MIG Welder, MIG145 145Amps Gas MIG/Gasless Flux Core MIG/Lift TIG/Stick 3 in 1 MIG Welding Machine, MIG Welder 110V 220V with Digital Screen Display

Update 3 - Purchased the 165 to check it out and bestarc fixed all of my serious complaints about the early 145. See update #3 at the bottom. And I'm changing from 4 to 5 stars now.I purchased this 145 only to review it. I have plenty of welders from Amazon and that something freight store, some good some bad. I also own a decent mid-range quality non amazon MIG / Stick welder set up for flux also. I have a background in production MIG and also stick weld 7018 for critical welds. So here are my first impressions and I will update as I continue to use this machine.The good- it's a Bestarc, from the company that has the absolute best affordable plasma cutters on the market, for a price you can leave out in a garage and not worry about if it gets stolen. Fan is actually intermittent, which is something Pete's tools on YT is a big fan of (thanks Pete for steering me to Bestarc plasma cutters) but I don't really care about noise. The ground clamp is pretty good (does not need to be changed out immediately like the something freight store green one does), and the cable is labeled 16 square millimeters (copper clad aluminum) , whereas that something freight store 125 is only labeled 10 Square millimeters (but they kind of look the same size). Oddly enough the ground clamp is actually longer on the Bestarc. The bottom line on weld quality is, yeah I think I've got a better looking weld with the Bestarc (on 120v) than the later model of that something freight titanium 125amp welder. So I think it will actually weld better along with having a 220 volt capability, and reverse polarity capability to try to run some stainless flux core wire. Last little thing, the latches and the handle on top of the machine is what I wish that something freight store flux 125 had.The bad- I cannot understand why Bestarc would choose to make the gun only be a five and a half foot lead. I got by with it on scrap coupons, but I think it's going to be an issue for real world welding. The something freight store titanium 125 has a 7 ft leadwhich is just enough in my opinion. If the best Arc is set on the floor, the gun just is not long enough to reach your work at all angles. This 5 and 1/2 ft cord might be okay if you are slinging the machine over your shoulder all of the time, but that's rare in most circumstances - so come on Bestarc let's add a half meter to the gun cable. Then there's the drive roll issue which there are only "v-groove" drive rolls supplied with the machine. The something freight 125 has a "knurled v-groove" which is pretty much standard for flux core wire, though it does have a tendency to wear your gun liner more. And honestly on my first use, the Bestarc straight v-groove fed my .030 wire no problem. I'm not impressed with the spool holder as spring tension is not adjustable. The gun has a bit more of an angle than the something freight store flux 125, which is nice. But the Bestarc has a push on mig nozzle I'd like to change out to a flux core nozzle, and I don't know where to get that kind of nozzle (I may try to drill one of my threaded ones).And for my final complaint, there is nothing in the manual that talks about what the rotary switch does when you push it in. The wire I'm mostly running is kind of an oddball multi pass that really likes a short stick out in order to get hot and run right (E71T-11). I had to kind of pick and prod at the display to finally figure out that I needed to push in the rotary knob, then turn it to adjust the ratio so it makes a different wire feed speed versus the voltage. E71T-GS (from that something freight store) ran good at the normal pre sets.In all honesty I'd like to have dials and no digital display as a flux core machine, but still have the capability to reverse the polarity. Yes stick capability is really nice, but I have another cheap machine for that. Then again given its capabilities of TIG MIG and SMAW, I guess it's kind of got to be electronic for all those modes on one machine.Over all, it's a 5 star machine from a 5 star brand. It gets 4 stars because it needs:1. A half meter longer gun lead2. A knurled drive roll for .030 and .035 flux wire3. A few lines in the manual that state by pushing in the rotary knob, you can access the adjustment for manual wire feed speed vs voltage when doing flux core multi pass vs single pass wires4. Get rid of the included "free" spools of wire.Update 1 - push on flux core nozzles are available at that something freight storeUpdate 2 - DEFINETLY NEEDS a knurled drive roll for flux core wire. I swapped one from my "something freight store" flux 125 and it made a huge improvement on arc stability because it made the feed speed constant. I am going to try to re-engineer the wire spool tensioner so that I can adjust to a lower tension also, and that may allow the use of the non knurled V-groove drive roll again.Update 3 - looks like the latest 145's now come with the same up grades as my new 165 and I'm stoked. My new 165 came with2 knurled drive rolls with one having a groove for .035 - now my most used sizeLonger torch lead - long enough to make it work in all situations, but not excessive to where it would be a liability when you are shouldering the machineBut it still needs some improvement in the manual to tell you that pushing in the adjustment knob will allow you to adjust the presets + or -.Still comes with wire I dont need.The spool tensioning system seems to be too tight, so I just made a lighter tension spring out of some galvanized electric fence wire. Works great now.Does not come with a v groove drive roll,which isnt a big deal, since MIG can still get by using a knurled drive roll. But flux core works best with the newly included knurled drive roll.And I think the max amperage for stick welding is only 130amps??? Kind of weird, but I have 2 other machines dedicated to stick welding anyway (one is a bestarc).So when reading through my review, please understand that I origionally purchased one of the early 145's, and now my rating reflects the later 145 and 165 model.

I just bought this Welder and I'm extremely happy with it! I've had some experience with stick welding in the past but never tried mig or flux welding before. This machine is extremely easy to use and great for beginners! I rebuilt the rocker panels on my car and it was a complete success! I do recommend using the lowest setting on the machine and buying better quality flux wire. The flux wire that came with the Bestarc welder was extremely frustrating to use and I burned through it pretty quickly. I was working with panels that had a little rust and the flux wire that came with it didn't like the rust very much. I used .030 Lincoln flux wire and it worked really well. I had problems with the wire feed here and there. The tip would clog up from the welding slag and from having the cable twisted, one time I was laying on it. It was easy to clean the tip and keep welding away. It's also easy to load the wire in the machine. I didn't get to try the mig/gas welding. The gas is pretty expensive, I didn't realize how expensive it was, so I just used flux and it did great for my project. I did buy some rods to stick weld with it and tried it. It burned right through my body panels it was just too aggressive for what I was doing. Definitely a little learning curve, but fun! Overall I was extremely happy with this purchase and definitely would recommend it for anyone just beginning welding and doing small jobs around the house or garage. The price, performance, portability, and versatility is pretty amazing! My beads aren't the prettiest in my pics but they are definitely strong! Each quarter of the vehicle all around when jacked up, held up half the weight of the car! I'm really happy, I rarely leave detailed reviews on products but I was extremely stoked with the Bestarc Welder. Where my beads were rough was where I was welding new metal to old with a little scale rust. I hope this helps some folks!