Does anybody have an opinion or experience with the Chicago Electric Mig Welder 151 from Harbor Freight? It is just too inexpensive to ignore.
Yes, DO Ignore it. I bought one and yes, it does weld, IF you have just the right set of materilals to match the machine. There has almost no speed control on the wire feed. The amperage adjustments are not flexible enough. You are getting JUST what you pay for in this. It's JUNK. I sold miine at a yard sale and will be buying a BETTER one after the move. Glenn
Yeah, when it comes to MIG welders, what you pay is what you get. You're best bet if your looking the inexpensive route is look for a used Miller or Lincoln. And scrutinize over it, ask a lot of questions. And if its old don't sweat it. As long as wasn't beaten to death, it'll still serve you well. And if there isn't an immediate need. Find a good AC/DC arc welder. Then you can buy a wire feeder (new or used), later. Bam, there's you're MIG set-up With the purchase of a regualtor of course. A little bit later, a high frequency buzz box, and BAM you have a TIG. Just a thought.
I have heard both good and bad about them. If you are close to a store and can return them easy you may want to try them. On the other hand ,I would rather buy a used one from a name brand co. Around here ,a Miller or Lincoln or Esab can be purchased at auction for between $450 and $700. Most of the time that includes bottle.Look for a Miller 200, probably the best all around wire welder ever made. I am as cheap as anyone out there but electrical items are not easy or cheap to repair,so I bite the bullet and pay the man.
I'll have to say I think you are much better off with a used name brand (Miller, Lincoln) than the Harbor Freight MIG.
HF = Junk with absolutely no parts support. I'd check out the Firepower FP120. Firepower is part of the group that produces Victor O/A welding as well as the well respected Tweco MIG gun. There are usually a few on Ebay at a very reasonable price. Ive seen them more and more in welding shops the past few years also.
I bought a little Lincoln 110 welder, it's a 100HD model I think. I really like welding with it. I have not gotten the gas hook up for it, the flux core wire welds okay for what I do. I bought it "barely" used. Paid 150 or 175 for it. Check around you can find a pretty good deal on a used one.
What about a Craftsman welder? Are these any good? I had hearded that Miller actually makes them for Craftsman, not sure if that is just rumor or not
Hey, let me get this straight - I've got an old Lincoln 225 buzz-box; and I can buy a wire feeder and regulator that will let me use this as a MIG welder? Tell me more! Thanks, Kinky6
what about clark welders? I only ask becuase my brother can get a smaller clark mig for pretty cheap from the place he works, they only sell clark welders I believe.
another good MIG "on the cheap" is the Hobart Handler 140. its basicly a Miller, made by them, and even comes with a Miller gun. for around $650 you can have a DAMN fine rig, with bottle, that has a decent fit and finish, and is BACKED by a company that you know will be there.
Go check out the pawnshops, I ran across my Hobart 135 for 150 bucks and it works great. Just make sure they agree to take it back if it don't work, most of the time they don't really care, they just want to sell it. Good luck.
I'll second the Hobart Handler 140. Right now, I only use it with flux-core (too cheap to get a bottle), but it seems to work very well. I'd probably be willing to buy a stick welder from HF, but a MIG has too many moving parts that are going to wear out. If you buy a Miller, Lincoln, or Hobart, you should have no problem getting replacement parts down the road.
Dittoes on the brand name stuff. On the Clarke, I have one (130EN). It's not bad, but is no precision instrument. Hoping to see better performance when I can pop for a bottle. Used a Miller rig for a project @ work- definitely the way to go.
I agree on this. One of my locakl pawnshops has so many tools they can't display them all. One of the other pawn shop tips is to buy from the big, chain pawn shops - they're more likely to give you a return if it's broke or sell you something for what they paid for it...
Kinky6, NO NO NO .You will not be able to get a wire feed to work on most buzz box ac-machines. They need a solinoid to tun on the gas and the wire spool . I have never seen a cheap machine that would work. My Lincoln 250 Stick/Tig does not have this and it's only 10 years old.
If you mean the buzz box is in an arc welder, then yes. Its basicly the same thing those huge industrial units are. I see wire feed units for sale on ebay all the time. The wire feeds have post hook-ups that just connect to the coinciding terminals from the arc. Then run a parallel gasline from a regulator on the bottle directly to the gun and WHAMo - MIG. Some wire feeds even have the gas hook-up built in to them, but careful, not all do.
Yes its a good idea to have a solenoid to save gas, but not necessary. You can run gas straight from a regulator. See my other post advising him to get a wire feeder with the gas/solenoid hook-up. And most wire feeders I've seen have a spool mount - isn't that why they're called wire feeders? You have a Stick/TIG. The arc welder is simply the power source. The other ancilliaries fill in the details. Also it is best that you have an AC/DC arc machine, as I said. A lot of MIG is done on DC. I've seen it done, its possible.
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