Supplemental 120V MIG Welder - Everlast vs HF Titanium vs Other

[Gary Fowler]

I ran almost a full 2 pound spool of wire with my Titanium 125 with only few minutes of stopping and only to re-position or grind/beat to fit something. It was running on the G setting with 7 on the wire feed and it never cut out on the overload. It may only be 35% or less but it sure welds good and not issue with overheating. A friend was using it half the time and he owns a Hobart 140. His comment was "I wish I had found this before I spent $450 on my Hobart. This HF machine welds much better and burns in great." We were welding in all positions including overhead and it welded great. I did turn it up a bit for the overhead which is just like stick rod welding. Overhead requires a bit more amps but still it was at only about 80% of full power.

 

[Yomax4]

I ran almost a full 2 pound spool of wire with my Titanium 125 with only few minutes of stopping and only to re-position or grind/beat to fit something. It was running on the G setting with 7 on the wire feed and it never cut out on the overload. It may only be 35% or less but it sure welds good and not issue with overheating. A friend was using it half the time and he owns a Hobart 140. His comment was "I wish I had found this before I spent $450 on my Hobart. This HF machine welds much better and burns in great." We were welding in all positions including overhead and it welded great. I did turn it up a bit for the overhead which is just like stick rod welding. Overhead requires a bit more amps but still it was at only about 80% of full power.

Harbor Freight is now pretty serious about their welders. Titanium and Vulcan are both well thought of out there.

 

[Lis2323]

Harbor Freight is now pretty serious about their welders. Titanium and Vulcan are both well thought of out there.

And who would have thought!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I just welded up a test plate with my HF Titanium 125 FCAW machine and it worked pretty darn well. It came with Vulcan 71T-GS wire, perhaps it is much better wire than the HF Central Electric brand. I have a spool of that wire I bought when I bought the machine. The Vulcan wire is just about finished so HF goes in next. I looked for some Lincoln NR211but my LWS only carries it in 18# spools. They had some INWELD brand that they said welded good so I bought a 2# spool. I wont use that till I get rid of the HF stuff.

 

[bplayer405]

I've ran the E71T-11 from Hobart and NR211-MP. There is a big difference in how each wire welds. The Lincoln wire has less spatter and seems to freeze quicker than the Hobart wire. I have not ran any wire from harbor freight through my Titanium Flux welder. My first experience with their GS wire was not good with my old ac fc welder.

 

[California]

...I have not ran any wire from harbor freight through my Titanium Flux welder. My first experience with their GS wire was not good with my old ac fc welder.

My first experience 15 years ago with a blue HF 110v AC FC welder using the included FC wire was beyond 'not good'. It would only splatter. Ebay was flooded with that model HF welder as 'only used once' from individuals plus dozens from a liquidator selling HF's customer returns.

I returned it for refund.

Someone with more experience posted online 'it's the FC wire, its useless'. A year later I went back to HF and bought the same model welder. This one worked as expected. One bad batch of FC wire had doomed a whole season's welders.

HF's quality control is day/night better now at least on their higher price lines.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I've ran the E71T-11 from Hobart and NR211-MP. There is a big difference in how each wire welds. The Lincoln wire has less spatter and seems to freeze quicker than the Hobart wire. I have not ran any wire from harbor freight through my Titanium Flux welder. My first experience with their GS wire was not good with my old ac fc welder.

Did you not use the free roll of wire that came with the machine? I thought the Vulcan wire that came with mine welded pretty good, lots of sparks and spatter but the weld is good and it burns in well.

 

[bplayer405]

Did you not use the free roll of wire that came with the machine? I thought the Vulcan wire that came with mine welded pretty good, lots of sparks and spatter but the weld is good and it burns in well.

No, I didn't. That wire went with the sale of my Chicago Electric flux 125 ac welder. After my experience with the wire that came with the ac flux welder I figured most GS wire is not for me. That wire wouldn't weld to itself/single pass... I fought trying to fill a hole in exhaust pipe with that wire and it simply would not seal the hole. I ended up with a big, nasty looking mess that leaked between the welds like crazy. That's not an issue with a multi-pass wire. It will weld to a previous weld and seal holes fairly easily.

 

[Gary Fowler]

No, I didn't. That wire went with the sale of my Chicago Electric flux 125 ac welder. After my experience with the wire that came with the ac flux welder I figured most GS wire is not for me. That wire wouldn't weld to itself/single pass... I fought trying to fill a hole in exhaust pipe with that wire and it simply would not seal the hole. I ended up with a big, nasty looking mess that leaked between the welds like crazy. That's not an issue with a multi-pass wire. It will weld to a previous weld and seal holes fairly easily.

I have never heard of any welding wire or electrode that is for single pass use. You just have to clean the flux and contaminates off between passes. Welding on a muffler is about the worst case for contaminated welds. First is the galvanized coating that is on them (unless you have a stainless steel exhaust which some vehicles have), then you have all the gunk that is left from your engine burning gasoline not to mention the road grime that gets into a cracked exhaust. That is why muffler shops want to do a complete rebuild rather than try to weld on the old pipe.

Regardless, the Vulcan wire welds really well. I still havent found any Lincoln 211 that everyone is bragging about, but I will keep on the look out.

 

[bplayer405]

I have never heard of any welding wire or electrode that is for single pass use. You just have to clean the flux and contaminates off between passes. Welding on a muffler is about the worst case for contaminated welds. First is the galvanized coating that is on them (unless you have a stainless steel exhaust which some vehicles have), then you have all the gunk that is left from your engine burning gasoline not to mention the road grime that gets into a cracked exhaust. That is why muffler shops want to do a complete rebuild rather than try to weld on the old pipe.

Regardless, the Vulcan wire welds really well. I still havent found any Lincoln 211 that everyone is bragging about, but I will keep on the look out.

There's plenty of examples with some research. -GS can be either depending on the manufacturer and their testing. Vulcan doesn't list whether it is single or multi-pass wire on the HF website. So, its a gamble from anyone's perspective until tried. Good to hear that it could be a multi-pass wire.

 

[Gary Fowler]

All of those screen shots mostly say "best suited" not that it cant be welded over with another pass.
I stand by my statement that ALL welding electrodes/wire can be welded using multi-pass. Also all flux-core wire can benefit from a shielding gas for a smoother weld with less spatter.

I welded my 3/8" test plate with open butt root pass downhill and it made a very good root pass with good penetration and sidewall fusion. I then prepped it just like I would a 6010 root by grinding it to remove any high spots and to remove the slag. Then I made two more passes to fill and cap and had no problems welding over the bottom passes.

 

[bplayer405]

That's awesome. Not my experience with the old Chicago Electric flux core wire that came with their flux 125 welder. Didn't matter if it was cleaned, a subsequent weld would not weld to any previous with that welder and wire. Once I switched to Hobart's E71T-11 wire that issue was solved.

I never even looked at the wire that came with my Titanium welder because it was GS wire. I may try some Vulcan wire to see how it does for me. Thanks for the info.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I posted in another thread that I got INWELD wire at my local welding supply cheaper ($13.99) than Vulcan wire at HF ($19.99) for the same GS wire. The INWELD wire works well but welds different. It really sizzles compared to the Vulcan. It sounds more like running a hot 6010 on straight polarity.

 

[Lowensenf]

Instead of plugging into the wall I have a 10' cord that stays plugged in all the time and I plug into it. It lays on one of the carts so it's easy to use but I'm Continuously plugging and unplugging cords. I have 2= 230v outlets surrounded by cords. I'll be adding this simplification soon.

If the units remain on the cart, why not wire both to a junction box on the cart, and that to a long power cord 10GA? that plugs into your 220VAC outlet?

If you ever need to swap out a unit, then you will need a bit of extra effort to disconnect it and connect the new one - but 'till then, never need to swap plugs again and no excess wire on the cart.