Considering a new miller multimatic 255

[XMilitary]

I'll be primarily doing mig but and maybe stick/tig once in a while.
Frankly any machine has to be better for the last two modes than the AHP tig machine I started with, so that's not a huge concern.

Anyone know of any problems with the multimatic 255 so far? It is a new machine. I've no idea how miller good miller is at handling customer support.

[Lis2323]

I’ve always had good customer support from Miller.


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[Willie B]

Miller has been 100% satisfaction in my experience. Most of my problems have been operator error, still they are there for me.

[Louie1961]

I love mine. I have not TIG'ed with it yet, but it is a BANG UP stick welder. I love the pulse MIG. Pulse MIG does take some getting used to. You have to hold a longer contact tip to work distance and it works much better if you do a straight push or drag, with no manipulation. I find the synergic settings work pretty well on both short circuit MIG and pulse MIG. I am using 90/10 gas exclusively. My biggest problem is that with 0.045 hard wire, I can't seem to tighten the drive rollers tight enough. I suspect the problem is the roller itself. I haven't had this problem on 0.030 or o.035 wire. That being said, pulse MIG seems to work best on 0.045 wire. You might find that getting 90/10 gas in anything other than a 330 cu ft cylinder is difficult if not impossible. at least around here I couldn't get it in any other size. I will likely change out the gun for a Bernard BtB gun. There's nothing wrong with the stock gun, but the Bernard feels a little better in the hand to me, and I am in love with center fire consumables.

[Louie1961]

Also if you are replacing an AHP, be aware that the MM 255 is a DC TIG welder only. You cannot use this machine to AC TIG weld aluminum.

[Willie B]

I love mine. I have not TIG'ed with it yet, but it is a BANG UP stick welder. I love the pulse MIG. Pulse MIG does take some getting used to. You have to hold a longer contact tip to work distance and it works much better if you do a straight push or drag, with no manipulation. I find the synergic settings work pretty well on both short circuit MIG and pulse MIG. I am using 90/10 gas exclusively. My biggest problem is that with 0.045 hard wire, I can't seem to tighten the drive rollers tight enough. I suspect the problem is the roller itself. I haven't had this problem on 0.030 or o.035 wire. That being said, pulse MIG seems to work best on 0.045 wire. You might find that getting 90/10 gas in anything other than a 330 cu ft cylinder is difficult if not impossible. at least around here I couldn't get it in any other size. I will likely change out the gun for a Bernard BtB gun. There's nothing wrong with the stock gun, but the Bernard feels a little better in the hand to me, and I am in love with center fire consumables.

In the 252, the knurled .045 drive rollers were crushing the cored wire. I gave in & bought felt cylinders for the purpose & lube. Backing off pressure on the rollers seems best. I believe spring pressure is now at 2 or less.

[Louie1961]

My machine is over a year old now so I need to pull the liner and inspect it. The problem may lie there.

[XMilitary]

I know, I found myself only doing DC welds anyway which is another reason why i say anything has to be better than that box. :P
I did not find it to be satisfactory doing stick welding, I got a lot of spare stick to use so i'm looking forward to finding a better alternative.

[XMilitary]

I have heard you if run x number of rolls through it or if it's older than a year or two the liner needs to be swapped.

[XMilitary]

I was actually wondering what the best gun for it was, I saw miller has MDX consumables and S-lock consumables for their MDX guns but I don't know anything about either of them (or what the difference with one over the other is).

[Louie1961]

I was actually wondering what the best gun for it was, I saw miller has MDX consumables and S-lock consumables for their MDX guns but I don't know anything about either of them (or what the difference with one over the other is).

Ford versus Chevy really. There's nothing wrong with the MDX gun, but like the Bernard stuff better. Both are made by ITW, so maybe it's more like Chevy vs Pontiac.

[Willie B]

Memory isn't good. Miller equipped their machines with a gun they bought from some better known company in and around 2010 when I bought the 252. It is labeled Miller M25.
Later machines I feel had a Bernard gun.
When I first tried dual shield I burned down my original M25 gun. I then bought a 400 amp Bernard gun. It is robust to say the least! I rebuilt the M25 & use it most of the time
Bernard parts mostly have part numbers, but I was disappointed that I can't look up a gun & see a parts list.

[Louie1961]

I find the synergic settings work pretty well on both short circuit MIG and pulse MIG.

I was playing with this welder again last night and I did notice one thing about the synergic settings that might trouble some folks. On 90/10 gas, above a 3/16th of an inch, the welder assumes you want to be in spray mode. There is no setting for 1/4 inch in short circuit mig. The machine will do it, but you can't rely on the synergic program to tell you the correct settings.

[XMilitary]

Ok, rolling the dice big time. Machine is on order from a local airgas, got a better deal for it than is available currently through any other outlet (online or not).

Sadly, I have to wait on receiving it!
My airgas rep relayed a message from Miller, they said they are intermittently on back order and shipments are being built and sent out as parts arrive. So I guess if there's any silver lining in it to be had, my machine should be literally be fresh from the factory floor when it arrives in about a month.

There are a few major service centers about 3 hours drive from me that handle Miller warranty stuff and I can turn it into any of the local weld shops to have them send it out for repairs if need be.

This is definitely the most expensive device I have bought in years.

The panda-demic is definitely impacting the supply chain for lots of companies still. War in europe not helping.

[Xsbank]

I really like the Miller machines having used them in school but if I was going to drop that much coin I’d get one that also does AC TIG. Useful.

Forgot to add I have a Lincoln SQ200 which welds all processes beautifully but has been reported to have some failures although mine has been flawless (so far?). I just mention this because it does everything as advertised and I found I had to repair a glass washing machine at our local pub and needed stainless TIG and I fixed a friend’s bicycle rack (stick).

Versatility.

[Louie1961]

I really like the Miller machines having used them in school but if I was going to drop that much coin I’d get one that also does AC TIG.

I don't believe any of the big welder manufacturers produce a pulse MIG welder that does AC TIG. The Millermatic 220 does AC TIG, but doesn't do pulse MIG. Same for the ESAB rebel. There's a bunch of multiprocess units that do pulse MIG but don't do AC TIG. To my knowledge, the only unit that does it all is the Everlast Lightning MTS unit, but there's no way they would ever get my money. I think if you need AC TIG you are better off buying a dedicated AC/DC TIG welder. Or embrace the pulse MIG and just MIG weld all your aluminum projects. For me, there is nothing I need to AC TIG weld.

[Willie B]

I don't believe any of the big welder manufacturers produce a pulse MIG welder that does AC TIG. The Millermatic 220 does AC TIG, but doesn't do pulse MIG. Same for the ESAB rebel. There's a bunch of multiprocess units that do pulse MIG but don't do AC TIG. To my knowledge, the only unit that does it all is the Everlast Lightning MTS unit, but there's no way they would ever get my money. I think if you need AC TIG you are better off buying a dedicated AC/DC TIG welder. Or embrace the pulse MIG and just MIG weld all your aluminum projects. For me, there is nothing I need to AC TIG weld.

It was once accepted knowledge that MIG wouldn't work on thin aluminum. Ford with their aluminum pickup bodies, and manufacturers reacting to a new opportunity changed that.

Having had a 180 amp, 9% duty cycle aluminum square wave TIG machine, I'm of the opinion that 200 amp, low duty cycle AC TIG welders are very limited in how much mass they can handle. I'm not real sure that holds true for MIG.

[Louie1961]

Bill, The Multimatic 255 and Millermatic 255 welders were designed to MIG weld aluminum auto bodies. According to the door chart they will pulse MIG weld from 18 gauge aluminum to 1/2 inch aluminum. These units have a 350 amp max output, albeit at a relatively low 15% duty cycle. That's a lot more power than a lot of common TIG welders.

[XMilitary]

Yeah that's why i'm not concerned about AC function, if I do, I know what machine i'd pick for that. It's not a miller.

Regarding duty cycle, it depends heavily on your intended usage and ambient temperature.

I have what could be considered a light duty industrial compressor from EMAX with a stated 60 percent duty cycle that i've never managed to reach due to how low the temps are when i'm using it.

My crappy AHP tig machine, i've yet to reach it's duty cycle, although I definitely pushed the wp17 torch to its limit.

• I nearly cooked my hand, that was while wearing heavy mig gloves. I've never felt such a weird and painful sensation, my hand was fine until i shut the torch off then it felt like it was being microwaved (cooked from the inside out).

My garage and outdoor area is typically 50F-70F in the mild parts of the year, at or well below freezing in winter.

In terms of mass, the empty 255 mutli weighs 80 pounds, it's no light weight unit. As for it's ideal use case, as I understand it from pro's who've evaluated it, it is ideal for fabrication. Not heavy structural stuff.

Miller recently dropped a 355 version of its pulsed mig only unit, so i'm going to assume that is the mothership equivalent that could definitely do some serious heavy work.

[Willie B]

Bill, The Multimatic 255 and Millermatic 255 welders were designed to MIG weld aluminum auto bodies. According to the door chart they will pulse MIG weld from 18 gauge aluminum to 1/2 inch aluminum. These units have a 350 amp max output, albeit at a relatively low 15% duty cycle. That's a lot more power than a lot of common TIG welders.

The 252, a transformer based machine I thought was a beast. I believe it is rated 60% duty cycle at 200 amps, but produces up to 300 amps. I didn't realize the new machine was capable of 350. I guess it'll handle all the MIG you care to weld! It's a shame it won't AC TIG, it'd be perfect.

[Louie1961]

Yeah that's why i'm not concerned about AC function, if I do, I know what machine i'd pick for that. It's not a miller.

Regarding duty cycle, it depends heavily on your intended usage and ambient temperature.

I have what could be considered a light duty industrial compressor from EMAX with a stated 60 percent duty cycle that i've never managed to reach due to how low the temps are when i'm using it.

My crappy AHP tig machine, i've yet to reach it's duty cycle, although I definitely pushed the wp17 torch to its limit.

• I nearly cooked my hand, that was while wearing heavy mig gloves. I've never felt such a weird and painful sensation, my hand was fine until i shut the torch off then it felt like it was being microwaved (cooked from the inside out).

My garage and outdoor area is typically 50F-70F in the mild parts of the year, at or well below freezing in winter.

In terms of mass, the empty 255 mutli weighs 80 pounds, it's no light weight unit. As for it's ideal use case, as I understand it from pro's who've evaluated it, it is ideal for fabrication. Not heavy structural stuff.

Miller recently dropped a 355 version of its pulsed mig only unit, so i'm going to assume that is the mothership equivalent that could definitely do some serious heavy work.

Sounds like my garage in CT. Miller is dropping both a MIG only 355 and Multimatic 355. These units are replacing the older 350P. Interestingly the case is virtually the same case and display as the 255, but presumably with better internals. 400 amps peak power on 3 phase/350 amps peak power on single phase, and a 310 amp/60% duty cycle. So not THAT much heavier than the 255 at the top but much better duty cycle. And the 255 is definitely an upgrade over the 252 (230 amps at 60% duty cycle vs 200amps)