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Originally Posted by MuseChaser
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that harbor freight flux core welder is the one i have. for the exact same reason-- i wanted to play/learn to weld, and wanted to get into it cheaply.
but then, you also need a helmet, so that was $150 (the extra viewing area makes a difference!)
https://www.harborfreight.com/arcsaf...met-63749.html
and another $30 for gloves
https://www.harborfreight.com/safety...rge-63488.html
and then to make sure i didn't run out of consumables, i picked up another $20 roll of flux core 0.030 wire,
https://www.harborfreight.com/0030-i...oll-63496.html
and a $6 nozzle set
https://www.harborfreight.com/gasles...-pc-63795.html
and $9 replacement tips
https://www.harborfreight.com/0030-i...-pk-63790.html
and a set of $12 welding pliers(honestly a waste, mostly just needed a wire cutter to nip off the burned up wire to start a new weld)
https://www.harborfreight.com/8-in-m...ers-63513.html
so i got out of HF for just over $400.
for the casual welder, like me, the hardest part is setup. welding isn't all that different from dancing. it takes a very specific rhythm, and doing it haphazardly on little projects makes it very hard to keep up. i usually don't start to find the grove and get the power/feed rates right until nearly the very end.
i'm on that second roll of flux wire now after 2 years of having it. it's a good welder, but not a great welder. for a lot of people, the finish of flux core welding is sub-par. it requires work with a grinder and/or a wire wheel afterwards, every time if the work is going to get painted if the finishing quality is important. a mig/tig isn't going to need as much. it also spatters a lot more than mig/tig, which makes for even more cleanup.
the biggest project, and the reason i originally got it was to weld electrical conduit into hooks for my ladders at work to hold drills while working on ceiling stuff. electrical metal conduit is about 18 gauge, which is the absolute minimum for a flux cored welder. there's been dozens of times on the minimum settings where i blow straight through, and it takes repeated passes to get the holes filled back in.
just about anything thicker turns out just fine.
this was a scrap of rigid metal conduit, and some chain links i cut in half.
it was one of those projects that came together while i was in the middle of home depot for other projects. i don't know that i'll ever use it, as it's quite flamboyant for my tastes, but it was a lot of fun to work on for a weekend project.
welding the half links on was very difficult to get the settings right because both the pipe, and the links are thicker than what i adjusted to with the thinner conduit projects. if you look close, i did both sides, using all 4 halves. i did the 2nd set of links mostly because i got everything dialed in on the last pass of the first set of links that i actually needed, and wanted to use the setup and rhythm i had going. the first set was almost frustrating. the penetration was either too much and blowing things out, or not enough and turning into warts, and the feed speed was always too slow...
and this was just another piece of scrap rigid conduit and an old bike wheel
this was an easy project, i'd been putting off for the last 3 years, weld quality didn't matter, i just 'stuck it' all together, so there wasn't too much to it.
my suggestion? get it. it won't make you an expert, and it's got plenty of flaws, but it's the cheapest you can get into welding, with much of the safety gear you can use for any other welder, and it can sit on a shelf for months at a time, always ready to go at the drop of a hat, with very minimal tweaking and tuning to get right-- it's only got 2 knobs and an on/off switch, it's small and compact, and it doesn't take up near as much space as any other setup on the shelf. there's no gas flow rate to worry about, just need to make sure you've got enough wire...