Harbor Freight Welder deal..?

[RPW]

That's a good use for the inexpensive units. If the kids don't take to it then your out minimal $$$. As Dargo said if you weld for a living then I wouldn't bother with the HF units either. I don't weld for a living (at least not intentionally) but do have both lincoln and Miller units along with the HF unit. If it wasn't for the wind this last weekend I'd be using my Lincoln. The millers are a beast to move out of the garage to use and like I said in another post I was curious as to how well the HF unit would perform.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

RPW clearly I bought off of price point but I did "confirm" from posts on welding forums that the HF 90 flux core wire welder does work.

The post that lead me to buy was from a stick welding guy who bought this 90 amp HF welder a few years before he posted. He tried it without success and put it on a shelf shortly after he bought it.

He decided to take a wire welding class and dug out the HF after it setting for years. He said now with a better understand of wire welders and how to set them up he gave the HF wire welder another shot. He addressed the feed issue by moving to a .035 tip vs the .030 and the quality issue by moving to Lincoln wire. He found the Lincoln stuff at Lowes. On the way home I picked up the Lincoln wire and tips that I am going to start with.

He reported after he understood the "wire welding" differences and set up he was able to weld with the HF just fine up to its thickness limits.

Some reported they liked the Hobart wire better than Lincoln but one did state after some weld testing he when back to the Lincoln wire because of the test results. Some report the HF wire to be just fine.

Because all the input is so subjective I am going to wait until I try it before I decide.

We had storms all weekend and with Scouts and Dance the kids are tied up today until 8/9 PM. I want to try it now but it will be better if they get it out of the box and we set it up together. The on-line manual is in the link in the opening post of this thread and I have read it several times. The kids have to read the manual before I will let them get it out of the box.

If I had a "real" shop set up at this time I think I would have just paid 3x more for a name brand box but the duty cycles seem to be about the same for all welders in the same class. Some think they are all build off the same set of technical plans but with different quality of parts and labor. Removing the cases and setting a good fan blowing through the welders seems to boost the duty cycles. The HF per the print in the manual does have some type of internal fan.

Harbor Freight is not for everyone. Paying 300-500% more for Snap-On, etc is not for everyone.

If our welder works at 40 pounds I can carry it anywhere and if in the MH I can use it anywhere. If the 50' 12 gauge extension cord does not cut it we will get a 10 gauge. We have 30 amps in the garage where we plan to use it by tapping into the 30 amp RV outlet. It is recommended to have these 115 volt welders on a 20 vs. 15 amp service with slow blow/trip protection because they can pull 24 amps initally.

When we get it set up I will spell out the results. I may even test the builting in termal breaker if I can keep a bead running for that long.

 

[Dargo]

Out of curiosity, why use flux core wire in a MIG? I'm pretty sure even the cheapest I've seen advertised at HF use both gas or flux. I absolutely HATE flux core wire! I'd much rather stick than use flux core wire. It's so much cleaner using gas and the weld consistency is much better. Ugh! Maybe it's just me and the shops where I've welded, but it seems they all hate that flux core junk.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Out of curiosity, why use flux core wire in a MIG? I'm pretty sure even the cheapest I've seen advertised at HF use both gas or flux. I absolutely HATE flux core wire! I'd much rather stick than use flux core wire. It's so much cleaner using gas and the weld consistency is much better. Ugh! Maybe it's just me and the shops where I've welded, but it seems they all hate that flux core junk.

Portability and ability to weld when the wind is blowing but mainly because it is cheaper in our case. Buying gas is just fine if that is what you want to do. Flux welding is huge in many industries.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

250% Duty Cycle Increase for the 90 Amp Flux Wire Welder

Well I had to get my hands on the new welder so I brought it in and pulled the cover off of it and showed the parts to the kids.

What I noticed on the cover was it showed a 250% increase in Duty Cycle time over what is stated on the ad in the first post.

The manual link in the same ad shows these upgraded specs but if one blows up the screen shot on page 16 you see the label is of a 44567 model with the 10/18% duty cycles where as 98871 we have shows 25/45% duty cycles.

With all the other factors being the same I am guessing the fan in our model is what bumped up the duty cycle by 250%. This welder I know has been out for at least 6 years from web photos and expect it has been out 10+ years. Some old post talks about adding a fan to double duty cycles so I think the cooling fan is the only change.

For our use this should mean duty cycle has become a non issue. Now we just got to get the Lincoln wire loaded and burn some of it to see if it works.

 

[valley]

Is the $89 price in store or with coupon? I think I would like to try a wire machine.
your saying these machines now have built in fan?

 

[Gale Hawkins]

valley we paid $109 but it seems to be the welder that is often a lost leader item. Some do it with coupons I read and others do it like on the day after Thanksgiving blow out, etc.

When we make ours arc I may not like it but at $129 with the two year of in-store exchange I think we will be happy.

There are some very happy people out there with this welder and many more who are not but when you look at the back ground of these it is somewhat understandable.

Welders are more complex than playing a radio. You have to know metals, wires, techniques, settings, and on and on to get good results.

The people that get them set up and work within the limits of the welder seem to agree they are better than NO welder at all.

Having read about 40 hours about this welder about every negative had a solution based on user threads I have read.

Any entry level product be it a car, clothes, food line is going to get dumped on by buyers a few rungs up the later. I know couples that drop more $$$ than this at the river boats in one trip and they do not even have a little blue box to show for it.

I am new to Harbor Freight but I was told by a store staff they have repeating good deals and to sign up to get those special emails.

 

[valley]

Thanks Gale, I've gone there a good bit. I may try one of these.

 

[cubking19]

I would go with the deal and buy it if you arent gonna make a living out of it. I am an amateur welder and have been so for almost 2 years. if you are thinking about doing this as a hobby go for it. migs are real easy to use. but if you wanna take it one step further i would start out with a little 110 arc welder like i have. its a clarke 131e and itll weld 1/4" steel like no tomorrow. clarkes are good welders and i got mine off ebay for $107. arc welders are great cuz u can bend the electrodes to get into tight spots.

one thing i also did was take one welding session with a veteran welder. he gave me tips and got me going. the rest of the learning i did on my own. now i can weld basic projects no problem and have even made a few bucks helping people!

good luck man and keep us updated.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

CubKing19 the Clark's coming out of Italy are awesome welders I found doing all the reading about HF. In in fact the 40 amp HF plasma cutter is from Italy and highly respected by some that knows cutters in this size range.

The current $109 flux core wire 90 amp welder is out of China but the same welder they have been selling for many years. Mainly it is a 25 pound transformer with a controller for the wire drive motor which I assume is DC and the fan.

I think the 250% increase in duty cycle time (even if HF is push the numbers a little) is going to create some added interest in for this 90 amp wire welder. HF must not being paying much over $30-$40 at the factory in China for these plus they bring in a lot of other sales for them. As noted before I spent over $600 and the welder was only $109 of that as a new first time customer.