90 Amp MIG welder worth a damn?

[sharperdill]

I found my millermatic 35 in the swap sheet for $400. Keep your eyes pealed and deals usually show up. Do your research on your models before you buy. Make sure it will do the thickness of steal you want to weld. I personally buy the largest capacity I can afford. I would rather have the extra capacity and not need it, than need extra capacity and not have it. It would really piss me off if I paid $400 - $500 on a welder that welded like shit, when I could have spent as much or up to twice that on a quality used machine and had 5 times the welder.

Hobart makes some damn nice 110 models (Blains farm and fleet I think sells them), but I personally don't think a 110 model would fit your future needs.

Don't forget about duty cycle. Duty cycle is the amount of time you are allowed continuous welding out of a 10 min span when the welder is turned all the way up. If duty cycle is 40% then you have 4 min of continuous weld time.

 

[dean owens]

can you weld things like exhaust pipes and make a seat out of a gas tank with the 90amp HF welders? i'd love to have a nicer welder but there's no way i would have the money for one for a few years. but i might be able to swing one of those cheap HF ones now. but i would hate to get it and find out that i could weld up things like exhaust pipes with it.

 

[brian weir]

works fine for me, actually if you get the one that can have gas added thats good, but i've burned lots of flux wire, then ground smooths etc, what i did do was put 20 amp breaker in the wall box, but have used one on 15 amp with no problem. get a name brand.

 

[hillbillyengineer]

heard on another site the trick was not to buy the harbor freight wire, but buy the lincoln wire from home depot or lowes

 

[IndieSol]

I've never welded a thing, but I just picked up one of these 90amp flux core dealy bobs and some Lincoln wire. I'm basically using it to learn how to weld on scrap materials. If I can get proficient enough to make decent looking, strong welds with it, I might use it on my bike, but have access to a certified welder friend with better equipment if needed. He's supposed to come give me some pointers this weekend.

I'll post some pics when I make some progress.

 

[IndieSol]

Wire feed mechanism on my welder just died. Tomorrow is day 30 of the return period so it's going back first thing in the morning. Luckily I now have access to a proper mig so I'll just call this a learning experience and do my welding over there.

Bottom line: Harbor Freight welder is exactly what you expect.