bestarc 145A MIG Welder, 110V/220V Dual Voltage Gas/Gasless Flux Core MIG Welder/Lift TIG/Stick 3 in 1 Synergic MIG145 9GEN Welding Machine, Flux/Solid Welder 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 had some problems at first. It turned out to be my confusion. Once I figured it out the welding machine work fine. Their customer service is lacking in my opinion. I wanted to talk to someone about my problem. But their phone number just rang and rang without end, and there was no voicemail.

When I received the box from Amazon I thought it too light for a welder. The box was what I considered small welder size; the actual product box was much smaller that that. How could such a pint sized machine weld anything? The gun cable was much shorter than the advertised 8 feet, and the power and ground cables were also short.Using the included adapter, I plugged it into 110v, loaded a spool from my last welder and attempted to feed the wire into the gun. Good luck with that. Inserting the wire into the drive rollers resulted in a jamb, as the opening in the gun cable for the wire is too small for that. I opened the drive (easy to do), but there is no room for man sized fingers to insert the wire into the opening - I had to use needle nosed pliers. Okay, got the wire inserted, drive closed and proceeded to feed the wire. Jamb! The nozzle at the gun was too small for my .030 flux wire. I had to use the .040 nozzle. Finally got the wire fed.The instructions are minimal to a fault, Other than the jumper cable, MIG cable and TIG positions (for the type of welding you are going to perform, there wasn't much else. A sticker under the cover goes have a chart. I got much more information from Youtube.I must say, this welder amazed me with the ease of welding. And a duty time of 60% is unheard of. I got good penetration welding two 1/8" steel pieces together and the bead looked much better than anything I had produced on my 30 year old Century machine.The foil shield for the gun nozzle is total garbage, as the arc blew a hole in the tip. I repurposed my Century shield (solid brass) to finish welding.I ran through my old spool and tried the flux core that came with the machine. I kept getting jambs. It turns out that the drive rollers (no problem with my spool) was flattening the wire. I tossed that spool in the trash and used the one I bought at Lowe's. No problems.I hooked the welder to my 220v outlet on my generator to see what changes the higher voltage did. Other than increasing the speed range, I didn't see much difference. Maybe stick welding is different.I did not expect such good welding for a $150 machine! Incredible. I would have paid more for longer cables if it was an option. As it is, I will work with what I got.

Great welder I was going to get a titanium 140 my previous got stole from my truck but I decided to give this one. A chance it seems pretty good

Being a home Tig Grinder (Bad Welder) I taught myself Tig Welding Aluminum. This machine doing Mig welding on steel feels like cheating compared to Tig Welding. I actually haven't had to grind any of the welds from this machine, they actually look a real welder did them.

Fantastic welder for the price. Everything is decent quality and works correctly

Seems to work good for smaller stuff can't wait to get a tig torch setup for it

I was skeptical because of the really low price, but I ordered anyway to give a try. I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Everything works and it welds pretty much everything. I have used the stick welder for heavy steel, the tig for stainless, and the mig for lighter stuff. It welds like the expensive welders... and as far as a "combo" machine, I haven't seen anything equal. The only dissappointment is the "auto feed" on the Mig part. It does work really great, however, I gave only 4 stars because I like to set up and control my own rate of flow on my wire feed. The stick, Tig, and Mig all work great and it makes beautiful welds on everything I've tried... Thanks!