Harbor Freight Welder deal..?

[smfcpacfp]

Personally I wouldn't waste $89 on it. If you are just going to do tack welding OK, but if you think that you might want to do any substantial work, it will disappoint and frustrate you I am sure, although I have never used a little 110 machine.

For the guy who mentioned the Millermatic 211, which I acquired a little over a year ago, the duty cycle at 230 VAC is 150A @40%. Thus when welding small stuff your duty cycle is about 100%. I have never used it in the 110 VAC mode. I would only use the 110 mode if I were welding somewhere on the road and 220 wasn't available. If you plan to use it in the 110 mode, get a cheaper machine.

 

[RPW]

Been doing abit of playing with mine tonight and found one thing out. The wire that comes with it is worthless. If you go this route get some good lincoln wire. I had a roll that came with my lincoln 140 that I had never used so tried a side by side weld test HF verse Lincoln. HF was .30 and Lincoln was .35. The difference was like night and day. Deaper penetration with the Lincoln wire plus more consistant weld beads.

 

[clemsonfor]

i have had one for 3 years or so. Never realy taught myself to weld till about 1 month ago. I just splattered before to tack my boat fenders on. I welded up a thing for the 3 point to move trailers around. It has held so far and even with my lack of knowlege and experience i have produced ugly but useable welds. The wire that comes on it splatters more than the lincoln .030 wire i got from lowes. The lowes wire ends with a black burn look around it where the HF wire looked grey colored around the bead. 89 is a good price i could nt wait so i paid the $114 sale price wish i waited but oh well.
I hit the duty cycle once after running a ton of long welds and piling up welds to make that hitch thing. It will run for more than a min. But like others said you weld chip brush grind position, drink the restart. But i think i went on and off for 20-30 mins of normal welding stuff before it shut down and i think it was after a minute weld itself, not counting all the inbetween stuff i did.

 

[valley]

A few years ago We bought a couple acres in Queensland, Australia. I bought a small used tractor with a belly mower. In a short time I needed some welding on the mower. I took it to my borther in law's house, he is a pro welder, at home he has just this little buzz box stick welder. It welded alright and would kick off, we would have to wait, weld and wait some more. when we added a fan it would run a good deal longer.
Some of my tools are the very best, I have been a pro mechanic, and I pity anyone with a lessor tool. But I do have tools that are less than top of the line that I get use out of.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Been doing abit of playing with mine tonight and found one thing out. The wire that comes with it is worthless. If you go this route get some good lincoln wire. I had a roll that came with my lincoln 140 that I had never used so tried a side by side weld test HF verse Lincoln. HF was .30 and Lincoln was .35. The difference was like night and day. Deaper penetration with the Lincoln wire plus more consistant weld beads.

I understand you liked the .035 wire better but do you see a condition where the .030 Lincoln wire would be preferred?

Did I understand you used the a .035 tip with .030 wire initally to overcome feeding issues?

Thanks for your two posts and those of others on this flux wire welder. I have nothing and was looking for something small until I get a real work shop built.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

BEWARE and only buy this welder Online if you jdo not want to spen want to spend more than $109. This evening I drove 100 mile round trip and when I checked out with the welder my first in store HF purchase was OVER $400.

Talking about a fat boy in hog heaven.

I wanted one or two of everything I saw but stopped when the buggy got full. They had a stack of about 50 of the flux wire welders.

it was so much fun that I was there for 2 hours. Some of the staff knew more than others but the input from the customers was out of this world about this welder and wire welding in general. Not sure if it was a Friday evening thing but at close they had both registers going. Two of us were 50 miles away and in opposite directions. That guy bought the $89 winch deal.

It seems most of their stuff carries 90 day coverage but for $20 more I get 2 years IN STORE exchange if it quits working. That is still $20 less than the normal selling price.

I returned a 3/8 to 1 1/4" wrench set (China) I bought last night on sale for $60 at True Value (I got 2 sets (China) tonight at HF. One covered from 3/8 to 1 1/4" and the other on to 2" for $3 more total. There was still time to get to Lowes where I bought a pound of .035 flux core wire and a pack of .035"/.9mm tips all by Lincoln.

My plan is to start with the Lincoln stuff to learn the system then use the HF supplies that came with the welder if they work just as well and if not I will just buy more Lincoln supplies.

The last arc I struck was in 1973 so I will be starting over again. I was told by customers tonight that I would not go back to rods after I learn to use a wire welder. One guy with a 120 volt MIG welder told me he welds 3/8" plate just fine with his.

Well between getting the new cooling unit put into the RV frig and the fluids changed in the new to us JD backhoe I am going to have to find a place to play with the welder AND auto darking hood.

Clearly I bought more than the welder.

 

[RPW]

Gale, Yes, when I tried a .030 tip it still was a bit tight but with the .035 tip it fed smoothly. With the Lincoln wire (.035) it fed smoothly out the door. I suspect that the HF wire just didn't have the quality control that the lincoln wire had. Been playing with it some today finishing up an entrance gate for our new property. Welds were very clean and with deep penetration and with little slag. For an entry level welder It's not a bad deal and as it's been said for about $100 even if it dies in a year you won't be out much. As far as .030 or .035 I prefer the .035 as most of my welding is on steel that is a little thicker than sheet. If I do any sheet I'll switch over to .030 or possible .023. Good luck on your new purchase.

 

[stevem5215]

I too have the $89 deal. I got it for $84 on the Day after T-giving sale. It's a cheap HF welder what more can I say. But I've welded all kinds of stuff. Chairs, hooks on my tractor, steel odds and ends on my trailer. I use mine about 2x a year. And that's why you buy a cheap welder in the first place. Otherwise I'd get a good one. I am going to look at the .035 wire though at Lowes. I noticed that the welds were exactly like the other poster mentioned. Lots of cheap flux looking welds. I bet the .035 wire would work better. I also heard that the wire that came with some units at HF was junk. So I did buy another spool from them and it was about the same welds as the first spool. They have inconsistent quality from China (duh so what else is new).

Steve (welds on the cheap)

 

[Dargo]

For the guy who mentioned the Millermatic 211, which I acquired a little over a year ago, the duty cycle at 230 VAC is 150A @40%. Thus when welding small stuff your duty cycle is about 100%. I have never used it in the 110 VAC mode. I would only use the 110 mode if I were welding somewhere on the road and 220 wasn't available. If you plan to use it in the 110 mode, get a cheaper machine.

I was helping a friend who bid on a job that was more than he could handle and didn't expect to get, but somehow landed. Anyway, it was to build a large tank that some machinery was to be dipped in for rust proofing. The welds had to be checked with some new setup that picked up all sorts of flaws that magnafluxing missed. He only had a MillerMatic 251 and MM210. I wasn't going to use any of my equipment since he was only paying me for my time welding. What surprised the heck out of me was that I ran a complete 10 pound spool of wire through that little MM210 with it cranking out about all it would do and it never once kicked off.

I've used some cheaper machines that wouldn't come close to keeping up with the duty cycle they were rated for. The higher quality machines seem to be able to take a lot more than their rating. As anyone who has read many of my posts know, I will buy some stuff at Horrible Freight. However, a welder isn't one of the items I'd consider from them.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

At Harbor Freight today I found 12 gauge extension cords for $20 for 25'.

What was funny 100' 10gauge which was not on sale was $129 which was $20 more than the 90 amp wire welder.

We picked up two more of the auto darking welder helmets for the kids. The welder is mainly for their shop class use. The daughter stated she is not interested but I noticed she got her helmet fitting well OVER her reversed ball cap.

The welder may not be much but at least I will have one that works for the next two years for $129 total because I paid $20 more for the two year in store exchange for about any reason I wish to offer.

After a lot of reading the .035 Hobart flux core wire seems to weld the best by some that had used Lincoln but after some weld testing one settled on Lincoln wire because he said under testing Lincoln wire welds were better. I expect both are just fine.

The one NO NO I noticed with the 2 pounds in the box (have not got the welder out of the box yet but only the manual) is it is not vacuumed packed. Of course none of it is after you install a roll. I am sure quality control is important getting the flux correctly in a small wire like that.

I look forward to getting it out and testing it. I also look foward to getting the new cooling unit installed in the RV frig and the hydraulic fluid and filters changed in the backhoe yet still show up some at the office and 1000 other places.

The last two days was given to the kids stuff and that is important too. They told me I focus too much on the equipment yesterday so they could do what they wanted to do and it worked for them.