Chris,

i have a miller ac for any heavy stuff like for my pier (I have 220 out there)
I am an old stick welding kinda guy when I saw the ready welder on a truck show I thought it was kinda cute if it worked for light guage steel and al
what would you recomend as a good wire feed rig
I dont need one often but I need to buy something for the garage

We have owned one for about 2 yrs and it works great in the field, but it does have it's limits. Steel up to 1/2 plate (slow but very hot) or even tubing and light gauge (12-18) sheet metal. We had very little success with aluminum and experimented with many different voltages and techniques. We use a golf car for the battery source (six volt increments) and use the flux core wire with no gas (not pretty but effective).

Hey Klaw, If you want a REAL nice machine for little money , I bought a "Centuri" 160 amp -220 volt. They have them in north hydraulics catalog on harbor freight , one or the other . They have an even bigger one now for around $800 ! You can't beat it . I've had mine for a LONG time and only had one diode go bad . I weld 1/2" steel all day . It puts my miller "250 X" to shame !:mad: Not happy with the miller at all . And that cost about 3 times as much .........

Boatfixr, Thanks ! I dont' realy need to run it off batteries. I have 3 welders I can use one of those as a power source . I just nee a spool gun for aluminum and can't see spending a GRAND for the miller spool gun. It would be cool to have in the truck though in a pinch .

Tantrum , I'll call you tomorrow ( Tuesday) .I would like to know more . Thanks , JOE

Boatfixr; What is the problem you are having with aluminum. If the wire is binding inside you may need to make a teflon guide like I stated above. Aluminum is NOT easy to weld because of several factors. Our boat hardware doesnt help because most of it is cast.
Again, we recomend running this unit off a gas drive but I have seen it work of batteries. Im not recomending it for production work but as stated above the aluminum wire feed guns start at about $1200 and you need the power source.
I would recomend Miller or Lincoln, stay away from 115v unless you need the portability or dont have 220. Stay away from Home Depot (wholesaler) machines they are not the same (Aluminum vs Copper windings and usually only set up for flux core) as an industrial distributor carries.
Boot; why dont you come in, bring you Miller and we will take a look at it and you can also try out the Ready Welder to see if its going to work for you.