Mig welder settings chart: six door charts side by side, and how to fine-tune from yours

Every mig welder ships with a settings chart, usually on the inside of the wire drive door. Online charts look like a shortcut, but most of them list knob numbers, and knob numbers only mean something on the machine they were written for.

Set your machine from the chart inside its own door: find your wire, gas and metal thickness, and set the two numbers it gives. Makers call these starting points. Run a bead on scrap, then adjust one knob at a time using the makers’ rules below. A generic chart from another machine will not match your dials.

Why charts do not transfer

Here is one weld, .030 solid wire with 75/25 gas on 18 gauge steel, on six machines’ charts, checked 2026-09-27:

Machine	Chart says	Units
Lincoln POWER MIG 140 MP	D / 4	Voltage tap letter / wire speed knob
Hobart Handler 140	2 / 35	Voltage switch / wire speed dial
Hobart Handler 210 MVP, 230 V	3 / 25	Voltage switch / wire speed dial
Millermatic 141	4 / 45	Voltage knob / wire speed dial
Millermatic 211, 120 V	5 / 40	Voltage knob / wire speed dial
Millermatic 142	15.2 V / 195 IPM	Real volts and inches per minute

Only the Millermatic 142 chart prints real volts and wire speed. Lincoln’s manual translates its tap letters: D is about 16 volts, and Lincoln calls those values approximate. None of the others publish what a dial number equals.

Door charts from the manuals

Transcribed from each manual or spec sheet. A dash means the chart leaves that cell blank.

Lincoln POWER MIG 140 MP (tap letter / wire speed knob; manual IMT10392):

Wire, gas	22 ga	18 ga	16 ga	14 ga	1/8 in	3/16 in
.030 L-56, 75/25	B/3	D/4	E/5	F/6	H/8	J/9
.030 NR-211-MP, DC-, no gas	–	B/2.5	B/3	D/4	G/6	H/6

Lincoln’s notes on the heaviest settings: multiple passes required, and connect to a 25 amp circuit. Its .030 solid wire row uses the .035 drive roll groove.

Hobart Handler 140 (voltage 1 to 5 / wire speed; spec sheet 217919):

Wire, gas	24 ga	18 ga	16 ga	12 ga	3/16 in
.030 ER70S-6, C25	1/25	2/35	3/35	4/40	5/45
.030 E71T-11, DCEN	–	1/30	2/30	3/40	4/50

Millermatic 141 (voltage / wire speed; OM-264423B):

Wire, gas	24 ga	18 ga	16 ga	14 ga	1/8 in
.030, C25	2/35	4/45	5.5/55	6.5/60	10/75
.030 E71T-11	–	2/35	3/45	5/55	8.5/65

Millermatic 142 (volts / inches per minute; OM-291596A):

Wire, gas	24 ga	18 ga	16 ga	14 ga	1/8 in	3/16 in
.030, C25	14.0/95	15.2/195	16.0/200	16.8/240	18.3/320	19.0/360
.030 flux cored, DCEN	–	13.6/92	15.2/110	15.7/167	18.0/238	19.0/280

The Handler 210 MVP and Millermatic 211 charts have separate rows for 120 and 240 volt input; use the row for the plug you are on.

Two machines publish no thickness chart: the YesWelder MIG-205DS PRO and the ARCCAPTAIN MIG200 are synergic, so you set wire speed and the machine sets voltage. Lincoln’s Easy-MIG 140 manual refers to a decal inside the door and does not reproduce it.

What the makers call these numbers

• Hobart: “Wire speed listed is a starting value only. Wire speed setting can be fine-tuned while welding.”
• Miller and Hobart decals: settings are approximate; adjust as required.
• Miller manuals: material, wire type, joint design, fit-up, position and shielding gas all affect settings.

Fine-tuning from the bead

From Miller’s and Hobart’s troubleshooting tables. Change one thing at a time:

What you see	Makers’ fix
Wire stubs into the work	Voltage too low; raise it
Unstable arc, spatter	Voltage or wire speed too high, or stickout too long; lower one
Weld sits on top, poor penetration	Raise wire speed or voltage, or slow down
Burn-through	Lower voltage and wire speed, keep travel speed steady
Porosity (holes)	More gas flow, block drafts, wire no more than 1/2 in past the nozzle

Miller’s rule for the voltage knob: find where the wire stubs and where the arc turns unstable, and set voltage midway between them. Miller also says wire speed controls penetration and voltage controls the height and width of the bead. The bead faults themselves are pictured in beginner welding mistakes.

If you need a number without a chart

Miller publishes a rule in its manuals: 1 amp per 0.001 inch of steel, so 1/8 inch needs about 125 amps. Wire speed follows amps:

Wire	Inches per minute per amp	Miller’s example at 125 A
.023 in	3.5	437 IPM
.030 in	2	250 IPM
.035 in	1.6	200 IPM

This only helps on a machine that shows inches per minute. Rod and tungsten amps are in the welding amps chart.

Stickout

Miller’s manuals give 3/8 to 1/2 inch of wire past the contact tip for solid wire, and Hobart recommends 1/2 inch for flux core. Lincoln states its figure differently, as 3/8 to 1/2 inch from contact tip to work. Miller and Hobart list too long a stickout as a cause of spatter.

Which wire and diameter to load is in mig welding wire and flux core wire. Structural work, trailers and anything holding pressure belong to a certified welder, whatever the chart says.