MW130 MIG welder

[cweagle]

Hello,

For some time I have been borrowing a friend's Century 135GS MIG. He needs it back, so I just picked up a MW130 off Craigslist. This is a Miller unit that was rebadged by MAC. It seems to have basically the same specs as the Century, but is 50% larger and weighs more too. I imagine it is beefier electrically.

Anyway, the only MIG work I have ever done is with that Century (mainly mild steel 22 ga sheet metal with .023" wire and C25, probably 40cf of gas worth of welding), which has a fine, analog control for current output. The Miller has only 4 positions. I spent a lot of time tweaking the output of the Century by about 1/2 a position (out of 8 or so) to get things to work right. I know that Century is a lower-tier manufacturer so I was surprised that Miller did not include this feature.

I'm new at this MIG stuff, so when I don't get great results I'm not really sure what is process/equipment-related and what is the result of my lack of skill. I guess my question is: how much trouble is it to have only 4 power ranges, and what do I have to do to work around that?

 

[5wndwcpe]

Not to be a wise ***, but you're gonna learn the Miller the same way you learned the Century - practice, practice, practice. FWIW My $1600 Snap-On mig was made by Century. Biggest ************* I ever bought. A Miller 212 is on the wish list.

 

[Merkava_4]

Is this a Millermatic 130 ?

What is the serial number ?

 

[Stanger]

FWIW My $1600 Snap-On mig was made by Century.

lol, at least you admit it. A customer insisted I weld with his Snap-On when I was working on his Mustang. Not my favorite machine. A 212 is VERY sweet from what I've read. I am happy with my HH187 for the money though.

 

[Merkava_4]

Stanger, what setting to you have your voltage switch set at and at what material thickness?

http://www.hobartwelders.com/products/wirefeed/handler187/

 

[cweagle]

Not to be a wise ***, but you're gonna learn the Miller the same way you learned the Century - practice, practice, practice. FWIW My $1600 Snap-On mig was made by Century. Biggest ************* I ever bought. A Miller 212 is on the wish list.

Hey, no, I hear what you're saying. Only having used one rig, I have no idea how different another one is. I guess I need to get me down to the store and pick up some new consumables and have at it.

 

[cweagle]

Is this a Millermatic 130 ?

What is the serial number ?

Nope, it's really an MW130. I looked through both manuals and they seem to be the same base specs, though. The Millermatic looks to have an external connector for spoolgun use, I think? whereas mine has the connections internal. Seems to have the facilities for one, though. I don't plan on doing a lot of Aluminum, though.

It's over at my garage now (couple miles away), I'll get the serial tomorrow. Why do you ask, though?

There doesn't seem to be much mention of the MW130 on the net, though. Not sure why?

 

[Merkava_4]

It's over at my garage now (couple miles away), I'll get the serial tomorrow. Why do you ask, though?

I was going to download the operator's manual so I could answer some of your questions.

 

[jay50]

I bought the century MG170 on close out at Sams for.....$280 about 9 years ago. It was the last one in stock and they thought it was missing some accessories. I checked it out; everything was there and offer store manager $280. It was marked down to $500.
Nice 220v machine for the money.

 

[Stanger]

Merkava, I am able to follow the door chart for the most part. I usually vary a slight bit on the wire speed but not much. These new door charts are far better than the older ones.

 

[rsanter]

I perfer to be able to have a fine adjustment on the wire feed and output. it will allow much better fine tuning as you do different things with different thicknesses in different positions.
without this additional adjustability you will have to learn to adjust with the wire feed and your feed rate (foreward movement)
in short you will have less control to tune the machine to you so you will have to adjust to the machine.
for most general work you will be fine. if you are going to build a racecar then you need an upgrade

bob

 

[pl_silverado]

Not to be a wise ***, but you're gonna learn the Miller the same way you learned the Century - practice, practice, practice. FWIW My $1600 Snap-On mig was made by Century. Biggest ************* I ever bought. A Miller 212 is on the wish list.

I beleive their muscle mig series is made by systematics, which is based out of West Chester, PA but dont quote me on that. Thats what the dealer was telling me when i told him i was in the market for a welder. He was giving me an awesome price on it, so i told him to come back next week.....

and during that week i went out and bought a MM251..... the look on his face when he showed up the next time was priceless...he was happy getting off the truck with a smile on his face thinking he's going to make a huge sale, but as soon as he saw the new welder, well lets just say he wasn't a happy camper.


That being said, the Snappy welders are ****. I've used 3 different ones and none of them are comparable to my Miller.

 

[jay50]

Not to hijack this thread, but what became of Century? Who bought them; are parts still available?

 

[krusty the clown]

century welders are still available from northern tool. there are several online site that carry repair parts.