Anybody own a harbor freight welder???

[dustycarter]

I am planning on buying another welder for small projects. I have a lincoln stick welder but I would like something a whole lot smaller. This is going to be used for something on reapirs and 1/4'' metal. Nothing very big. tell me if this will work good and if you all own one of these, could you give me how you like them. I sure do appreciate it. Thanks.

[david doyle]

I have been shopping for a small inverter welder and it seems really hit and miss with the cheapest stuff. I am now leaning toward the Thermal arc 95S product upgadeable to tig. There is one BNIB on fleabay for 100 bucks now. Seller wont ship up here though. Check it out.

[hammerhead]

Hmm... older thread, but what the heck...

Yeah, I own one - a 220VAC MIG. It's awful. The wire feed liner in the torch cable is plastic, and has such a high friction level that the wire feed does not work! Unfortunately, by the time I got the 220VAC outlet wired up the return period had run out...

So, I spent the $$$ and got a Lincoln 140 - which works great. One of these days I might try to adapt Lincoln parts to the HF unit to see if I can get it to work...

[orange j d]

Ya I got one from them. You get what you pay for. [ crap ]

[Grateful11]

You might get answer here:

http://weldingweb.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28

[P B G]

I picked up the HF inverter welder, had the sale and coupon combo.

Its not bad, works fine with the dinky little electrodes. But I have no experience with stick other than that, so I cannot compare.

Reviews of it that I have seen have been quite positive. Like most HF welder reviews the first thing they say is to buy quality consumables from your local weld shop.

Although the HF electrodes are cheap and work, I burned through a box of it, and picked up some ones from airgas and they are better, smoother, less splatter, less noise.

[jdcrawler]

The small 110 volt mig welders were not designed to weld more than about 3/16 thickness metal.
These smaller welders are excellent for body shops and hobbyist that work with thin gauge metal.
Most people buy them expecting to be able to weld 1/4 or 3/8 thick steel and they just won't do it.
That doesn't mean a mig welder won't weld thick metal, you just have to buy a bigger welder for that.

I learned to weld on a stick welder and then went to a mig welder.
The welders that I own now are a Lincoln mig and a Lincoln tig ( I no longer have a stick welder. )
I do most of my welding with the mig and as you guys have seen, it will weld very thick steel with no problem.
The weld settings range from 30 to 170 amps and most of my welding is done at a 150 amp setting.
This welder however, cost about $2000 and that was over 20 years ago. For 1/3 the cost, a stick welder will weld the same thickness.

The advantage of the mig is: #1 .. it is a clean weld ( no welding slag to knock off ) and #2 .. you can weld continuously.
With a stick, you can only weld until the stick is burnt up than you have to stop and put in a new stick.

[dsevern]

Interesting thread, thanks Grateful for that link, I think it illustrates how much friendlier it is here on MyTractorForum than others.
I learned to weld in high school, but haven't done a lot of it in the many decades since. I have a Lincoln stick welder I traded an extra 3pt implement for, and can do a little "gorilla welding." (Gorilla weld = ugly, but strong).
I'm kind of in the same boat as DustyCarter, I need to weld some thinner metal sometimes, and while I CAN usually work real slow and easy with the stick welder on thin angle iron (tack, go away for a while, come back, tack, go away, etc.), I'm out of luck when it comes to sheet metal. I've been thinking about a Mig.
I have been looking, but am suspicious of really cheap ones, like Harbor Freight, (and I have plenty of 230/240 outlets, and am actually pretty handy at wiring, so I'm not looking at the 110 volt machines.)
Does anyone have a recommendation for a light duty Mig welder? Probably wouldn't use it more than once a month, so I don't want to spend $2000. Would I be better off just skipping it, or considering one of the $300 - $400 versions?

[migraineman]

I considered a HF welder (years ago) but bought the Lincoln Electric Weld-Pak 100 wire-feed unit instead. I can upgrade to MIG, or convert to aluminum. My model isn't made anymore, but the Weld-Pak 125HD is about equivalent. I've used mine a lot, and I'm quite pleased. The MIG upgrade is about $150, and I'm seriously considering buying myself a present this year (getting tired of scrubbing off the flux spatter.)

[dustycarter]

I forgot about this thread. I still have the Lincoln but am still looking for a smaller more portable one. I have already decided not to get the HF one. But has anybody had any good experinece with Northern's or campbell hausfield?

[marlboro180]

So , am I understanding that you are looking at 110V Mig units? Check the welding forum on this site- some good relevant posts in there of late.

I tried a couple other smaller units and ended up with a Firepower 130A 110V. MIG machine that is great for what it is built for . Set it up for gas, great for when it is not windy outside. When I want to go portable ( or it is windy outside) ,I take off the gas and run fluxed wire.

[john boy]

Originally Posted by migraineman

I considered a HF welder (years ago) but bought the Lincoln Electric Weld-Pak 100 wire-feed unit instead. I can upgrade to MIG, or convert to aluminum. My model isn't made anymore, but the Weld-Pak 125HD is about equivalent. I've used mine a lot, and I'm quite pleased. The MIG upgrade is about $150, and I'm seriously considering buying myself a present this year (getting tired of scrubbing off the flux spatter.)

I have the same welder. When the flux core wire ran out, I converted it to a true MIG with the Lincoln MIG gas conversion kit. You won't be sorry, it welds beautifully on sheet metal without cleaning the slag. The bottle and gas blend is expensive, but you OWN the tank.
To make life a bit easier, buy the cart that is made for the welder.

HF welders are JUNK! I bought a AC/DC stick welder from them, and it won't even strike an arc to weld on the smallest diameter stick. I took it back with in an hour of purchasing it.
I bought a Hobart AC/DC 240V and never looked back.
It is true, you get what you pay for.

john boy

[mla2ofus]

I have a Miller Matic 175(230v) that's about 5 yrs old now. It's on the 4th 10 lb spool of solid wire and outside of having to blow out the liner a few times it has been flawless. I've welded from 1/4" down to 1/2" elec conduit( grind off the zinc first). I used the fluxcore wire that came w/ it to build my welding table but decided I'd rather stick weld than use the fluxcore. If it's thin and I can't get it in the shop then I weld it w/ the oxy/acet torch. The mig does most of the jobs in the shop because I seldom weld anything over 1/4".
Here's a couple of pics of a muffler I built for my horse tiller engine I'm rebuilding. It will stand up vertical and have a brace from one of the head bolts to help support it.
Mike