Home Mig Welder (110V vs. 220V)

[Matt@RFR]

You can build your own extension chords very easily. You can either hard wire it to the machine, or plug it into the existing power chord. For a 180 class 220v machine, I'd recommend 8ga wire in a grease, abrasion and UV resistant version. That stuff is killer, and will outlast YOU! For what it's worth, I had a 50 foot power chord (8ga) hard wired into my old Miller 180 TIG and it never once got warm to the touch.

Whatever machine you get, check the input load @ max amperage and make sure your dryer breaker is at that number or above.



Now, regarding having a machine too big to do a good job on thin sheetmetal: Look at the bottom end amp numbers on all these MIGs and all these power sources. My 251 welds 18ga like there's no tommorow WITH .035 WIRE. I'm sure it'd do an even better job if I felt it necessary to change to .023 wire. If nothing else, the bigger machines weld thin sheet BETTER than the smaller machines due to being more accurate and having more adjustability.