Harbor freight welder

[PugetDude]

How long will that plywood last outdoors at the camp?

Jeeze, the man is adding one whole foot, 12 lousy inches with a cheap welder.

My thoughts exactly.... It's an offroad trailer, the 12" extension is mostly cosmetic anyway...

 

[ishiboo]

I have that Harbor Freight welder, the sub 100 dollar fluxcore one.

It will stick metal together. It does not make pretty welds.

It works fine for autobody sheetmetal repairs.

I built a plow frame for my Samurai with it from black pipe and angle iron. Welds were ugly, but it took 2 years of pounding snow with no failures.

I have medium welding skills, I'm not a beginner, but not a trained professional.

The feed on it *****, not enough pressure on the rollers. I added a c clamp around the feed rollers and it feeds better.

I've seen a pro do some pretty good welds from it at a friends house in a pinch. Were you using the included wire? It *****. Welding black pipe is also questionable (the metal content is suspect), and was the angle iron bed frames?

 

[BD1]

'' How long will that plywood last outdoors at the camp? ''
Use wolmanized AND,
Longer then the first trip bouncing around and breaking off at the welds .

 

[jimgood]

'' How long will that plywood last outdoors at the camp? ''
Use wolmanized AND,
Longer then the first trip bouncing around and breaking off at the welds .

I think you're making a lot of assumptions about how the welding will be done. Sure, if he cuts off the end and **** welds in a splice of angle and calls it done, it might break.

 

[Moose97]

My son won reserve grand champion at our county show with this farrowing crate he made with the HF 90 amp flux core wire welder. I tried to get him to use my stick welder but he wanted to use his. It'll do the job i guess.

 

[T_R]

I've seen a pro do some pretty good welds from it at a friends house in a pinch. Were you using the included wire? It *****. Welding black pipe is also questionable (the metal content is suspect), and was the angle iron bed frames?

Depends on what you are welding. The HF cheap welder doesn't have enough adjustment. With thin autobody metal you blow holes. With thicker metal it's hard to get enough heat and you get cold welds. Stuff in between say around an 1/8", I can make an ok looking weld for fluxcore.

I've run tons of wire through it over the years, probably close to 10 spools. I forget what brand I used for the plow frame, it was something from the local hardware store. I think it was a yellow and red label on the spool. No bedframes, I used the stuff you get off the rack at lowes.

 

[MoparTrucks]

Hell, I cut out a 2 foot rusty section of my pickups frame and welded in a patch with the HF 90 amp flux core welder and its held up pretty well. It sags a little and one of the welds has a crack but I just took it on a 300 mile trip and it has held up so far (knock on wood!).

Wink wink. Actually I am a beginning welder and the little HF unit has been great to learn on and a lot of fun for me personally. I have welded farm equipment, a steel gate, a stool cross brace as someone mentioned and numerous brackets and hangers for things around the shop and farm. I can see where an experienced welder would scoff but for less than a c note it gets you in the door and gets you started.

I am not sure I would ever have gotten started if I had to pony up 4 or 500 to see if I liked welding but now I have an old buzz box and am saving up for a Millermatic....seems like we should be encouraging folks to do what they can with what they can afford.

 

[Mozingo]

I am not sure I would ever have gotten started if I had to pony up 4 or 500 to see if I liked welding but now I have an old buzz box and am saving up for a Millermatic....seems like we should be encouraging folks to do what they can with what they can afford.

I never thought I'd see the day where I'd agree with a Mopar guy (Ford and Chevy fan) I'm not gonna blow 4-500 on something I've never tried. Especially for such a small task as I plan on doing. If it is successful ill advance to bigger and better machines but if I can't stick 2 pieces of thin metal together the last thing I want to do is try to weld up something substantial


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[Greeny]

I am not sure I would ever have gotten started if I had to pony up 4 or 500 to see if I liked welding but now I have an old buzz box and am saving up for a Millermatic....seems like we should be encouraging folks to do what they can with what they can afford.

Same here, plus I don't have 220 readily available. I would never have run a new circuit just to learn and fool around with beginner type projects. It's turned out much better than I was led to believe possible from all the negative commentary. It also comes with a 2lb spool, but the 10lb spools fit on mine, saving a good bit on wire.

 

[Fender1325]

I agree with encouragment, but my HF welder quit in 3 days and I waited and got a Hobart. I think a used hobart or lincoln 110 is worth it for the quality, and resale value. Cheap tools become frustrating. Sure an experienced welder can make something with an HF welder on the right metal. I just want to see the OP get some milage out of his purchase. Realistically speaking 100 vs 2 or 300 is splitting hairs when it comes to the cost of a welder. Just wait and buy a quality unit PLEASE! Dont be tempted by cheap prices.

 

[mustangmike6996]

OP, for the $75 bucks you have into that machine you aren't doing too bad. Just use that to practice. Buy some metal and start working pieces together using different welds. Try different current/speed adjustments to see what the welder does. Try different techniques. Push/pull. up/down etc. If you find yourself in a good spot and want to get deeper into welding, fork out the $500-$2000 for a really nice machine and you will be able to *safely* weld frames or heavy gauge steel. I wanted a Miller 211 but I found my Lincoln 180 for a killer deal. I got the welder (and attaching parts) welding helmet, cart, tank, crate of wire, aluminum spool gun plus some extra consumables for about $550 (very) lightly used.

I bought a tank of Argon and now I can weld aluminum too (not the best or prettiest), Im now casually looking for a TIG.

 

[ibedayank]

The trailer never sees a road it's a deer camp trailer for the most part. It takes a dirt road to a general store where I pick up material to use at camp


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bumpy dirt road will put lot more stress on a trailer frame then a smooth paved road....

 

[trackwelder]

Hell, I cut out a 2 foot rusty section of my pickups frame and welded in a patch with the HF 90 amp flux core welder and its held up pretty well. It sags a little and one of the welds has a crack but I just took it on a 300 mile trip and it has held up so far (knock on wood!).

Wink wink. Actually I am a beginning welder and the little HF unit has been great to learn on and a lot of fun for me personally. I have welded farm equipment, a steel gate, a stool cross brace as someone mentioned and numerous brackets and hangers for things around the shop and farm. I can see where an experienced welder would scoff but for less than a c note it gets you in the door and gets you started.

I am not sure I would ever have gotten started if I had to pony up 4 or 500 to see if I liked welding but now I have an old buzz box and am saving up for a Millermatic....seems like we should be encouraging folks to do what they can with what they can afford.

I cannot in good faith recommend a piece of **** welder to anyone. There are plenty of cheap Lincoln 100-125 sp welders to get started with if money is a problem. You will see the difference when you weld with a decent machine.