It's time to buy a welder

If you buy HF, make sure to buy the protection plan. My 110 home depot wire feed welder works great.
 
Screw Harbor Freight. Chinese junk, with a capitol J. If You want to throw away Your hard earned money, send it to Me, I will PM My address.
 
I have a craftsman 140 (which is a Clarke welder), works perfect for most things on a bike. However a tig unit is in my future, glad I was a HT in the Navy!
 
I love my lincoln... and I wouldnt trade for a truck load of HF welders. Save up, buy a quality welder. Can't go wrong with the big 3 (lincoln, hobart, miller).

Buy a used welder off of craigslist. Better than a new HF.
 
I also have the Lincoln power mic 140 110v welder, works great and easy to use. I'm pretty positive that it's the same as the Hobart and others. It's designed in the US but made in Mexico.
 
+1 on-HF junk. So much as a hiccup and your screwed ....becomes a very expensive paper weight. I like my miller 211.

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I would just bite the bullet and get a 220v really, just make a extension cord and call it a day. I have a clark 110v stick that I used once when I had to do some exhaust work and my tombstone Lincoln stick had the cord cut by me dropping something on it. So I brought a 110 for 50 bucks as a just to get by for today and man what a PITA. it takes forever just to strike a arc and would over heat and on and on. even when I was using my friends Lincoln weldpack with flux wire that was a bitch too. Self shielding my ass, I'm also spoiled though because I take welding/blacksmithing classes at night so everything is top of the line miller and that's what I'm used to.
But truthfully just save up or look around on craigslist for either a good ole 220 stick which you can find a dime a dozen for cheapppppp, I pick up my Lincoln tombstone for 50 dollars!!! and it works like a champ. Or save up for a MIG WITH GASSS PLEASE GET A MIG WITH GAS and a good one you can find for around 200-300 dollars for a used one. TIG is another story a good TIG is going to cost yea, but for what your doing you only really need a MIG.
Remember you get what you pay for and Harbor freight is good for just extra tools to have around for when you break your good stuff and can't wait for the truck to come around to the shop and need to finish the job now. But for stuff that you are going to be beating on and using everyday and things that you want to last you so that you can give it to your kids, Buy QUALITY and AMERICAN WHEN EVER YOU CAN!! :D

Have fun, signed:
The monkey wrenching queen. ^_~
 
trying to save you the heartache :) and this is coming from one cheap ass bitch that loves to keep her hard earn cash in her pocket whenever possible. I shop at harbor freight allot but I also know what to buy there and what not to buy there.
 
There was a guy who put up pictures of a bike he was building, including close-ups of the welds, which looked absolutely beautiful. Very even and clean. Everybody wanted to know what welder he used. He said it was a Harbor Freight. We decided at that point to no longer condemn Harbor Freight welders. But could it be a case of a excellent workman being able to do a good job with anything, like a fine pilot flying a plane with an engine out? That I don't know.
 
shotgunjoe said:
I love my lincoln... and I wouldnt trade for a truck load of HF welders. Save up, buy a quality welder. Can't go wrong with the big 3 (lincoln, hobart, miller).

Buy a used welder off of craigslist. Better than a new HF.
Click to expand...

I love my small Lincoln MIG. It's only a 120v unit, but is more than enough for the light welding I need to do, I have only basic welding skills:

SP-140T_2882_1.jpg


I wouldn't use it to weld on a hardtail or anything, but for everything else I need to do like light sheet metal, adding tabs, brackets, and bungs, it's been great. The only thing I needed to buy to get started was an auto darkening helmet (it only comes with the handheld lens) and a gas canister. And now I wish I had bought a bigger canister!

-Aaron
 
I would say more skills than anything else. I do allot of frames now so a 110 isn't worth my time. But I use all of my tools everyday so....to each there own. :)
some have good news with harbor freight while others get the ones where the child fell asleep while building there's in the sweat shop. So I guess it all comes down to luck of the draw.

That guy was also using the TIG model I think that machine is like $500 dollars, I've heard worse about the MIG machines that cost around $150 something. But I would like to see how well it holds up to someone using it every day a year down the line....
 
sexybluelady said:
But I would like to see how well it holds up to someone using it every day a year down the line....
Click to expand...

I know nothing about its durability, or when that's someone's personal requirement. Although he dismantles it for the review and is impressed with its build quality.

BTW, the one he used was $279, he reports. With coupons and sale and stuff.
 
yea I re-read and for the price I suppose heck you can't beat that. ^_^ but I don't know I just like to support well made American stuff when I can, mostly because I'm one of those people who make crap and have to deal with trying to keep up with the overseas mess that comes through. My teacher spends tons of man hours when he does custom metal work pieces and always has to deal with people comparing his prices to walmart. -_-U

If it's on sale and you have the coupons and are good at TIG pick it up and let us know how it works out. :)
Have you looked around on craigslist yet?
 
sexybluelady said:
I just like to support well made American stuff when I can,
Click to expand...

Absolutely, if you get something extra that you need for the price difference. What I hate is essentially borrowing Chinese money so we no longer have to work (not that we have any jobs left though), but that's a topic for another day. When I was a little kid I remember family farmers pulling plows with mules. That would be insane now - it's free food paid for with borrowed money.
 

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