Tips for cheap wire fed (flux) welder use?

[phucheneh]

I was tired of having to take stuff to someone to have welded. It's usually just exhaust parts. So I picked up a $100 el-cheapo HF flux unit.

For the price, it seems pretty damn sturdy. Wire-feed mech is decent. But I can't weld for dick with it. I know the first thing I should do is get some non-HF wire.

But I just can't seem to set it up right for exhaust. I've MIG'd exhaust just fine before...but the machine was always already set up for it (and it was, of course, better). But I know a welder that has one of these for his quick-and-dirty 'just stick it together' tool, and he could make beads that looked better than what I can do with shielding gas (and a better welder).

It has low/high and wire speed. Blowing holes in pipe with high.

I get a decent pool going with low, and it looks good through a helmet, but when it cools, it looks like my weld has herpes. Bumps on top of bumps.

I don't mind dealing with the flux trademark of slag and spatter. But I can't see how people make consistent beads with one of these.

...tips? And no, 'go buy a miller/lincoln/ect' is not an option right now...as I said, I know these little boxes can do the job. I just suck at it.

 

[snoturtle]

practice is what I was told

I have the cheap welder from Tractor Supply which looks alot like the Harbor Freight one and had a tough time with it also
Definitely not the cleanest but it has gotten the job done for me so far but I haven't tried anything that thin yet
Mainly tractor and mower deck repairs

I have tried the Harbor Freight wire and have a spool of Hobart wire in now and it does seem cleaner but it could be me getting better with it also

 

[jlee]

I have a cheap HF welder too - haven't used it yet, interested in any input.

 

[wirednuts]

its a skill. you just need practice. any tips you can probably pick up off youtube...

i plan on taking a course though. theres a welders course at the community college for like $150 a semester.

 

[PottedMeat]

this welder?

http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/68000-68999/68887.pdf

i added a diode bridge and caps to convert it to DC and use lincoln wire like this

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-u...rshield-InnershieldNR-211-MP(LincolnElectric)

it does a decent job on slightly less than 18ga tubing, lots of burn through at first

 

[phucheneh]

I was just looking for general suggestions. People who are good at welding often have good equipment; but they also tend to be able to make the best use out of cheap shit.

I'm keeping this set on low (only two settings for juice) and have turned the wire speed down to around two. Unfortunately this machine doesn't feed great at that speed...3 or higher, it's smooth, below that, it kind of pumps out wire in a rhythm. Not a huge deal, but doesn't help.

Seems like I should be feeding faster, but then I'm just bottoming the wire. Or maybe I just suck and am missing the pool.

Right now I'm doing a pipe that I had to split open to get to fit right...one side is still touching, the other has a gap. You know, this kinda thing: |/

So I cut some tapered metal bits off a spare pipe and am patching them in. Sticking is not an issue...do a quick tack, then hammer it down, weld some more....but there's not much 'weld' to speak off. The patch pieces are getting red hot, but my weld keeps coming out in globs. Way too much wire is being lost to spatter. I'm going as slow as I can.

I hate metal. Such a PITA. I like fiberglass and wood.

God help me if I had to do metal work that COULDN'T be ugly as shit.

 

[phucheneh]

this welder?

http://manuals.harborfreight.com/manuals/68000-68999/68887.pdf

i added a diode bridge and caps to convert it to DC and use lincoln wire like this

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-u...rshield-InnershieldNR-211-MP(LincolnElectric)

it does a decent job on slightly less than 18ga tubing, lots of burn through at first

You've lost me. I mean, I get the gist, just never heard of adding a rectifier to a welder.

That is indeed the exact unit. I need some of that good wire, but apparently I gotta wait for the welding supply store to open up tomorrow. I was baffled when the guy at Home Depot said they had zero wire/rods in the store.

edit: also I can see how welding can get expensive quick. My anal-ness is saying 'if only I could control the feed of the filler and the heat SEPERATELY...' but then I realize I'm talking about TIG welding. Or gas.

 

[PottedMeat]

You've lost me. I mean, I get the gist, just never heard of adding a rectifier to a welder.

That is indeed the exact unit. I need some of that good wire, but apparently I gotta wait for the welding supply store to open up tomorrow. I was baffled when the guy at Home Depot said they had zero wire/rods in the store.

really? all the home depots and lowes around here have a couple different types of wire and rods. they do run out of the gasless flux core from time to time though.


the welder as bought is AC output - gasless flux core wants DC tip negative, though i guess they get ok results and decided to save even more money omitting the rectifier

 

[phucheneh]

Lowe's apparently does have stuff, I'm about to go run and pick up some better wire. Home Depot is weird. And commonly disappointing/annoying. They're just closer.

I was unaware that wire welders were made in both AC and DC. How safe is building your own rectifier? Does it go before or after the transformer?

 

[PottedMeat]

I was unaware that wire welders were made in both AC and DC. How safe is building your own rectifier? Does it go before or after the transformer?

i just ballparked the requirements - have to handle +40V reverse voltage, 120+A

there is a guy on ebay that sells 6x 150V 240A diodes for $20, i just bolted them to some heatsinks and wired them up at the output of the transformer.



one tip about feeding wire - when you get your new spool sand/file the tip of the wire until it's rounded. there's a chance (and it happened to me) that a sharp tip when you start feeding will dig into the plastic tubing. it may fill the channel as you feed until the wire cannot pass. at that point you're stuck having to slit the feed tube to clean out the impacted plastic.

 

[wirednuts]

awesome info, potted meat.

 

[phucheneh]

i just ballparked the requirements - have to handle +40V reverse voltage, 120+A

there is a guy on ebay that sells 6x 150V 240A diodes for $20, i just bolted them to some heatsinks and wired them up at the output of the transformer.



one tip about feeding wire - when you get your new spool sand/file the tip of the wire until it's rounded. there's a chance (and it happened to me) that a sharp tip when you start feeding will dig into the plastic tubing. it may fill the channel as you feed until the wire cannot pass. at that point you're stuck having to slit the feed tube to clean out the impacted plastic.

Ah, hindsight...I clipped the bent piece off the end with dykes and fed it through. Got stuck in the nozzle. I figured 'well next time I know to start with the nozzle off,' but I guess that was the least of my worries.

Anyhoo, this diode mod sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the info. Worst case, the diodes die, and it's just back to being the same cheap welder.

Do you know what the actual output voltage of this unit is? Is this thing basically just a big box that spits out the same 110v that it's getting from the wall? Heh.

 

[PottedMeat]

Ah, hindsight...I clipped the bent piece off the end with dykes and fed it through. Got stuck in the nozzle. I figured 'well next time I know to start with the nozzle off,' but I guess that was the least of my worries.

Anyhoo, this diode mod sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the info. Worst case, the diodes die, and it's just back to being the same cheap welder.

Do you know what the actual output voltage of this unit is? Is this thing basically just a big box that spits out the same 110v that it's getting from the wall? Heh.

the transformer has 2 taps on the input and a single output. in 'high' mode it outputs 29Vrms, in 'low' mode it outputs 25Vrms.

see how the lincoln wire works out first though

 

[phucheneh]

Damn Lowe's closed an hour earlier than I thought.

But I'm getting better with this. I'm back to 'high' and a blazing wire speed of, like...4...what the hell could 10 possibly work for?

I'm now able to really see the two bits o' metal pool together. The trick is hitting that point and then moving on...the window between 'not a good weld' and 'has a hole in it' is narrower than I've experienced before. Also the 'high' setting just looks/sounds like way too much, but maybe that's due to the whole 'AC' thing.