Cheapest MIG on Ebay

[Matt167]

After I deemed my Mig welder unrepairable by myself ( not good at soldering circuit boards ) I ordered this welder. It’s the Hitbox MT2000 II. It’s a multiprocess welder. Does stick, Mig. Flux core and lift tig ( tig torch isn’t included ). I paid $138 for it. Of course NY tax brought it up to $150 even. It cost about same as the cheapest flux machine at harbor freight.

pros: it actually works. Setup was easy. It’s synergic with .030 wire. Setting it to a usable setting for my 18ga welding was quick. It’s actually all steel cased.

Cons: it only takes 2lb spools ( machine is not physically large enough to accommodate a 10lb spool ). Power switch is on the back. Included ground lead is pretty short.

I didn’t bother with the short ground lead. I used the long lead I bought for the other Hitbox welder I have ( Arc 200D mini ). They are Dinse 25 connections.. all in all. Pretty happy.

The reason I bought the cheapest is all the cheap welders are all essentially the same with different cases. This welder I bought is actually sold at 4 different price points. Anywhere from $140-180 from different sellers all associated with Hitbox themselves
. I offered $138 and got it. How long it lasts, who knows. But it legit works good.

As far as the welds. The welder is better than I am. I’ve never mastered Mig. I use it for sheet metal welding. I stick everything else.

 

[Bamamav]

As long as it does the job, that’s all that matters. It probably won’t last as long as a name brand might, but with light usage it should last a long time. I had a Bulldog brand flux core I bought off eBay for about $95 several years ago, it did fine until it was stolen.

I’ve got a friend that works in an industrial fab shop, they had to have a welder quick when one of theirs went down, he went to Harbor Freight and bought one to get them through until their new commercial unit came it. That was 5 years ago, he said that thing has had miles of wire ran through it and it still works like it did new.

You pays your money and you take your chances…

 

[Matt167]

I figured I couldn’t loose at this price. If it works for 2.5 days it pays for rentals. Not that I’d ever rent a welder. $60 a day is what it costs. The old Neiko that people told me was worthless still actually works after 10+ years.. actually today while taking the Neiko off the cart, the cheap ground clamp fell off

I will say the old Neiko is a Transformer welder, and this Hitbox is inverter. It’s a little bit different starting. And the trigger is a little bit different. But I don’t think anyone could loose buying one in a pinch.. I bought it because my parts budget and tool budget are one and the same to the wife.

All in all I’m going to give my dad the Neiko welder. He has a few projects for it, and he has the ability to re solder a new transformer onto the circuit board and replace the capacitor that is bulging. I have a soldering station but I’m not very good at it. I’ve replaced some batteries in SNES games, but nothing else with circuit boards

 

[26Troadster]

i need to get a wire welder, but i want to be able to run gas. i'm a old stick welder myself and have welded with inner shield (very hot flux core). about 24 years ago i started welding with a mig, learned real quick i hated bare wire. found a wire called 71v by lincoln which used 75/25 gas and loved it, equal to a 7018 rod. not sure the the wire we use now as we got away from the lincoln over the years but we still use a flux core with the gas shield. is there anyway you can stand, a stand alone reel holder behind the machine to hold a bigger real?

i just went and checked out the welder, nice little setup. i need a small portable welder to use on my project if i can ever get back to it that way i can stash it away when not in use. thank you for telling us about it. oh you can make a reel holder for a bigger reel to stand behind and drill a hole to feed through. one question, how is the duty cycle on it? it says 60% but we have a small pocket mig at the shop that has a 60% and will cut off and reset after about 10 to 15 seconds of solid weld.

 

[Old Iron]

Where you run the wire through the back panel there needs to be an insulator bushing like (nylon, delron, plastic etc.)
For anyone running a mig machine, there needs to be a cleaner oiler
pad to make the wire run smoother through the liner.
Can be bought on Amazon etc.

 

[Matt167]

Their MiG 250 is the same basic machine by the specs. The manual for mine covers the MiG 250 as well. It is listed to take 10lb spools. But for sure an external roll could be made to work.

I only use it for spot welding sheet metal. So idk about a continuous weld. But I have not had it shut off… their Arc 200D mini which I also have and most likely uses the same transformer system runs forever on 220v. I don’t run that on 110v