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Welder on sale today
By coldspot, Section Mechanical Posted on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 09:46:30 AM MST
Wondering if this would be a bad or good buy?

Advice please !!!!!
"http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=44567"
I've been waiting for this deal since I saw the first flyer a month ago,
normal on-sale price $119.99
Please advise, ASAP, I'm about to head to work n will
be by there in a couple hours.
Thanks

Welder on sale today | 15 comments (15 topical)

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by coldspot on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 04:07:55 AM MST

OOP's
Forgot to-
Three Day sale price-
$89.99 USD
Side-Walk Sale
Don't know if local only or not
Thanks

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by wildbill hickup on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 04:08:39 AM MST

This is almost identical to the Craftsman I bought at Sears. I think I paid $129.99 on sale. It's OK but limited. Wish it had more control over power. Wire feed tension is very tempremental sometimes it feeds sometimes not. Don't bend or kink the feed tube in ANY way. Sometimes even when welding I turn the wrong way and put to much stress on the tube and the wire will stop. Flux core wire is alot more expenceive, I have been able to find it at hardware stores and welding shops, although it's not available in Aluminum. All in all it's pretty good, I got what I paid for, in retrospect I wish I had put the $130 towards the Lincoln gas model on layaway. It was $495 and would have been well worth the wait IMHO.

Wildbill

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by disaray1 on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 05:49:22 AM MST

I'm in full agreement with WildBill...these machines will test your patience. The wire feed mechanism is VERY persnickity, and the feed cable cannot be bent in the slightest while in operation. If strong, good looking welds are high on your agenda, this is probably not a good choice. If you just want to burn a few non-critical parts together for fun and don't mind ugly...go for it.

Maybe an ingenuitive person could "tune up" the works and replace the feed cable with a better quality piece to make this little machine operate better, but why not spend just a bit more, and get one that works properly, preferably with gas....

disaray1

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by jlt on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 06:05:50 AM MST

thats my comment to. they will make a weld.but not a good one.you could make a better weld with 3 12v batterys.j and a set of jumper cables.

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by phil b on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 07:02:03 AM MST

I also think Wildbill is correct. You can look at the Duty Cycle on the welder for an indication of how well it will perform. This one will weld 10% ot of every hour? That's 6 minutes. After that, the weld quality will degrade very quickly.

I do have a small Lincoln with a 20% duty cycle. It does well until I start running long beads. Then it spits and sputters. I let it cool for 10 min. and it's ready to go.

The inert gas is a nice addition. CO2 that's used in soft drinks at almost every corner store works just fine when welding with stainless. I haven't tried it on aluminum.

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by fred480v on Sat Oct 07, 2006 at 05:43:05 PM MST

welder duty cycle is based on 10 min. cycles, if it is 10%, that is weld @max. out put for 1 min. cool for 9 min. half output 2min. cool 8 min. I work on welders all the time, have been to most schools. unless you are manufacturing that welder will work ok for common welding in your work shop
fred480v

[ Parent ]

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 04:50:13 PM MST

I note that today's featured article is Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (also known as Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG)). It's one of an interconnected series of excelent welding articles that wandered through just before hitting this board and finding this question.

One of its first links is Arc Welding, an overview of the various types of welding and their advantages and disadvantages.

Read that one. The section on Consumable Electrode Methods has this one (Flux Core Arc Welding) and the one it's a variant of (Gas Metal Arc Welding / Metal Inert Gas (MIG)), which uses canned gas and a cheaper, non-cored wire, along with links to longer descriptions of each. At that point you'll have an idea whether this is a type of welder you want.

(The references point to some great books on welding. Hitting the discussion tab will bring up more pointers on welding where the article authors hadn't yet found enough external documentation to include them in the main article under the Wikipedia rules.)

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by Ungrounded Lightning Rod on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 04:51:49 PM MST

I note that today's featured article ...

... on wikipedia ...

(How the HECK did I lose that?)

[ Parent ]

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by dinges on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 05:20:07 PM MST

Personally I've never been too enthusiastic about MIG. Great for production work, where cost & efficiency is important. They say you can teach a monkey to weld with it in 1/2 hour. Maybe that's my problem, I'm not a monkey. I never could get the hang of it.

For DIY stuff, I love TIG for the delicate stuff and stick for the more substantial welds. No gas needed for stick, it's cheap, but harder to learn than MIG (they say).

That's my excuse, truth is, I never could get the hang of MIG. Yes, I know, everyone says MIG is easy and TIG is hard to learn. I agree that stick is hard to learn...

Battery welding is usually only done with stick, but there's a small MIG gun available that works off batteries too. (MIG & stick have different needs, one needs constant current power supply, the other constant voltage, but it seems to work anyway with batteries) :

http://www.readywelder.com/

I've never used the product, but could be a cheap alternative for some, perhaps. Especially for those who are off-grid and have a battery bank already.

[ Parent ]

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by pyrocasto on Fri Oct 06, 2006 at 10:56:54 PM MST

I just bought one of their brand of the 220 volt version welders. Very happy with it so far, and with the %10 off coupon they have this weekend, it's only $180.

It can make great welds with no gas, but gas is a smart choice to add on. Less splatter more penetration.

One thing that I found a must was one of their auto-darkening helmets. It makes welding easier, safer, and more fun IMO.

Here's a welding cart I made with it right after I bought it:

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by coldspot on Sat Oct 07, 2006 at 11:19:56 AM MST

Thanks !!!!!!!

This is one I should have done better research on!
Sooner also!
"You can look at the Duty Cycle on the welder for an indication of how well it will perform."
Good info I wish I'd have known, before spending any money.- (I head to work about 4-4:30AM, should have posted a few days ago, :(,)
Well I did it, MIG 100 @ $89.99.
Extra spool of wire, They must not have seen in the FULL cart I had dragged to check-out. Because when I got home and looked over receite to staple to welding manual, it wasn't on it,.?????
I'll think this over the weekend and see if I keep this welder or not.
Battery cut-off switches, @ $2.99, I've placed in a few boats for people, seemed good so I bought 5.
Hammer-drill, 1/2" chuck, 120 VAC, @, $12.99 !
Didn't have any 1/2", So I got one also!!
creeper, $9.99, O-yea, needed a-lot!
Solar Panel, 1.5 Watt, 12 VDC, (little red one),
@, $9.99, Sure why not, only one for now!
Now, to figure-out, how to not be broke till next
pay-day.
THANKS,
This forum is the reason I have inter-net!

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by nothing to lose on Thu Oct 12, 2006 at 07:57:58 AM MST

I have the welder.
If you have trouble with wire not feeding out, check the roller feed for oily film, I get that alot. Mine also has a problem with the feed bearing on the tension adjuster. It slips back into the slot or there was same burs in the plastic. The bearing pushes back a bit tight then does not spin freely as it rubs against something there. I filed and cleaned out the slot a bit and it worked better last time I used the welder.

When it works it's ok for such a low cost welder. Mine welds decent if the wire feeds.
I don't like it being a hot tip, wire is always live on mine, not just when feeding out. So lay it down and not turn off the unit and bump it or it bumps something and you get an arc or shock.

For not alot of welding, just casual use on small stuff it's ok.
I'd like to have a Miller mig welder now though because I plan to do alot more welding and heavy metals. CO2/Argon gas and plain wire I like better than flux cored wire also.
.
nothing to lose

Spelin and tpying are my strong points, not electronics.
[ Parent ]

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by whatsnext on Sat Oct 07, 2006 at 07:52:13 PM MST

Before I bought something like this I would look for a good used stick welder. If it also was AC/DC that would be a plus. For whatever reason mig is 'in' now and stick is 'out' so people are selling good used stick machine for almost nothing and you get a real welder instead of a toy.
John.......

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by coldspot on Sun Oct 22, 2006 at 02:44:57 AM MST

Well-
I've still got the little welder.
Still new & unused, (well, this is me ya know, so-
It got hooks added to the outside for a place to wrap the cables and have them stay nice n neat, also extra handles on the rear for helping the cable wrapping. And a 110 VAC squirle cage fan I'm thinking about how to add to cool the transformer coil in the lower part of the welder.)
Soon as I get a helmet I'll actually turn it on!
Thanks
:)

Re: Welder on sale today (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by coldspot on Tue Nov 20, 2007 at 07:21:23 PM MST

After about a year of putting it off,
I actually fired it up and just had to use it on a wind turbine for its first weld.
I needed to tack down a bolt I'd placed into the top of the furl tail ride on tube. (the pipe tube at that leaned back and out angle, that the furling tail rides on).
I wanted this bolt on there as a way to make sure that the tail can't lift up and off, the head of the bolt fit inside the pipe and still lets the tail pipe slide down and then lets me place a couple of nuts above this as a way to lock it on and still let it have travel to furl.

The welder- I modded it with a very powerful fan from a dishwasher. This fan sucks all the air right off the transformer and blows it out the side.
I also added a bearing for the wire coil to ride on and another one above the coil and this lets me have the tension pretty tight but still lets it feed wire without any issues.

After the tower top fix, I welded the crap out of an old ATV trailer that was trying to crack apart in many places. Yes this welder isn't for super duty work but will weld a pretty bead if worked right.

I'm happy, I don't need to ask people to weld stuff for me anymore, I just do myself!
:)

Welder on sale today | 15 comments (15 topical)

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