Anyone buy a welder from harbor freight? By glavey (Read 2,589 times)

[glavey]

I just noticed that they have a small 90 amp flux core mig welder on sale for $90. I am a bit worried about something as dangerous as a welder being made in china, but the reviews on their site seem to say that it is pretty good.

I could also get a 130 amp flux core mig welder from ebay for $20 more, but it too is made in china.

Thoughts?

[cyborg]

If you have the power to run it get the eBay item,, I got the hf one and it's ok but not great,,, good for tacking and welding small tabs and the like,,, no real saturation on bigger stuff so I got a Lincoln ,,, now I weld with confidence on the bigger stuff

[glavey]

Ok, thanks for the reply. Here is the welder I was looking at on ebay.

[cyborg]

That one looks like a nice one,,,it's worth the $20 bux in my opinion,,,but first see how much the wire is,,,sometimes if it's an oddball size it's tough to get the wire,,,and are you going to shield with CO2?

[jct842]

I came close to buying one of the small wire welders 5 or 6 years ago. I have had a 230 amp stick welder since the mid 70's but wanted to be able to do a little finer smaller work. A professional welder for over 50 years recomended that I convert the stick to DC. He said my welder was ten times as good a welder as the cheap wire jobs. I did convert or actually added a DC function to it.

If I did not have this welder I would probably spend more and get more amps, and get a wire with ability for gas shield though. I know exactly what happens when you have almost enough amps to do the job.....you end up with a weld that looks like bubble gum and it will break easily. Flux wire does not yield a real nice looking weld most of the time.

I doubt if you can get a decent weld on any thing other than thin metal with the $99 one. With more bucks you can get one that can be converted to gas shield and use aluminum wire besides. Aluminum takes an enormous amount of heat to weld due to how fast heat travels in al. I would love to be able to weld al.

[glavey]

I already have a tiny little 80 amp stick welder - for what it is worth. For $100 I could get a 250 amp stick welder on ebay, again I assume chinese made.

What is the advantage or purpose of having DC current?

The reason I am initially looking at mig welders is because most of the welding jobs I have to do are very small (as in the length of the weld, not the thickness of the material). Also, I'm not very good at striking an arc with the stick welder, but I guess that would come with experience and practice.

I should also mention that I only have 120 volts available.

I would like to weld with co2/argon but the cheapest mig welder that has support for gas is around $250-300; outside of my price range.

The supported wire size of the 130 amp welder is .030" to .035"; widely and readily available.

[LUKE]

ok, you know the saying nobody is perfect?, that applies to me, everybody knows that i dislike chinese scooters, yes its true but not the chinese welders.... yes i own a Chicago 90 Amps Mig welder from Harbor Freight(no Argon,just flux wire)., don't Crucify me please!!
this puppy i should say is one of the best thing i bought in my entire lifetime, i had it for 4 years now, bought it for $110 with coupon.
it has two settings, the min and the max, the min is ok for small projects but the max means bussiness, i have used this welder many many times and it still works like a champ...i always used 0.35 wire,... i don't go for 0.30,it's useless.,, the free flux wire that comes with the welder when you buy it sucks, that's why i buy lincoln 0.35 wire from lowes. the bonding is superb.. i like to use MIG, more than arc and TIG


Arc welder sux, because it sticks and kicks your electric bill up so high,,,Tig is ok but you need to use your both hands to weld.

i highly recommend the 90Amps welder from HF using quality lincoln 0.35mm flux wire...not the chinese 0.30mm

[cyborg]

I always knew you had a dark side Luke,,,,, lol,,,

[davec]

Luke, that vacation did wonders for you.
Welcome back my friend

[new2scooters]

Aug 5, 2014 18:52:25 GMT -6 LUKE said:

..i always used 0.35 wire,... i don't go for 0.30,it's useless.,, the free flux wire that comes with the welder when you buy it sucks, that's why i buy lincoln 0.35 wire from lowes. the bonding is superb.. i like to use MIG, more than arc and TIG


Arc welder sux, because it sticks and kicks your electric bill up so high,,,Tig is ok but you need to use your both hands to weld.

i highly recommend the 90Amps welder from HF using quality lincoln 0.35mm flux wire...not the chinese 0.30mm

I have to agree with you Luke....I tried some HF wire once but it just didn't work good.....Went back to town and bought some Lincoln wire and without changing anything else, worked perfectly fine. I recycled the HF wire I had and now only buy Lincoln.

Bill

[jct842]

A DC stick welder is much easier to use than AC and makes much better welds. There are only a few aplications where AC us the prefered way to weld. DC can use all the rods made, ac can not. Any one good with ac welder will look like a pro with a dc stick. I converted mine to weld low amp dc so I could stuff like luke is doing with his wire welder. The only way we are going to determine which is better is to compare 2 identical welding jobs one done on each.

Even by the sound of them an ac welder sounds nasty, cracles and pops and dc sound is so sweet and smooth. Learned ac in high school shop and dc while in the navy. If my stick ever dies I probably will replace it with a wire, but one that is bigger than that one for $90 and it will have hook up to use gas and the amps to do aluminum. continuous welding is what runs up the electric bill and home units are not rated for continuous use. example cutting with a carbon arc and compressor is one way to do a high bill.

[richardv]

I can buy the Lincoln welder of 'equal' capabilities at Mill's Fleet Farm or Tractor Supply for the same price and have a company and store that will stand behind it. Also the Lincoln is repairable, is the Chinese model?
Most items at my local HF are higher priced than even Sears.

[glavey]

Oh man fleet farm... that name brings back memories. I used to live in a state that had those stores.

I do have a tractor supply near by, they don't sell lincoln welders, but they do have this. Menards has this, sears has this and this, home depot has this, this, this, and this. So it seems if I want a "brand name" welder, I'm going to have to pay at least $50 more.

My budget is about $170, perhaps a little more.

The chinese welder might be repairable.

Is it possible to retrofit a flux welder for use with gas or does it have to be designed for use with gas from the get-go?

[jct842]

Yes. Might be cheaper just to bite the bullet and get one that says it is ready. Then to ad gas all you need is tank full of gas, a regulator, and some hose. Having talked to those who have used flux wire and gas shield, they all claim the gas is far Superior with clean welds, no splatter.

I just looked around on a few web sites and I wasn't aware how much a convertible or a mig costs! Any thing that would interest me would run $500 or more! Guess I will have to stick to what I have and can use.

Best to just watch sales. 5 years ago a friend picked up a mig from orschlands farm supply that was a display model on sale in the neighborhood of $200 so he got a super deal.

[glavey]

Hmmm it appears that this welder has a gas hookup in the rear, as does this one from ebay. Yet again, the one from ebay looks chinese. However, it does appear that you can replace the entire MIG torch and hose/wire assembly.

Here's a question I have about MIG welders; I know that some stick/arc welders are AC and some are DC, is this true for MIG welders too?