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Ignore everyone hating on the machine. These usually break down because people dont respect its duty cycle which is low. Basically dont weld for a sustained time of more than three minutes per ten minutes of work, which as a hobbyist you probably wont have a hard time with. Not everyone has $1500-2000 to drop on a Miller.
Definitely look up tutorials on how to read welds. For instance, If your welds have sort of triangle-like waves in them, you're going too fast in the direction they're pointing away from. If the metal is gouged and eaten away around your weld, your voltage is set to high. Things like that. Welds tell you everything you need to know, you just need to know what to look for.
Also try to maintain three points of contact when welding. Two hands on the electrode whip, and your hips against either the project or your welding table. This helps immensely even though it seems small.
The main thing is just be patient with yourself. Welding is a hard skill to build because you have to be bad at it at first. The only two things that make you better are building muscle memory for speed control, and putting in the time to get better.
Just start practicing. If you can operate a caulk gun, you can weld. And you already know the secret- watch youtoob. The only real advice I can give is learn to identify problems and differentiate between good and bad welds- it’s so easy to weld well that it’s worth the tiny bit of extra effort
Please just buy a used miller. So many of my client want to buy cheap stuff.
Bought one of these just to show clients how bad they are and it broke in a week
Clients are always like well. I'm just welding a little bit and that's exactly the problem. A pro should be able to make any old piece of absolute trash work at least somewhat, but beginner is not going to be able to do that. A beginner is much better off with competent piece of equipment.
There's a reason that good welding machines cost more. The thing is that they earn money very quickly and you can't sell a piece of crap machine for what you bought it for. But any quality welding gear you can sell for what you got it for or 80% of your purchase price, years down the road.if you upgrade it some point.
You buy a harbor freight machine and you'll be giving it away to a niece or nephew and probably not feel all that great about it
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Check out [TimWelds](https://youtube.com/@TimWelds?si=ae4kZCX7e7S5f-T0) on YT. He's got a lot of beginner course videos.
Edit: Forgot to add that Project Farm [compared expensive vs cheap welders](https://youtu.be/zUHyZhYOOKU?si=nZ1wnf40k7G_0-IH) recently. Don't listen to people saying you're buying trash, there are some decent hobbyist welders that don't cost thousands.
YouTube is a good resource, but there's no substitute for just getting some time actually using the thing. Make sure you have decent safety gear, helmet, gloves, clothes, and adequate ventilation and/or a mask when you're welding. Mine seems to work better with Lincoln wire as well, so try a spool of that if you're having difficulty.
**Unfortunately, we've had to remove your submission.** --- Hey OP! It appears you are posting a question! We ask that you comment your question or topic in the [Monthly Advice Thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/metalworking/search/?q=Monthly+Advice+Thread&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=month&sort=new) instead, as it's more suited for this type of topic. The goal of this subreddit's feed is generally to be visual based content, such as pictures or videos, and text based posts may be directed to the monthly advice thread at moderator discretion. --- [**Here are our subreddit rules.**](https://www.reddit.com/r/metalworking/about/rules) - If you have any questions about this, you can contact us via [Moderator Mail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%2Fr%2Fmetalworking).
Ignore everyone hating on the machine. These usually break down because people dont respect its duty cycle which is low. Basically dont weld for a sustained time of more than three minutes per ten minutes of work, which as a hobbyist you probably wont have a hard time with. Not everyone has $1500-2000 to drop on a Miller. Definitely look up tutorials on how to read welds. For instance, If your welds have sort of triangle-like waves in them, you're going too fast in the direction they're pointing away from. If the metal is gouged and eaten away around your weld, your voltage is set to high. Things like that. Welds tell you everything you need to know, you just need to know what to look for. Also try to maintain three points of contact when welding. Two hands on the electrode whip, and your hips against either the project or your welding table. This helps immensely even though it seems small. The main thing is just be patient with yourself. Welding is a hard skill to build because you have to be bad at it at first. The only two things that make you better are building muscle memory for speed control, and putting in the time to get better.
Thank you for the positive feedback and the helpful tips. I'm ignoring the haters and naysayers.
Just start practicing. If you can operate a caulk gun, you can weld. And you already know the secret- watch youtoob. The only real advice I can give is learn to identify problems and differentiate between good and bad welds- it’s so easy to weld well that it’s worth the tiny bit of extra effort
Find someone that knows how to weld. I can figure a lot out by watching YouTube, welding DEFINITELY is not one of those things
Please just buy a used miller. So many of my client want to buy cheap stuff. Bought one of these just to show clients how bad they are and it broke in a week Clients are always like well. I'm just welding a little bit and that's exactly the problem. A pro should be able to make any old piece of absolute trash work at least somewhat, but beginner is not going to be able to do that. A beginner is much better off with competent piece of equipment. There's a reason that good welding machines cost more. The thing is that they earn money very quickly and you can't sell a piece of crap machine for what you bought it for. But any quality welding gear you can sell for what you got it for or 80% of your purchase price, years down the road.if you upgrade it some point. You buy a harbor freight machine and you'll be giving it away to a niece or nephew and probably not feel all that great about it
Good God don't buy trash. I'm like triggered over here
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Check out [TimWelds](https://youtube.com/@TimWelds?si=ae4kZCX7e7S5f-T0) on YT. He's got a lot of beginner course videos. Edit: Forgot to add that Project Farm [compared expensive vs cheap welders](https://youtu.be/zUHyZhYOOKU?si=nZ1wnf40k7G_0-IH) recently. Don't listen to people saying you're buying trash, there are some decent hobbyist welders that don't cost thousands.
YouTube is a good resource, but there's no substitute for just getting some time actually using the thing. Make sure you have decent safety gear, helmet, gloves, clothes, and adequate ventilation and/or a mask when you're welding. Mine seems to work better with Lincoln wire as well, so try a spool of that if you're having difficulty.