Harbor Freight MIG-180 upgrade

California

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New toys! I was offered a Harbor Freight MIG-180 AND an inverter stick/tig unit - with all the accessories - for $25. I couldn't pass this up. Prior owner was an experimenter rather than a welder, and had modded the MIG-180 as a hobby project. It was immaculate and appeared almost never-used. Heavier ground cable and clamp, a big capacitor mounted external, a longer aftermarket stinger, and a relay for full power to the drive motor instead of its current going through the motherboard. Then after he lost interest in these and moved up to a better welder, he offered these two welders for near nothing! (The docs included the original receipt for the MIG-180, it wasn't stolen!)

But the MIG-180 didn't feed smoothly when I bought it. I suspect that was his reason for adding the relay to feed the drive motor, and also for machining a custom low-friction hub for 10 lb rolls, he was trying to make it feed smoothly. I have used it with the welder on the floor and the 10 ft stinger in a straight line across the floor to reduce friction. This welded ok with the stinger near-straight. I assumed the longer stinger was more than the HF drive motor could push if it had to go around several curves.

Then when I pulled out .030 flux core wire to go to .035 FC I noticed the wire was distorted - flattened or gouged in spots. It needed so much tension down on the drive roller to feed, that this was distorting the hollow FC wire to where it wouldn't go through the stinger smoothly. This suggested a solution, a better knurled feed roller. I got one mail order from China that has much more distinct knurling.

I don't know if the feed roller I found in this welder was a useless one from some other project that he mounted just to sell the welder, or it was the original. It had very slight knurling. This new knurled .030 + .035 roller feeds flux core flawlessly with very little pressure compressing the wire against the roller.

I welded with the new knurled drive roller and flux core yesterday. It feeds day/night better! Very little down-pressure needed against the feed roller, and it feeds fine with the stinger looped around in circles on the floor. Problem solved!

Here's the roller I ordered, and the Ebay vendor. He has 100% positive feedback and the roller arrived in 13 days. He's a specialty vendor for welding accessories. Recommended.
 

California

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You guys are so lucky at finding bargains.
Blind luck! In a different HF forum the prior owner had asked about the updates that had been applied to the previous blue HF mig welders such as the relay to get full power to the feed motor and 10 ft stinger in place of 6 ft. Then he applied those to this MIG-180. I haven't seen anyone complain about the model 180 (or the black 170) so it probably didn't need anything but for him upgrading to ultimate was a hobby. Then he bought a $1500 welder and lost interest in these, and just wanted them gone. Said he was moving to smaller housing (old guy, maybe retirement housing) and his garage had to be cleared out in a few days.

I had to spend another $50 for cord plugs, and for missing stuff - the adapter for 2 lb rolls, and the carry handle, that he had discarded for some unknown reason. Still, I'm under $100 for everything. He included 5 rolls of flux wire, and on the tig/stick welder he included a complete extra set of tig torch/cups/ whatever that stuff is called, and two cord/ electrode holder units for stick. I couldn't believe what I saw when I got there. His ad had just been 'HF Welder and Grizzly Welder' with no model or price shown. He must have had the Grizzly inverter welder for a decade or so. It hasn't been sold by them for a long time. It works nice for stick, I haven't gotten a bottle for Tig and doubt I will. My application is farm repairs and minor fabrication. These two plus the elderly (1960's) 230 amp AC buzzbox are all I need.


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California

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As I noted, my welding is for farm repairs and minor fabrication. Yesterday's (very) minor Farm Repair:

This HF 24 inch breaker bar had a pivot pin that kept falling out. I didn't return it soon enough for an exchange. Attempting to stake the pin in place didn't work, the pin and the end of the bar were too hard.

I ground everything to clean metal then with Chicago Electric .035 flux core wire in the MIG-180, I laid a layer of weld over both ends of the pin. Then ground everything smooth. The weld is uniform and there was almost no splatter. Project accomplished.

This is what I have welders for, to fix broken farm stuff in minimal time. The 230-AC buzzbox has paid for itself many times over and these recent welders are getting there.

WeldBreakerBar.jpg
 

Gary Fowler

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I used my Titanium 125 this morning to weld some braces on my yard fence corner post. I had to stretch out about 100 feet of extension cord but it worked fine. I drove some T-post in the ground at an angle then welded them to the galvanized post. Didnt even have to remove the thin galvanized coating. I do need to clean the welds up and put some paint on them now so they dont rust out.
I used my B26 FEL to push one post up straight so I didnt need to get in neighbors yard. The other two, I used my Kubota RTV 900 winch to pull them straight and hold them for welding. It worked out well, but I was soaked in sweat by the time I finished at around 10:30 A.M. This 90F heat is rough on a old fat man.
 
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