Dirtbox Venom Texas build!

[Poboy kartman]

Also picked up a 10lb spool of flux-core wire at Harbor Freight today (along with a free LED flashlight. whoo-hoo!). 20% off coupons are great.

Sorry to hear that. People with much more welding experience than me have told me that stuff is crap and costs about the same as name brands.

 

[itsid]

On a side note.. the lowes welder looks exactly like the one from HF..

(112 USD.. and you had a coupon right? so 99? )

hopefully the lowes wasn't more expensive than that ...

'sid

 

[DaiSan76]

What I've heard is that the Wire you buy at HF/Tractor Supply is actually Miller/Hobart etc wire that was defective in some way, so they sell it off as generic flux core wire. I know that personally I have run into "dry spots" with that wire where there is no Flux inside it. Miller branded Wire runs much better.

 

[mysteryboy28]

On a side note.. the lowes welder looks exactly like the one from HF..

(112 USD.. and you had a coupon right? so 99? )

hopefully the lowes wasn't more expensive than that ...

'sid

I thought so too. But the one review on lowes from the guy claimed that the Blue Hawk worked better than the Harbor Freight one, plus the Blue Hawk supports gas MIG welding. They also claim to be able to weld up to 1/4" mild steel. Maybe I should pick up a Harbor Freight welder and A/B them? Lol.

Another big reason for me going with the Lowes welder is because my mom was able to charge it to her Lowes card, for 30 days interest free, which gets me a welder NOW.

 

[Poboy kartman]

I'm sure it's a better welder. Even apples to apples and oranges to oranges- Lowe's beats Home Depot on just about everything. ....and HF.....their stuff (some of it) has it's place- but they're not even in the running with HD with most stuff.......

HF means Harbor Freight here.....but in China it means "Hapless Fools...."

 

[mysteryboy28]

Sorry to hear that. People with much more welding experience than me have told me that stuff is crap and costs about the same as name brands.

according to the reviews on harbor freight, the stuff is made in italy, and people seem to really like it just as much as the other name brand stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/0030-inch-e71t-gs-flux-core-welding-wire-10-lbs-42914.html

i used it on my first few karts and buggies, and it got the job done. what really made the difference was the welder - whether it got hot enough to really make a puddle and penetrate. first welder i had was crap, would mostly just collect on top of the metal. bought a new HF welder and it was better. bought an even newer HF welder that had a cooling fan, and it was even better. but then i bought the MIG welder (the one that the gun tip busted on) and it was even better-er. lol. so if this Blue Hawk welder is as good as my last MIG welder - well then i will be very happy.

 

[Doc Sprocket]

I have a digital angle gauge that I find to be highly and consistantly accurate. Recalibratable too, which helps.

Regarding that welder- I'm sure it will do the job. However, I find the lack of a specific peak current output spec highly disturbing, and I do believe that 1/4" can only be achieved decently with multiple passes. The only current spec I could find was part of the duty cycle spec, being 30%@70A. I don't know if that's the highest setting, so it's just guesswork- but based on my experience with smaller machines, I'm gonna say multipass.

 

[mysteryboy28]

So the blue hawk's duty cycle at 70amps is 30%, and at 55amps is 45%. hoping that 70 amps isn't the highest it goes, as a lot of welders will go into the <10% duty cycle.

harbor freight's 90amp flux-core welder says 10% at 80amps, and 18% at 60amps. so the blue hawk has it beat there - as long as it can get up past 80amps. crossing my fingers (again)!

my previous mig welder was rated at 8% at 100amps. that means less than a minute of welding, then more than a 9 minute break. lol.

 

[Poboy kartman]

according to the reviews on harbor freight, the stuff is made in italy, and people seem to really like it just as much as the other name brand stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/0030-inch-e71t-gs-flux-core-welding-wire-10-lbs-42914.html

i used it on my first few karts and buggies, and it got the job done. what really made the difference was the welder - whether it got hot enough to really make a puddle and penetrate. first welder i had was crap, would mostly just collect on top of the metal. bought a new HF welder and it was better. bought an even newer HF welder that had a cooling fan, and it was even better. but then i bought the MIG welder (the one that the gun tip busted on) and it was even better-er. lol. so if this Blue Hawk welder is as good as my last MIG welder - well then i will be very happy.

Were you dropped on your head when you were young? I don't mean that to sound as harsh as it does....I'm just messing with you a bit- but you are relying on reviews from HF's website as a testimonial to the quality of one of their products?

Really?????? Do you honestly think the "I think this is the biggest POS to ever hit the road is going to be there?

I'm going off second hand information as well. .....but I will divulge first hand experience here......I had a lot of problems with the wire that came with my HF welder. A replacement spool (from HF) worked much better. ....When I commented on that. ...several members offered up that I should get Miller wire.....

So......with real life experience with poor quality HF wire- coupled with advice from members on this forum whom I respect for their honesty and knowledgeable opinions. ......I will go with that over biased testimony.

 

[mysteryboy28]

you're so nice to me. lol.

again, i'll state that my PERSONAL experience has been good with the wire. harbor freight reviewers are more than happy to say if something is crap. whether or not harbor freight skims their reviews and omits a convenient few, who knows. i've read many reviews on their site about how some products used to be good, then suddenly one day they were junk. one example i experienced myself was with their 4 1/2" metal thin cut-off disks. i went through probably 80 of them and they worked great - till one day Harbor Freight changed the recipe, and they'd only last about half as long as they used to. not so cost-effective any more! there are comments from myself and other reviewers on their site that state this, and they haven't been deleted.

 

[firemanjim]

After using hf wire for a couple years, I bought a roll the the steel supply, while buying stock. It was $13 out the door. The weld was far superior to the hf wire. Less splatter, better looking bead.... And welds consistent. It's cheaper than the hf wire. I asked what brand it was, the next time going, and the counter guy said he can't say. He said the big name guys sell their wire as a private label also, making extra profit. It's cheaper, so if everyone knew, then no one would buy the name brand line. He did tell me to think "presidents "..... He also said the kitchen appliance maker (hobart) does this too......

 

[mysteryboy28]

So the new Blue Hawk welder arrived yesterday. Lo and behold, its only an 88 amp welder. WTF? How are you supposed to weld 1/4" steel with 88 amps? Threw some flux-core wire in it and gave it a test run with some scrap. Wire feed was iffy, and penetration was about the same as the Harbor Freight welder. Blah. Told my mom about it, and she said "well that's not good. How much is a good welder that will do a good job?" I told her about $450 for one with 140 amps. So today we took the Blue Hawk back to Lowes, and she threw the 140 amp Lincoln MIG/flux welder on her Lowes card! I got it for $475 plus tax. I have 6 months to pay her back. Hopefully it'll be worth it!

 

[Poboy kartman]

So the new Blue Hawk welder arrived yesterday. Lo and behold, its only an 88 amp welder. WTF? How are you supposed to weld 1/4" steel with 88 amps? Threw some flux-core wire in it and gave it a test run with some scrap. Wire feed was iffy, and penetration was about the same as the Harbor Freight welder. Blah. Told my mom about it, and she said "well that's not good. How much is a good welder that will do a good job?" I told her about $450 for one with 140 amps. So today we took the Blue Hawk back to Lowes, and she threw the 140 amp Lincoln MIG/flux welder on her Lowes card! I got it for S475 plus tax. I have 6 months to pay her back. Hopefully it'll be worth it!

I guess I was wrong. .....again....

 

[mysteryboy28]

in the first pic you can see the crap in the middle was done with the blue hawk 88 amp welder (you can see on the left where i started with the lincoln before i flipped it over). the second pic is all lincoln 140 amps. it's night and day!

 

[loud1]

I love my Lincoln, I've done a lot of welding with different types of flux core wire and i prefer the Lincoln, it seems to put out the least amount of spatter and less smoke. Miller wire smokes so much it obscures my view of the weld puddle.

 

[jslider]

I have the 170 amp mig welder from harbor freight and i love it it is a good welder for arounfd the house and my personal projects lays nice beeds with very good penetration it is 220v so had to make a long extension cord but other than that it is good, my previos welder was the 90 amp flux core and it was ok it took a loonnnnggg time to get the wire speed and heat in my head for specific metals but once i did i could make a strong weld not pretty but strong. The only reason i upgraded was my dad borrowed the welder and when i went tpo pick it up he asked if i could keep an eye for it to go on sale again he wanted one just like it, told him tpo keep that one i had a coupon in the truck for the 170 amp for 179 went and bought it and i will say ,,,, night and day difference the little one worked the 220v is in a different class.

For what it is worth i have found the wire that comes in the welder when bought works very poorly, the wire you buy at harbor freight seems much better i looked for the made in italy stamping, but the hobart wire that my local shop sells seems the best and it was actually cheaper than harbor freight wire.

 

[Poboy kartman]

I have the 170 amp mig welder from harbor freight and i love it it is a good welder for arounfd the house and my personal projects lays nice beeds with very good penetration it is 220v so had to make a long extension cord but other than that it is good, my previos welder was the 90 amp flux core and it was ok it took a loonnnnggg time to get the wire speed and heat in my head for specific metals but once i did i could make a strong weld not pretty but strong. The only reason i upgraded was my dad borrowed the welder and when i went tpo pick it up he asked if i could keep an eye for it to go on sale again he wanted one just like it, told him tpo keep that one i had a coupon in the truck for the 170 amp for 179 went and bought it and i will say ,,,, night and day difference the little one worked the 220v is in a different class.

For what it is worth i have found the wire that comes in the welder when bought works very poorly, the wire you buy at harbor freight seems much better i looked for the made in italy stamping, but the hobart wire that my local shop sells seems the best and it was actually cheaper than harbor freight wire.

This mirrors my experience as well. I haven't tried the Hobart wire yet but did notice the improvement in a replacement spool. I borrowed my neighbors 220 and now I want one......

 

[KartFab]

according to the reviews on harbor freight, the stuff is made in italy, and people seem to really like it just as much as the other name brand stuff.

I bought an auto-darkening welding helmet at harbor freight. It kept flashing me, even when i upped the sensitivity and delay time. I wrote a pretty detailed review for harbor freight. I checked back.... no review posted even though i submitted it.... Harbor freight isn't amazon where they post all of the reviews, harbor freight specifically omits reviews (you can read it in the fine print). I made sure my review was truthful, but even after 3 months, still wasn't posted on the site. Pathetic really.... I just ponied up and bought a miller digital elite helmet after a few welding jobs. Just makes sense to buy quality stuff because in the long run you make your money back (or even short run because you can charge so much for welding). I bought a new Millermatic 211 and had it paid for after 1 1/2 days of welding. Not trying to boast, but trying to help you or others see that you get what you pay for. Sure, those little mig welders are simple machines, but if you plan on using your welder alot, just pony up and get a "real" welder.... Just start doing welding jobs for people, and tucking that cash away ($50-$75/hr and a $75 travel fee). Before you know it, you will have enough to get reliable, consistent equipment. That's just my opinion though, there are always going to be cheap 'alternatives' out there.


I just spent a few minutes reading the past few pages of posts.... I think If i could give any advice to you (based on my own limited experience) it would be to charge more for your work, A LOT MORE..... like so much that it sounds ridiculous to you.... Consider a job where you have to give an estimate before the work is complete, factor it materials, electricity blah blah etc etc make yourself $50/hr, then double or triple that estimate because it will take 2-3x more time than you originally thought when you gave an estimate. That's what I do (and i weld on the side). You probably have some moral problem with charging more than $20/hr.... well, anybody that manages laborers/employees would charge other people $60-$100/hr for the work you do, then give you $20/hr (just an random example to illustrate the point)... which is, you need to charge more money, and dont be scared of 'losing' clients..... you will just weed out the cheapskates that arent worth your TIME, and find the ones that will pay you for what you are worth, man this is just sad reading all of these posts. I really do wish you the best and hope you wont be scared to take these steps in the future if you ever do more work for people.

If you ever decide to build a buggy again, do the math in a worst case scenario, charge for all equipment/anticipated, then double it. at least 50% up front man you gotta be serious about this, just makes me sad to see this pattern.

 

[2SlickNick]

Is that the HF pipe bender I see to do all your work? I am considering getting one used for cheap.

 

[mysteryboy28]

yup, harbor freight. gets the job done, but does require some muscle and a whole lot of double/triple checking to make sure you got your angles right. quite often you have to bend to 50 degrees, when you want 45. but it's never the same twice. sometimes 47, sometimes 51... lol. be sure to pack your pipe/tube with sand (with duct tape on the ends), so your pipe doesn't crimp too much.