What've you got, what's good, what's crap?

Looking for a portable MIG for light-duty work, lawn mowers, quick repairs, etc. This will be a second unit, anything big I'll
drag into the shop.

Was looking at the HF stuff, but the prices are climbing, read some positives about the yeswelders which tend to be less $$$.
Looking to be practical for a machine that will mostly collect dust.

I know these have to be chinese, but who even USA makes welders anymore?

A friend of mine bought one of those Arc captain on amazon. This is for his home use only. He's actually been super impressed with it. He has access to all kinds of welding equipment at work, but the boss put the kibosh I'm bringing personal projects into do after hours for insurance reasons

Are you looking for a gas machine or is it just flux?  I grabbed a forney easy weld off  marketplace and it has great reviews for a fluxcore machine.  I'm a newbie at welding other than one oxy welding class at community College about 18 years ago.

I bought my Lincoln SP-175 Plus in 1999 from overtime money from Space Station testing at KSC for a month and a half.  240 VAC, so not quite so portable as a typical 115/120 vac welder but still pretty handy to have.  I later bought a Y2K generator from ZNorthern Tools and made sure it would power the welder if needed (Northstar 5500w unit).

I try to act like a weldor:

Practically, I could get away with a flux-only because I have the other welder in the shop, but full MIG with gas is preferred.

Just for the background: I have a detached garage a few steps from my back door. I have a much larger shop clear across the yard, but it's filled
with a fully functioning wood shop, an M5, a tractor with a loader and usually an impliment of back...gets to be a hassle sometimes to move stuff
around if I want to do a project that will sit for a while. I'm trying to get a mini-shop going in the garage so I can work on projects w/o moving
equipment around.

Primeweld.

I have a Miller Passport Plus.  It’s a suitcase welder that uses a paintball CO2 bottle for shielding gas.  It is dual voltage and very convenient for quick jobs.  You can also use a regular shielding gas.  The arc from it is very smooth.  Unfortunately it is no longer made, but they turn up occasionally for sale.  

A couple pics I grabbed online.

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I have a yeswelder. So far I've only run it in flux core. I've been quite impressed. Cleaner welds than the gas shielded wire feed miller at work at half the cost and more amps. I've been using it to weld together a PM63 kit. Welds look dammed good for flux core. I know, I need to get a bottle. I do want the tig wand eventually too.

Happy with it, especially as it was a gift.

Hobart 140 110 volt
either use flux core
or a bottle .

I have a Yeswelder dual voltage multi function welder.

I have used it for over a year, mainly for fluxcore.

Has worked well for me.

I see tons of these on Facebook for $300-500.  

I have a larger Hobart 240v mig I got used and it’s been perfect.  
They’re transformers machines so a bit heavier than inverter machines, but simple and dead reliable.  
They’re also not made in china which is a plus for me.

I have one of These  for small projects. It works just fine, for what it is. Full disclosure: I can't weld for shit anyway...

I have the yeswelder mig 250 pro with a tank of c25 argon/co2.

I have been working on a jeep wrangler (jk) and i needed to gusset the front c's, sleeved the front axle, and a truss.

I also used it to make my own step/"slider" mounts for a set i picked up for $50 among many other things.

As a complete novice, i have been making good use of it.

The biggest thing i noticed was the ground lead didn't lay on the ground right.
Felt stiff and too light.
Turned out to be copper clad aluminum.

I had some weird inconsistencies when using it for a longish times in one go.

So i replaced that with a pure copper lead in a "feel the force" moment.

That made the biggest single improvement on the thing.
The other big upgrade was after i burned my only .035 tip and the gas cup on Christmas eve.

I took a chance at my local tractor supply and picked up a set of hobart tips and gas cup, hobart makes a metric set.
I just eyeballed the threads and bam perfect fit.

Much higher quality, thicker too!


The final big upgrade was when i bought a new ground clamp.
The yeswelder one pretty light duty.

There are also some copper clad leads inside the machine, goes from the board to the lead quick disconnects.

I changed those, i didn't notice a huge improvement but it's done.

That welder has been doing great for my use so far, I'm happy with it.

I did some sheet metal work that turned out "ok", but that machine isn't rated for anything thinner than 16ga, it was pretty difficult on the 22ga i needed to patch.

It's also supposed to be capable of lift-tig.
I bought the attachment, but then i found out it won't work with a foot pedal switch.

One day when i have a solid need I'll try their dedicated tig.

I have been thinking about a light duty mig for sheet metal, but that's not a huge priority right now.

For the money, the 250 pro is a good machine for my use...

I use a 140 Amp Eastwood mig welder.  It runs on 120v AC.  Works fine for the small projects I've used it for

I bought the Miller 135 many years ago.  Very versatile for a small welder.  Restored my Mustang with it.
Same as the Hobarts of the same time.

Explain what you mean by "portable."  Are we talking carrying it to the work or wheeling it to the work on a cart/dolly?

Generator on the cart/dolly or you gonna plug this thing into an extension cord?