, but the 211 offers more than just heritage.
Right out the box, the 211 MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welder is a compact, powerful multi use machine. Allowing the use of flux cored welding wire or shielding gas for solid wire in diameter from .023-in. up to .035-in. in either 1 or 10 lb. rolls. An optional plug and play spool gun is available for welding aluminum. By the way, don’t tell ANYONE you have a spool gun… it’s like moths to a flame.
Inverter based power supplies and drivers lend themselves to the unit’s small size and 3/8-in. thick single pass welding ability with mild steel. The included MVP (Multi Voltage Plug) gives the option of connecting to either 110V or 220V depending on what you have available. No taps to change or settings to alter just put the proper plug on the end of the cord and start burning steel. Just remember, when using 110v, your single pass thickness is slightly diminished.
“Autoset” is Millers polite was of saying, “dummy setting”, and we’re fine with that. Allowing a simple way of adjusting your heat and wire speed in one shot, and to be honest, despite being snubbed by many pros, it works pretty well for most applications. You set the wire gauge you are using and thickness of the steel you’re welding. Easy-peasey. For more complicated burns, manual controls of the welder’s heat and wire speed are at your command.
The 10-ft welder lead can feel a little short at times, but having the smaller gun to reach into tighter areas is well worth the trade off. Trying to manhandle a 300-Amp gun into tight areas with “finesse” is easier said than done. Consumables such as tips and nozzles are easily found at most welding supply stores. The same cannot be said of many offshore units on the market. Along these same lines, don’t throw a spool of discount store wire in your machine and expect great results. The undulating wire thickness of no-name welding wire can play havoc on drive wheels, tips and most importantly, your final product. They’re called “booger welds” for a reason.
So after having our shop fridge raided on us and numerous “other” projects completed in our time spent with the Miller 211, would we do it again? You bet, with one exception; we’d keep our new toy a secret.
Miller Welding Products - www.millerwelds.com