The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Welder recommendations?

It appears that Harbor Freight has their 90 Amp Flux Wire Welder (44567) on sale. It was $199.99 is now $119.99. I'm not looking for an all in one welder or something to weld 1/2" steel.

1) Is this a decent welder for body panels I might be working with as well as general angle iron?

2) Is the Flux Wire expensive or hard to get?

3) What are my limitations gonna be with this type of welder?

4) This is a MIG, right? Do I need a TIG for body work?

Thanks in advance for any comments or feedback.

Rance

The machine may work just fine for you but the flux core wire is not meant for thin sheet metal use. The MIG process uses a shielding gas and a solid wire. The flux core process, while meant for welding thicker material, can be used for sheet metal but the wire size will have to be reduced and the welds will not be as clean. Can you make it work? More than likely. So in answer to your questions.
1. possibly but you get what you pay for. I bought a Lincoln 135 machine and got a two year warranty. You machine will have little resale value once you are done.
2. No, you can get it at Home Depot/Sears/Ace Hardware.
3. Welds will need to be cleaned prior to finishing. Very difficult to weld thin sheet metal using flux core compared to MIG.
4. It is a wire feed welder. It will perform MIG operations IF you hook up a inert gas bottle and a regulator. You do not need TIG for body panels.

Harbor Freight has a dual mig welder that does flux wire or gas sheilded. To do gas you need a bottle, regulator, tank, special handle/hose and tips(and probably a cart to keep everything close to eachother). I think the $119 version is flux only.

The Dual Purpose welders often come with just the handle/hose and internal set up to use gas but not the regulator or bottle. Some kits include the regulator and some extra tips too.

I looked at both and decided to go with a dual purpose welder and ended up with a Lincoln MigPak 15 which I think is a canadian name for the SP175- It is a 220 volt welder that puts out 30-175 amps of welding power. It came with the regulator, hoses, handle, tips, face sheild, etc... and I paid about $400 on ebay for it. The bottle was about $200 with a fill. Then I bought a cart at HF for $40 (I think). Also a self darkening helmet for $50. Solid wire and flux wire cost about the same and can be bought all over the place- HF, home depo, sears, lowes, etc...

A friend of mine has the flux welder you are looking at and gets by with it. He spends more time cleaning up the welds than I do, but grinding wheels and flapper discs are cheaper that a big welder. The problem he runs into is getting thin enough flux wire to weld the body panels. If the wire is too thick and you have the amps set too high you can burn holes rather than welding.

There are two or three things to think about with welders- Input, output and duty cycle.

Input- 110 or 220, if 220 single phase or dual?

Output- how many amps? (higher amps for thicker metal). 90amps might get you by for 3/8ths steel. I wouldn't use it for frame welds, but it'll do exhuast pipes, metal fence posts, fabbed brackets and body panels (see above).

Duty cycle- For home use not that important. Duty cycle means basically many of the next ten minutes can I use it before it has to rest- 10% one minute 50%=five minutes. This isn't too critical for hobby welding or with mig welders. Hobby welders doing body panels need to sticth weld= 1" of weld, space 1" weld... during the 'space' the welder is resting. Also, most mig welders have thermal protection circuits that will shut down the welder if it gets to hot, the way it does when it exceeds the duty cycle. If you are doing industrial welding duty cycle is more critical.

Correction-

Input- 110 or 220? If 220 single or THREE phase?

Mine is 220 single phase and it plugs into where my electric dryer is and has the same input- 30 amps, so I didn't need to change the breaker.

Three phase is usually only for industrial applications. You cannot get three phase in your garage or use a 3 phase machine.

I have the 200 amp HF unit. I got it for $40, it was a store return that would not feed wire. After removing the broken piece of wire from the liner, it has worked great. I spent twice as much for rent/fill on argon/co2 bottle. I have been fairly impressed with the Chinese welder, the cord & leads are very short, but a longer power cord helped a bunch. It welds metal together just like a Miller does, but I'm positive it won't last as long. brian

64fleetside-

For $40 you scored!

A hotrodder friend of mine who is in his 60s said the maker of the HF welder used to be a pretty good brand and fairly expensive. Now I think they are built off-shore and the quality ain't what it used to be.

nm51-its definately Chinese, Chicago Electric brand(haha),,has plastic rollers on the wire drive. it powered up & for $40 I felt I couldn't go wrong. I think they are usually around $200, well worth that IMO. I have welded up two truck floors & now working on a burb w/it. brian

Rance, don't even waste your time with a flux only welder. The only thing it's good for is if you're welding outside, you don't have to worry about the shielding gas getting blown away and have contaminated welds.
You'll be fairly disappointed and frustrated with a flux core welder.
Know anyone that welds? Check Craig's List everyday and try to pick up a good condition used Lincoln, Miller or Hobart. A welder is often the kinda thing that someone buys, uses a few times and then it sits in a garage or shed.
-David

Guys, this has ALL been very helpful. I think I'll pass on this one. I think I'll keep my eye out for a good used one. Thanks again.

Rance

GAZIM-

You are very right, three phase is for industrial use only.

True three phase electricity requires three transfomers on the pole outside the building (or on the ground with bigger transfomers). Most people live in areas where there is one transformer for the neighborhood. Transformers suckers are very expensive. There are ways to create faux three phase with two transfomers to save money.

Try the Lincoln from home depot,but most emporent, gata have the gas sheld.Not only cleaner, but after your done it won't worp the panels. They even come with a vido tape.Just remember, only weld about 4in. at a time then skip 4 then after your done , go back and fill in the missing 4in. spots.Realy stops the worping. Been making a living welding over 40yrs. Good luck, just remember keep it shiney bright and clean. Paul

IT IS TRUE...YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. IF YOU ARE GOING TO DO JUST ONE PROJECT, THE CHEAPIE MAY LIVE LONG ENOUGH. I HAD A CHEAPIE AND KILLED IT. I BOUGHT A MILLER XP135 AND LOVE IT. IT HAS MANY MORE TEMPERATURE AND SPEED SETTINGS THAN THE CHEAP ONES, RUNS ON 115 VOLT, ACCEPTS THE 10 LB SPOOL OF WIRE AND IS BUILT VERY WELL. AS FOR GAS, USE A TRI-MIX (CO2,NITROGEN AND ARGON I BELIEVE) ARGON ALONE IS WAY MORE WXPENSIVE AND YOU REALLY ONLY NEED ARGON FOR DOING ALUMINUM. THE AUTO DARKENING HOODS ARE THE WAY TO GO HANDS DOWN.NO MORE HEAD FLIPPING/ SEARCHING FOR THE AREA- LINE IT UP AND PULL THE TRIGGER.BADA BING

You can use a flux core welder on regular sheet metal. If the metal is old or thin, you can use a copper spoon held behind the weld or seam to wick away excess heat and prevent burn through. I did about 50 holes on my 47 jeep this way. If you follow this link:

http://www.stovebolt.com/gallery/alternate/arnstein_irwin_1947jeep.html

you'll see a picture of a spoon I made with a hunk of copper and an old screw driver that works just fine. If you have a small hole, you can just use the spoon and spiral in the wire as the weld wire won't stick to the copper.