Harbor Freight cheapest 'MIG' (flux) 110v wire welder - now black, and the previous blue models.

California

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HF's Titanium series, green, is a big step up. Those work as expected. Buy that instead!

But there are still people buying HF's less expensive black 110 volt 'MIG' (flux only) wire welder. Now called Chicago Electric Flux 125 Welder.
Previous versions of the same thing were blue and were labelled HF-90, Easy MIG 100, etc.

While these are marketed to beginners, they aren't suitable for beginners, they will just be a frustration maker. BTDT!

The primary limitation is they output AC. HF's own flux wire is (was?) labelled 'for DC only'. There's no such thing as AC flux core wire. DC concentrates the heat at the work, not at the welding wire. AC has equal heat at the work and the wire. So the wire burns hotter. This likely this causes less penetration and the wire seems to burn up instead of penetrating the work. I've seen posts recommending only .035 flux wire in these because doesn't burn up as fast as the thinner .030, the diameter that would generally be used for welding light materials.

Then: only two voltage settings. My experience with the 94056 blue version, was these represented Too Hot and Way Too Hot. At the time I bought it there was a near-identical model where the two settings were more like Medium and Hot, I wished I had bought that one. Trying to weld with excessive voltage ('Too Hot') blows splatter everywhere and the wire tends to burn back into the welder tip. I accomplished some needed work with that welder but it wasn't pretty.

The earlier AC welders didn't have a fan. Duty cycle was limited. I see the present black ones have a fan and are rated to weld 2 minutes then 8 minutes cool off, a 20% duty cycle. Not real productive.

I bought the 94056 thinking it would be easier to set up and use compared to the 230A AC stick welder that I had used for several years. I wanted to learn to use a wire welder. Turned out this wasn't an improvement.

Subsequent: I sold the 94056 for $20 and bought a used Century 130, a 110 volt flux/MIG welder that provided DC. Pro quality, these had been marketed to professional auto body shops. It was everything that the HF welder wasn't. Then later a killer deal on a HF MIG-180 so that replaced the Century. I like it. But all of these were heavy transformer-based welders. I finally bought an Amico 130A flux wire welder that I like best of all. Light and it stores in a filing cabinet. Now I only bring out the MIG-180 or the stick welder if I need to weld heavy material.

What are others' experiences with the AC-output 110v flux welders?

Photo several years ago. Used the HF just to tack then the big guy for the actual welding.
P1610964rWelders,Cart.JPG
 

GrummpyUnk

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Several years ago I bought a HF, opened the box, and took it back. Then bought a 'twin' from dabay. It worked.
Then Titanium came out, went on sale, and I could not resist. Have a pile of parts to make the twin "DCEN" but have not done so.
Using the Titanium, it seems to weld for a spot, then quit, then start again, rinse repeat. It did not matter much when welding the outlet fitting/baffle back onto the mower muffler, and I was not real concerned about quality, just staying there and somewhat sealing. I had used an extension cord, and thought it might be cutting out on too much amps demand.
Then several months later, I welded with a known good 5' extension cord, and had the same thing.
How can I check if the welder is functional or crippled...? Just now realized, duh, plug it directly into the outlet.
So. Is it possible the cord can cause intermittent power. I can hold the trigger and bump it on the welding material with no sparky. The feed is feeding... but no ZAP.
Any thoughts?
tom
 

MC

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IMO the entry level HF flux welder should be discontinued. In my experience with it, producing even remotely clean welds is impossible. I'm not sure what applications they have in mind with this unit but I really can't think of any user being satisfied with the outcome.
 
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