Our long-time friends over at Miller Electric dropped us a line to let us know that they’re placing their sponsorship bucks behind a new Discovery build show: Motor City Motors. Here’s the elevator speech:

“The show follows Dave and James Kaye, a.k.a. The Detroit Brothers, as they showcase Detroit’s finest metalworking specialists in a five day contest to transform an old vehicle into something unique and powerful. Each team is equipped with Miller welding, cutting, and fume extraction equipment to complete the challenge in five days.”

Winners will receive a bonanza of badass Miller gear, including a Millermatic 211 Auto-Set MIG or Diversion 165 TIG package (winner’s choice), a Miller welding helmet, welding gloves, and a combo jacket. (Honestly we’re envious of the jacket. We don’t have one in the TM shop, so we’ve just been burning through denim shirts one after another.)

At any rate, if you want to give the Detroit Brothers and their new weld-centric shop show a try, Motor City Motors airs Monday nights at 10 p.m. EST/PST and 9 p.m. CST. This Monday it looks like they’re building motorcycle boats. Maybe they’ll watch the Top Gear Vietnam special as research.

Motor City Motors [Corporate Site, Warning: Video]

Even with my limited personal experience with welding, I’ve always been a fan of Miller helmets. One, they seem to be pretty rugged, and two, helmets like the Titanium Elite series Silver (Model 234939) don’t look like the stuff that was handed out in shop class back in the day.

This brain bucket features an aluminum heat shield that protects the analog lens in high amperage 300 plus amp operations and a silver-colored shell reflects heat to keep the helmet (and the noggin inside) cool(ish). The 234939 also has a quick-release snap-off frame for easy-access lens changes.

It’s a good looking, well-designed helmet that will keep your head out of harm’s way, and if you’ve got around $270 you can have one of your very own. Just don’t expect it to stay Lancelot-shiny for very long; it is meant to be used in a welding shop, after all.

Titanium Elite series Silver, Model 234939  [Miller]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Skulls and welding go hand in hand.  There’s just something “right” about a welder strapping on a flaming death skull and wielding fire to hook metal together.  Miller clearly gets it. They also get that no matter how cool it looks, the functionality needs to be there as well. They achieved both with the Digital Elite series helmets, but they’ve now added more skulls to the lineup with the Wicked model 241462.  We approve.

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Miller’s new Free Stuff or Cash promotion goes until July 31st — basically it’s a mail-in rebate deal, except Miller was smart enough to know that we want gear, too.  So instead of cash you can opt for the Stuff option, which will net you a selected item that lists for roughly twice the amount of the cash option.

Thankfully Miller isn’t doing the classic thing where you need to finance a small country to get a free toothbrush. Also, the gear is matched to the item you purchase — for instance, if you buy a Wildcat welder Miller will give you $100 or a Black Performance auto-darkening helmet.

Of course both the cash and gear are a “mail in and wait” game, but if you’re making the purchase anyway it’s a nice kick on the back end.  I always forget about it after a week or two, so when whatever mail-order thing I have coming finally arrives, it’s like finding a twenty in the dryer.

Free Stuff or Cash [Miller]

With the Spectrum 625 X-treme, Miller is rapidly approaching what would’ve been considered science fiction about twelve years ago.  We can forgive the overused “X-treme” moniker because this 40-amp plasma cutter is literally smaller than a shoebox.

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If you’ve ever watched the hardcore guys weld on aluminum, stainless, or chromoly, they’re often holding a TIG torch in their hands. TIG rigs can be a little frightening at first but are super-handy for automotive fabrication work. With the new Diversion 165 TIG welder Miller has attempted to simplify the correct TIG unit setup and provide you some power as well.

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Our friends over at Miller dropped us a line yesterday to let us know they’ve released a new design in their Elite and Digital Elite auto-darkening helmet line: a bald eagle, crest, patriotic stars and stripes, and the 1929 Miller logo featured prominently on the front.

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Miller recently added a new set of digital features to their Elite series of auto-darkening welding helmets. The new masks include settings for welding, cutting, and grinding, as well as an “X-Mode” setting that electromagnetically senses an arc and then automatically switches to a predetermined shade level, with a reaction time of 1/20,000 of a second. The X-Mode setting also prevents sunlight or an obstructed sensor from causing interference.

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Now until April 15th Miller is offering mail-in rebates when you buy “select” Millermatic welders and Spoolmate guns on their website. Even though mail-in rebates are the most annoying form of cash-back, we’re still stoked about the savings.

Follow the links on the site to find which models get what rebate — models such as the Millermatic 212 and Spoolmate 3035 Spool Gun get a $150 rebate, and on the low end, the Millermatic 140 with Auto-Set and the Spoolmate 100 Series Spool Gun each get a $50 rebate. You can save some cash if you’re in the market, even if it’s a bit frustrating having to wait for it.

Mail-In Rebate Offers [Miller]

Shopping for a new welding helmet?  This flag-draped Miller Elite series welding mask features separate auto-on/auto-off and grind modes, four independent arc sensors, and a magnifying lens holder.  It’s available in numerous screen-print designs – like this lovely stars and stripes motif — as well as plain ‘ole black.  Best of all, it’s available at Toolsforless right now for $219.88.

Miller Elite-Series Stars & Stripes [Miller]
Miller Starts & Stripes Welding Helmet [Toolsforless]
Street Pricing [Google Product]

How often have you wished you could pick up your MIG welder and carry it over to a friend’s place?  Or to a job site?  Sure, there are lots of “portable” rigs you could use — but they never really live up to the quality of your unit at home.

Try this on: The Millermatic Passport is completely self-contained and requires only power for full-on MIG welding.  It holds 12 oz of CO2 and an 8″ spool of wire internally — all in a suitcase-sized package that weighs in around 55 lbs completely ready-to-weld.  Read past the jump for a diagram of what’s going on inside the little blue box.

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This isn’t a tool per se, but it will help you use the ones you already have.  If you haven’t wandered over to the Miller Welding website recently, you might not have found their great “welding library.”  It’s a compendium of tips ranging from the obvious buyer’s guide to some incredibly useful descriptions of techniques.

For the professional welder, they also discuss some of the economic issues involved, including how to keep your costs down and make the most of the tools you’ve got.

If nothing else, this site is worth a bookmark solely for their “Welding Dictionary,” which serves as a great reference when you’re reading other texts.  Best of all: It’s free.

Welding Library [Miller]

Miller recently announced their creation of a website specifically targeted to help high school and vocational welding instructors locate welding information and select products.  According to the press release:

“We wanted the educational community to know that Miller Electric supports them and their mission,” explained Neal Borchert, business development manager, Miller Electric Mfg. Co. “Welding instructors teach a variety of classes and are often too busy to stay abreast of all the latest technological innovations in welding products. This can make it difficult to know exactly which welder will best meet their needs.”

 

Along with links and information about instructor training and continuing education courses offered by Miller and the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology (and links to other such programs), the site includes pre-configured stick, MIG, TIG, Plasma Cutting, Oxy-Fuel Welding & Cutting, Multiprocess, and Multioperator packages just for educational applications. Miller also notes that they offer educational discounts for equipment sold to chartered non-profit educational institutions.  Contact your local authorized Miller distributor for details. 

Press Release [Miller]
Welding Instructors Site [Miller]