Harbor Freight Welder...

[tha5150]

http://www.harborfreight.com/90-amp-flux-wire-welder-68887.html

First Welder.. learning.

Came with a spool of .030 wire and has hardly any flux in it. keeps popping all over the place and leaves balls as a weld, not a bead in length. I got my neighbor over to see what was going on since i knew it wasnt right. He got a bottle of Argon and started a bead and looked pretty good. So he told me to get some different wire.

Is this a good wire? All i can go to in thickness is .030-.035

http://www.lowes.com/pd_178742-1703-ED030584_0__?catalogId=10051&productId=1156695

[feldon30]

Looks like you got some good advice on getting some different wire. If you do a search for "harbor freight" you will get a ton of threads about these welders.

Here's one that talks about that wire:

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=52727&highlight=harbor+harbour+freight

and one about your welder:

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48750

another one:

http://www.thesmokering.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49492&highlight=harbor+harbour+freight

Best of luck to you and hopefully you post some pictures of your build progress.
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[tha5150]

true in saying you get what you pay for. no argument there.

but i think this is more than capable to build a smoker. no sense in spending 100's or 1000's of $$$ to learn with, also on something that i will use twice a year. maybe.

the reviews are very good for this machine and why i chose this one. its a good starting point in my opinion.

[k.a.m.]

tha5150, how did your neighbor connect the argon to the machine? I did not think that machine was piped for gas.
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Always remember slow and steady wins the race.

Hybrid Cooker

[Wreckless]

[tha5150]

kam, your correct. no hookup.

what he did was turn the tank on and hold close to weld to check the wire.

[TheNorwegian]

flux core is going to be WAY messy no matter what wire you get. it will always have splatter and slag to clean up. it's the nature of the beast.

you argue that you don't want to spend a ton of money learning or on a tool that you'll use a couple times a year. Thats fair, but it's still better to give yourself the best base to learn off of possible. you're going to limit you abilities, and what you can learn with that machine. It's like trying to do a 100 bike ride on a bike with 16" tires and training wheels.

quality welders don't loose a lot of value over the years. especially if it's a basic welder that doesn't have a bunch of fancy computer controls can go bad. It's worth your time and your money to spend a couple hundred on a good used machine and than if you end up not using it (I've noticed when I get new tools I always end up with more projects for them than just the reason I purchased them) you can sell it off for little to no loss. Personally I find welding to be VERY addictive. it's something that I truely enjoy doing. once I started I was hooked for life. which is the case for most people I know who've started. I'd be surprised if it wasn't the case for you. Assuming of corse that you've got a machine capable of showing you how fun it can be.
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[TrailerBuilder]

TheNorwegian wrote:

[MikeBuiltWhat]

your choice to use that flux core NR211-MP from Lincoln is a good choice. I like to use 035 in my 110 machine. you will get welding spatter with the flux-core, but you can clean it up with a twisted wire cup wheel in a grider easily and a 80 grit flap wheel. recently I've been using 045 NR211-MP in my Suitcase 12RC. i have tried other flux core wires that are part of the e71-t11 family and keep going back to the NR211-MP.

[Phret Bender]

I bought one last year to weld the charcoal basket in a new UDS build and a few minor things around the garage that required a fix. I had no welding experience or need for a better machine. After less than 30 seconds of messing with the original wire I was at the local big box and bought some .035 flux core name brand wire. I thought I was a welding pro after installing it!!!!! A good wire really made a difference and this unit, for my small needs, was a good price for a tool I rarely use or need. It has paid for itself in the saving from having to take a few small projects elsewhere to have a small weld done.
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[happycamper68]

.035 is better then .030 I get my wire from menards seems like get better welds, then wire from tsc or harbor freight.
I have used a mig welder with the gas shield and there was more spatter then my flux core welder.

[k.a.m.]

Making sure your weld area is clean will reduce your splatter. Just about every weld I have seen that was done with shielded gas was nearly void of any splatter. The same goes with stick welding say using 7018's if your weld area is dirty you are going to have a mess to clean up. You can always use splatter paste if the splatter gets to be a problem. But knowing why your getting the splatter and correcting the problem is part of becoming a better welder.
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Always remember slow and steady wins the race.

Hybrid Cooker

[TrailerBuilder]

Anything is possible I guess but all the MIG welding I have done, both flux and gas, I have never seen where there has been more splatter with gas than flux. Only exception for me on that would be the times I weld galvanized. Dirt, grease, paint and rust of course cause splatter issues. My first thought would be if the polarity is set right on the welder. On my little Miller 135, I have to change the polarity between the flux and gas, and if I don't, the welds are not usually up to par and it always reminds me to make the change.


JM2CW
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