Whether you’re working in the shop or at home, a MIG welder is crucial for precision and efficiency. These options are designed for both beginners and pros alike. Read my hands-on reviews.
FYI, prices and ratings are accurate as of time of writing.
1. ArcCaptain - 200Amp 3-in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Cooling fans run on demand.
Helpful review: After trying a few at a lower price, I adjusted my price point and found the one I am in love with. The ArcCaptain is one I will keep.
Even after I get better at welding, probably with this welder, and get a more advanced welding machine, I will hang on to this one due to the portability and tiny size. My guess is if I stacked four shoe boxes for my jumbo feet on top of one another, this welder would be more petite by a little. The machine is easy to carry with its top handle and an included carry strap; it is lightweight and small. For the off-road crowd, if you can make enough amperage in the field and on the rocks, this welder can fix your trail repairs and not take up too much room.
The machine will do all the welding I need, even fix the RZR when the rutted-out roads around the cabin break parts that are never in stock. Now, all I need is the skill level to use all options. Once again, I called the expert to help me set it up to weld misaligned holes in rifle actions from scope base attempts at the home bench with a hand drill. He showed me the right setting to get started, and the welder would adjust to what I was doing. All I had to do was correctly set the amperage for the thickness, which was very friendly and protective of my skill level.
The machine is a dark red, a beautiful color palette for a work machine. The LED display is easily read and seen from my bench as I use it. The knobs are good-sized and easy to adjust even while wearing gloves. The MIG gun is good quality; the lead wire could be upgraded if you do lots of stick welding. The MIG gun uses two style expendables, so getting parts is not proprietary; I can get new stuff at Home Depot if needed and not wait for an order from China. The machine does not have a gas regulator and no gas bottle. It does come with all the hoses and hookups, however.
The kit has seven drive rolls, which will fit any standard MIG wire. The drive rolls are V-groove for solid, knurled for flux wire, and U-shaped for aluminum. This machine will also do lift TIG, which I am most interested in for gun repairs. However, that is still to be learned, and as soon as I can get into a class, I am going directly to that discipline.
My main interest in this welder outside the gun shop is its ability to use flux in windy and dirty areas. This welder will see many days at the cabin fixing trailers, shooting stands, and even at the rage-fixing target stands. This is a working machine in any environment without the need for shielding gas. As easy as it is to pack it around, plug it into 110 volts, and go, it has earned a place on my tool cart. — Kevin Kirson
Get it from Amazon now: $559.99 & FREE Returns
2. YesWelder - 135Amp 3-in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Auto-change to feed and voltage when setting amperage.
Helpful review: Maybe the best welder for the amateur-level DIYer on the market. What makes it so good is that it costs less than 150 bucks to handle any DIY project, that's what. If I knew all of the welding tricks the maintenance guys use with multi-use machines, I would never need anything more than this machine. It is possible to spot weld with this machine with fancy or not-fancy welding utilizing a piece of MIG wire held in the stick clamp. If I were to get a hot rod that needed a ton of bodywork, this machine would weld the thin metal all day long and do it in the wind without complaining.
The build quality of the YesWelders is well known; this machine or brand is making the big-name old-school guys nervous. YesWelders go up in price from this model, and they do almost anything by the time the price tag gets around a thousand dollars; this is going to replace the high-dollar machines someday, in my bet. In hobby shops, that is. The MIG gun and stick clamps are built well, but the TIG function needed a separate purchase, and since I am only looking to test out MIG stuff right now, I did not order the TIG gear.
This welder is a very simplistic machine and damn near fits in a toolbox. I have a friend by the cabin come by to show me how to get it set to weld back together on the RZR if needed, and he borrowed it to take to work on some field watering pipes, and I have not seen it back yet. According to him, he plugs it into a small generator in the back of his pickup and welds until he runs out of MIG wire, then takes a break, replaces the spool, and welds until he needs to replace the spool again.
I am glad he has a new welder, and hopefully, I will get it back soon, or he will be available to fix my broken stuff with my new welder someday. He told me that it would weld the aluminum pipes in the fields easily and that the bead and arc would be smooth and straightforward to control. The settings are easy to set, and the auto change of voltage and speed by adjusting amperage to thickness is a welcome change from dialing everything in; it is set and go.
The main thing he appreciates about this machine is its portability. He bought a long, heavy-duty extension cord to plug in and walk to whatever he needs to weld. The heavy-duty extension cord costs half of what the machine costs, so it is an actual budget-saving machine. The other thing he mentioned is the cover the welder has over the display and knobs. The manufacturer puts it here to protect it from splatter and stuff like that.
My buddy likes it for when things in the field are moving, and they bang into the brand-new machine. It only scratches the plastic cover and does not break the display or knock loose a knob that becomes part of the next alfalfa harvest. — Justin Roberts
Get it from Amazon now: $199.99 & FREE Returns
3. ToolIom - 200Amp 3-in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Welds up to 5/32 mild steel.
Helpful review: Today, I will discuss my journey to buy a cheap MIG welder for the gun shop. Notice the critical part of that I did not say; I will also practice and get better at welding, just buying a new welder. Operator errors are still my main issue when welding, or at least I call it welding; my buddy calls it names I can't type for the public to read.
The first MIG welder I ordered to test is the Toollom. This welder fits my ignorant parameters of small size, runs on 110 volts, and costs less than 300 bucks. The reason I am not getting a bigger and better MIG welder is I use welders to fill up holes that have become egg-shaped or mis-drilled holes by clients, and at times, the gremlins will force me to miss the right spot, and I have to fix my own mistakes. This welder fits all of my parameters and comes in a cool, bright yellow color like all of my shop display gear.
This welder will work for what I need in 110 Volts if I build car frames or something that needs to be very strong with total penetration. This welder is not the right one, but to fill a hole or build up an area to be filled or milled back to the correct size in a firearm will do the trick. It will do the trick for someone who is an experienced welder and knows how to make the machine do what they want it to do. I am not a professional welder, so I played the fool until a real welder came to my rescue; I will explain in a minute.
Let me discuss the parts and pieces this machine is made from before the function. The build quality of the actual welder is outstanding; it does not feel like it is held together with zip ties like some of the cheaper welders. The gun is decent, and the hose and leads are OK, but an upgrade for very little money is the better choice. The welder does not have a regulator to use shielding gas; obviously, no gas bottle is included. The grounding clamp will work and does not weigh much, but it's pretty damn cheap. Get a better one or a magnetic unit for about ten bucks and save the hassles.
Now, to the function, since I did not want to try my luck with a machine I know nothing about on a client gun, I went to my shooting target frames to try my new machine. The frames are made with lightweight pipes for uprights and thin 1x1 angles to clamp the targets, and I am sure almost everyone has used something similar. When I started to attempt the weld, it looked like a horror show, and I got frustrated to the point of packing the machine back up and sending it back.
My buddy showed me the machine is set at 4t from the factory, and I needed to put it on 2t. If everyone is like me and doesn't know or barely knows what this means, that is how the machine feeds the wire. Once I got that figured out, my press-and-hold for a second style of welding seemed to work pretty well on the frames. When Joel took over, it welded like a champ; he was impressed by its ability to lay a good bead, and the arc was smooth.
With more practice, I can make a weld that is good enough to paint without needing a grinder, saving face on the range if anyone sees my handy work. Since my welding skills are not up to par with what I need to know to use this machine, I have since sold it and bought another. — Robby Weller
Get it from Amazon now: $139.99 & FREE Returns
4. HZXVoGen - 250Amp 6-in-1 Aluminum MIG Welder
Highlight: Aluminum MIG Welder.
Helpful review: A 6-in-1 machine for under 400 bucks is not too bad. This machine is rated to weld at 250 amps, which is clearly more significant than I will need, but a real welder may be interested in one at home. A shade tree car mechanic bringing an old fat fender car back to life and working on the frame will need a machine like this one. It can stick-weld the heavy frame materials and MIG the lightweight body parts in one machine.
From what I have been told, this machine can weld on 110 volts but should be used in a 240-volt outlet and circuit. It sounds like a great attempt to make it fit everyone's needs and have the 110 option, but it is too much welder to play in the minor leagues and needs the full power 240 set-up. I know many guys who build rock crawlers around here; I am in the state that owns MOAB.
When I talked to some folks in the rock-crawling world, one builder told me to set up this machine when plugging the wires in and ensure my polarity is correct for what I am welding. I thanked this builder for the excellent advice, then looked up what they meant by polarity set-ups. I learned that different welding types require the leads to be plugged in differently.
Luckily, I have welding folks in my corner who set up what I need for the minimal welding I do.
The builders I spoke to told me the welder will weld flux core MIG like it was born to it. The Gas Shielded MIG function also works like a dream as well. The primary welding method used was stick welding. The point of this test was not to look at how well the stick welder worked, but that seemed to be the favorite; maybe that is where everyone was in the build phase. I talked to one builder who used the TIG function to weld some sheet metal, and they said it was excellent and easy to use. — Chuck O'connor
Get it from Amazon now: $298.00 & FREE Returns
5. S7 - 200Amp 4-in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Lift TIG available.
Helpful review: This is not a welder welding machine but an excellent hobbyist machine. This MIG welder will work when using a 50-foot 12-gauge extension cord, which is abnormal in welding. Most of the time, a welder has to be plugged directly into the socket and have a dedicated breaker, not this one.
This machine offers a 4-in-1 functionality. It will weld Flux or Gas Shielded MIG and does offer lift-off TIG, which is awesome. The machine will also stick weld and perform in almost every hobby shop, working on almost everything. The vague nearly everything is to cover the one or two folks out of a hundred hobbyists that need it to weld aluminum or something that this machine will not do. Please check the manufacturer details, so you save money on this machine. When it comes to money, this machine is a dream come true. The S7 punches in at 150 bucks! So, if a person has a toy hauler trailer or motorhome and tends to get a little wild in the field, plug this into the generator. You are ready to perform field repairs all day long.
The welder does have overload and overheat protection. This will keep everything safe. It may take a bit longer to weld large items as it will need a cool-down period, but to fix a small piece, you are good to go. My buddy has one of these, so I watched a dune buggy chassis being made to see how it worked. Welding the frame and roll cage tubing, this machine never hit the cool-down. Still, it was only welding two-inch tubing joints and had a professional welder operating it.
When the buggy is being welded, it is placed on a pallet and rolled out in the driveway with a pallet jack. That way, the fumes and sparks are not present in the house. All we did was stretch a heavy extension cord (12-gauge) plugged into an outlet by the bench and let it rip. The bench outlets at his place are on a dedicated circuit. I am unsure how this would work if plugged into a circuit running the fridge, but I'm pretty sure the breaker will blow. That is lots of amperage to pull from a standard house circuit, and usually, they are wired to 15 Amp breakers.
This welder is rated to weld at 200 Amps. Still, we did not do any of that type of welding, and I was only interested in learning more about the MIG capabilities of the low-cost machine. According to him, the 150-dollar wonder machine was only bought to be on the shelf in case a BBQ frame or lay furniture broke, and he did not have to haul around a machine on a dolly to fix stuff. He found out that the wonder machine would work for building dune buggies, and it weighs about the same as a case of beer and has a handle; it gets used, and the expensive machine sits idle. — Chris Bennett
Get it from Amazon now: $149.99 & FREE Returns
6. Simder - 140Amp 2-in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Inexpensive.
Helpful review: I sought a replacement after losing my YesWelder to fieldwork and being promised help. I found this one for under a hundred bucks. Why not try it out? When it got to my house, I opened the box, took it out, and placed it on the coffee table. First impressions were good. It looked nice and very compact. The fit and finish seemed to pass the ‘repack it immediately’ test, so I pressed on and took it to the shop.
When I went to the shop, I could have been more impressed. This machine will weld in Stick or MIG; from what I see, the stick is the only thing with a high rating. The MIG parts are all there, but this factory needs to improve quality assurance.
This cost under a hundred bucks, so I did not expect perfection, but I did expect function. The grounding clam is wired with heavy braided wire and is a step above most of the cheap welder parts, so it points to that. Points are taken away for short leads, the arc leads are about six feet or less, and the power supply is about three feet long. The power also has the adapter run 220 volts through the 110 lead when plugged into a 220-volt outlet.
The torch wire guide is not adjusted correctly. It could have been a quick fix, but at this point, I just lost faith and put the whole thing back in the packaging (very nice, by the way) and back in the box and returned it.
If someone had a dedicated 20-amp fuse and outlet at their bench for a cheap now-and-then MIG or Arc welder, this machine, after some minor work, would be on the money. Suppose you plan to plug this into a dedicated outlet and run the needs or torch to the workpiece. In that case, you must order the more extended parts the same day you order the welder. — Randall T. Asato
Get it from Amazon now: $99.99 & FREE Returns
7. LDHthopi - 140Amp 4in-1 MIG Welder
Highlight: Tiny and easy to carry.
Helpful review: I saw this listing on Amazon and thought I would try one out to see if this may be a good idea for my hobby shop. The price tag and the high review ratings were the deciding factor. When it arrived, I was excited to see the size and weight. This machine will fit on the shelf under the bench and only uses 110 volts. There is no way to convert or switch to the 240 volts that some other multi-use welders on the budget market.
With my minimal abilities in welding, I set it up the same way I had been told. I tried my hand at some repairs on my snow blower, which helped me discover some concrete raised during the winter snowstorms. I figured who would ever know if I weld and have the standard strong but ugly as sin bead on the augur.
The first time I used the welder, it worked nicely on flux core wire. I put it away after a few minutes because I wanted to see it work and had not prepped the surface like I should have. I returned to the augur two days later and tired again; this machine did not perform like before. Confused, I looked at all the settings and checked them against my notes, and they all lined up to do the same job, but they did not.
This inability to perform the same perplexed me, so I left the stuff there and went to call in some folks with actual welding skills. When he arrived and checked my settings and connections, he tried it again, and it did not work again, but the poor performance was different on this third attempt. Since my buddy knows how to troubleshoot the welder, a few adjustments were made and changed to a different size flux wire setting. However, it still has the same wire diameter, and this thing was sizzling along and did a pretty good job.
I do have to caution readers about this machine not performing uniformly. From what I have been told, if you're an actual welder, this thing can burn in a weld like a champ, maybe even more than a quarter-inch thick plate steel.
If you are like me and barely scratch the surface of amateur or whatever ranks below that, this machine may also not be the right fit for you. I repackaged the machine and sent it back for a refund. Maybe I just had a bad one sent to me, I don't know, but I have small and inexpensive welders in the shop now, and even have one at the cabin just in case my stupid meter is bigger than my wallet, so I did not try to make this one work. — Dale Prestwood
Get it from Amazon now: $199.99 & FREE Returns