Harbor Freight Welder deal..?

[arrabil]

Just like I wrote in another recent HF post, the thing's specs are all wrong. 10%@80A? 18%@60A? In other words its a 30A welder with a (very) temporary overdrive. You'd be better off finding a used brand-name welder.

My HF rule: Only buy it if its disposable, consumable, or weldable.

 

[BeeferMan]

I bought a welder similar to that from HF one day when I was having a weak (read: cheap) moment. It showed up in about 30 pieces, had fallen apart during shipping. Which turned out to a good thing, as when I looked at putting it back together it became quickly apparent what a piece of junk it was. I sent it back, and will have to say that was no-hassle from HF.

Saved my money for a while and bought a Miller, and have never regretted spending the extra bucks...

 

[lostcause]

Soooo? Whats the consensus? Is the 90amp wire feed worth having? I've never had a wire feed, only a stick welder. I've been thinking it would be nice to have for auto body metal.

tbh, this isn't the welder to own for any sort of auto body welding. this is flux cored, which is really going to be about the same as what you are used to with a stick - after the weld cools, you will have the layer of slag to chip off. this is due to the flux inside the wire, like the flux on the outside of your sticks. true mig uses gas for flux, and will not leave that layer of slag to remove, so that's what you want for body work.

many people constantly seem to refer to an sort of wire feed welder as a "mig" which can help add to this confusion. many are, but this one is not capable of using gas flux - only flux cored wire. myself, i like these types of welders, because i only do body work once every 10 or so years it seems. these types are great for material ranging form exhaust pipe up to 1/4" thick, and even thicker with practice. i've done good welds on 1/2" plate with a 90a flux cored wire feeder. any thicker and you would probably want to haul out the torches and preheat.

whether "this" welder is the one to own remains to be seen. only time and testing will tell whether it is enough of a quality unit to do the job, but a welder in this class will do an awful lot of work for what it is. i have a nearly 20 year old century 90/110 wire feeder (mig capable, but never used) that i have only used in the 90a range, and as i have learned to use it, it has done nearly everything i have needed.

 

[4shorts]

You guys must have the patience of Job!. That $90 welder has a 10% duty cycle at 80 amps which be needed for 3/16" steel.

You weld one minute and wait 9 minutes to cool down and then weld one minute and wait another 9 minutes, etc. So you can weld for 6 minutes in one hour! I don't that kind of patience or time to waste, even if I am retired. :confused2:

Man I'm with you on this one. That thing would drive me straight over the edge

 

[4shorts]

Soooo? Whats the consensus? Is the 90amp wire feed worth having? I've never had a wire feed, only a stick welder. I've been thinking it would be nice to have for auto body metal.

Got to add my 2 cents worth here. I know most guys use mig for body work but it's really not the best thing to use. Mig wire is very hard and harder to deal with when it comes to working it while doing body work. Ever try and drill a hole after the hole has been migged? Not an easy thing to do.

If your thinking about welding body panels on a vehicle go the tig route. Yes it's a little slower but very controllable and easy to work with after wards.

 

[lostcause]

a lot of you are really hung up on the duty cycle of this thing. do you all have $10,000 industrial machines in your garages? i've never seen a 120v welder with much of a duty cycle, in fact, i just decided to look up the miller 211 (which i'm inches away from buying) and when you use it on a 120v plug, it's only got a 20% duty cycle at 90a, and that's a $1200 retail price welder.

also, as a fairly heavy user of a 120v wire feeder, (with a low duty cycle) i've never hit the thermal override on mine. quite often welds are (or should be) just intermittent fillets, and even continuous welds are generally single pass on any given piece of material. when building, i often change my position, or the position of the piece i am welding,so there's quite a bit of downtime that you may not realize when you are fabricating.

 

[arrabil]

it's only got a 20% duty cycle at 90a, and that's a $1200 retail price welder

Apple to apples.....

Hobart Handler 125, $335, 20%@90A, MIG or Flux Core
Chicago Electric 90, $149, 10%@80A, Flux Core only

Hobart doesn't make a smaller one, Chicago Electric steps up to 220V to go higher than 90A [which alone should tell you everything you need to know about the quality of parts].

 

[Window Geek]

Got to add my 2 cents worth here. I know most guys use mig for body work but it's really not the best thing to use. Mig wire is very hard and harder to deal with when it comes to working it while doing body work. Ever try and drill a hole after the hole has been migged? Not an easy thing to do.

If your thinking about welding body panels on a vehicle go the tig route. Yes it's a little slower but very controllable and easy to work with after wards.

I always wondered why the flux cored welds seemed harder to grind down. Now I know! So TIG welds are easier to grind 4Shorts? If one gets good at it, you probably don't need to grind.

 

[travis potter]

In my work I use a hf 110volt stick welder it is blue plastic and lasts 2or 3 years using it every day. I only weld 10 ga,16 ga and 20ga metal as to the hardness of the weld I only use 6013 Lincoln rod because it is close to the same hardness as the metal and grinds and sands for a smooth weld. As to the duty cycle the few times I ran into this I had a small fan blow on the welder and had no more problems. I work on steel doors and frames on schools and comerchial bldgs.I have tried 3 flux core welders and the do not give a good weld for me. Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[lostcause]

Man I'm with you on this one. That thing would drive me straight over the edge

Apple to apples.....

Hobart Handler 125, $335, 20%@90A, MIG or Flux Core
Chicago Electric 90, $149, 10%@80A, Flux Core only

Hobart doesn't make a smaller one, Chicago Electric steps up to 220V to go higher than 90A [which alone should tell you everything you need to know about the quality of parts].

the problem is that you can't compare them because the big name manufacturers don't make units like this, and even what they do make is not at the total opposite end of the spectrum. 10%, 20%... sure, it's a two fold difference, but it's nowhere near the 60% that you approach with most anything well built and using a 240v plug.

what i'm trying to say is that maybe people are expecting too much out of the product. this isn't targeted toward commercial and industrial work. it's a very light duty machine and should only be considered for the appropriate job. there's a reason it has a $149 (or whatever) price tag. consider it for the purpose it is intended for and don't expect it to do more than that.