Just bought this $100 welder from harbor freight. I never welded before so I'm going to need all the help I can get from you og's

Ill be welding some k series mounts in an ef, passenger side and rear subframe.

I read that Honda sheet metal is something like 22 gauge?

If anyone can just point me in the right direction as far as how to hold the torch, heat settings/wire feed speed etc.







If anyone has any tips or preivous experience, please chime in

 

With that helmet make sure you stay in a well lit area at all times. Otherwise you will get flashed.

You might check out http://weldingweb.com/forumdisplay.php?f=28 there there is a lot more info on HF and beginner stuff

 

it says flux wire welder, i'm assuming it doesn't have gas capabilites? i would say go ahead with sheet metal, but even with that you will have problems, but i would never trust flux core when welding up things under heavy load such as motor mounts or subframes. you need perfect penetration on things like that, otherwise the weld will just stick to it and break off under load

 

Thanks man, I'm not too sure what you mean by getting flashed though, like the helmet wont darken once I go to weld?

Yeah its a straight up gasless welder. I'm still going to go through with it and see what happens. I was talking to a welder who works at harbor freight and he said I would be ok.

 

get yourself a pile of scrap metal to practice on. No experience with this machine. Seems way to cheap to be any good . Flux is much harder then using gas. Make sure you sand the galvanizing off the body or you'll really have a hard time if you get that far

 

^^^^^^ This.

Practise alot before you attempt to weld on your car, otherwise you will have an expensive mess to clean up.

 

Boy are you going to be mad at that welder once you get a hang of welding.

 

If you want real advice disregard most of the posts above/before mine... none of these people have a clue what they are talking about.

Just because flux-core is used doesn't mean it has less penetration. That is the funniest thing I have ever heard. Listen OP, you won't learn how to weld properly what do ever by just practicing alone. Essentially to become a good welder you need to understand how the metal is fused together, what the PUDDLE is doing EXACTLY as well as what to look for, and the visual signs and the sounds of a proper weld. These are just the basics - but they are the building blocks.

There are different ways to weld and all of them require different settings/techniques. If the proper technique is used the settings can usually stay the same. The angle of the welding tip all depends on direction of travel, speed, 1-2-3-or 4g position, type of weld, ect... A tack is different than a stringer which is different than a weave. You must understand even with all of this, a person can lay some good looking welds, yet have no penetration or proper fusion. Typically this isn't the case, but it can happen.

MIG is by far the absolutely easiest form of welding to do. The quess work has been done for you by being able to control the feed of the filler (essentially "rod" pressure)... Don't listen to the nay sayers - it just takes a little more skill to use flux-core wire properly. My advice would be to watch videos on the YouTube and visit sites like Miller/Hobart/ect and read their instructions on how to weld. Disregard Most of the information you have received in this thread...

PS - That welder is garbage. No actual temperature control and I am sure the feed rate isn't smooth enough to be worth adjusting. The comment about the hood is foolish - while that too is junk, it runs off the light from the welding itself... the flash (if the hood hasn't been used in a long time) would be minimal if it did happen. If you are worried about it make sure it works in some lighting/outside first.

 

$120 walked out the door, thanks for the advice.
thanks man I did a solid hour of practicing!
Win!
lol Im laying dimes!!!
Thank you for taking time to write all that man I apreciate it. Like any project I tackle, I always do my hw and research. I saw a few reviews of this specific welder on youtube and took it all in. I actually love this little peice of dung, and the tacky hood. The welder is very basic and entry level and settings are not wide, but fundamental. The hood takes care of itself, it lays in light for about 2 hours a day and is always exposed to light during welding as well.

I even did months of research on a few of the eastwood welders but at the time they only offered a 240volt. I even bought the welding for dummies book lol, I covered all my bases and plus I watch a ton of orange county choppers.

Thanks big guy

So in the time of practicing, I found a u-shaped bracket, i assume made of a light steel, and welded it to a 40lb copier base weight, penetration was on point!






And the mount joined to the car:


Please offer any opinion

 

I have never had very good luck with the Harbor Freight welder. I bought one awhile back thinking it would be good for welding light stuff.

The lack of heat adjustment really is a pain. It's obviously just a flux-core welder, which wouldn't really be bad if you could control the wire speed a bit better. With the welder I got I had no luck getting the wire speed to actually stay constant. It was rather sporadic, at times the wire wouldn't even come out when holding the trigger. Trying to adjust the rollers they seemed maxed out in adjustment to actually get the wire to spool out.

It's also very difficult to keep the splatter down. I have no issues with this on my Lincoln welder using flux core wire, it could just be me, but my friend had this issue with the one he had at work too. The welds do not penetrate and there's a lot of clean up work to do.

The only thing I trust this welder for is to do small body panel patches that simply require a light tack weld here and there. I welded up the antenna hole in my Integra with this just fine- but for anything that needs to be structurally stable, I just wouldn't trust it. It just doesn't put the power or heat out that it needs to so that it can penetrate well.

These are just my conclusions of it being a novice welder. Perhaps you will have better luck, as for me I prefer to use the Lincoln mig. It has a lot more options and is a little easier to weld with. As for the mask, I think you will do fine with it.

Just try to get the proper techniques down. The phrase "practice makes perfect" could never be more true for welding. Anyways, I just thought I would share my experiences with it as the novice that I am.

 

i used this exact same welder on my motor mount hold. i got some good penitration. wire brush everythig befor u weld it. the wire feed is never going to be constant. good unit to pratic on.

i hope you dident pay $120 for it. i got a coupon gor $89 i can send you. hopefully if your withing 30 days u can get some money back. i also go a coupon for that helmet

 

Not hating, but that weld to the copier bracket you could probably break with a wooden spoon....Consistency on the welding looks good, but welding something that thin to something that thick ain't gonna happen with that HF welder. Just gonna throw it out there that most people would be better off finding a Miller or Lincoln (or Esab or or...an actual welding machine company) used on ebay or craigslist. The older miller and lincoln stuff is built like a tank and can be had quite cheap

 

Why does everyone think the first project when learning to weld is something load supporting on their car?

Those welds didn't penetrate for **** dude, sorry.

 

Thanks man I appreciate your input, contrary to your story, I actually had no problems with wire speed or anything of the sorts.
All areas I welded I grinded down to bare metal. $120 with the welder and helmet : )
I disagree sir, I beat the **** out of that "u" bracket with a hammer and threw it on the ground several times and it was fine... Thanks for chimming in though!
So if they didnt penetrate I wouldnt be able to hang the motor in the bay, the mounts would just snap right off?

I really feel that I got good penetration man... Ill post a pic once I have the motor all bolted in, thanks for your input though!

 

Can this welder weld the radiator support back on my integra?

 

Ok, if you disagree to whether it will break fine.

I would fail that weld in a second.

My credentials for failing that weld include the ASME U and R stamp.

 

practicing on 1" plate->22g plate is a horrible idea!

and instead of doing a bead on the bracket, drill some holes in the bracket and do some spot welds.

like i did here:


this was done with a lincoln gasless welder just like your harbor freight welder.


and then you can shave the welds:

 

Idk man I cant give any advice on welding lol sorry
I cant even get satisfactory? Not even a D?
I'm definitely going to do this, thanks man!

 

thats how they do it from the factory. spot welds good if you do them right.

 

I just don't understand the mentality of never welding before to jumping straight to load bearing welds.

I've never run a foot race before, better do a marathon first.

 

It's usually not weight but vibration that will destroy a weld. The static weight isn't as much of a stress as weight being applied then removed. Have you ever bent a spoon till it snapped, or a paper clip? It's the same idea.

 

Oh no, you grounded the welds down too? Welp.

 

It's not about pass or fail... The sad part is just because you can pass a test doesn't mean in the slightest that you can weld. I am a Millwright Welder by trade - I have seen plenty of people pass the test (even 6g and such) to come out in the field and not even be able to stick anything together, even in just 1g...

OP - I wouldn't trust those welds for anything. Also, a spot weld can be just as weak as an improper stringer or stitch weld like pictured above. Your rythem seems good as it looks consistently bad. You are traveling way too fast - both side to side and down the material. Weaving is fine (that looks what you are trying to do) but don't worry about doing anything more than that for now.

Keep the wire on one side of the work for around .5-1 second (just count in your mind by saying 1 or 1,2) then move to the other side. Repeat this process in a "Z" being sure to slightly overlap the previous weld. The whole purpose of being able to "see" through the hood is to watch multiple things simultaneously. You need to prioritize 2 things in particular: work travel/what you are trying to weld and most importantly the puddle. Welding with MIG is much harder to float the puddle than it is when you say, stick weld. Essentially you watch the glowing glob and make sure it overlaps your previous weld by around 1/2 at the most (preferably 1/3).

Practice welding just straight line stringers for the beginning. Weld them next to eac other. When you can repeat them consistently then move on to putting two pieces together... I am no pro, but I easily have THOUSANDS of hours in the past 40 years of welding ARC, MIG, TIG, ect...

 

lol, well my logic was, all I wanna do is all I wanna do.
What is the best way to test how strong my welds are, or better yet how to test how well I penetrated?
Well I grinded down most of the messy spatter, I did some minimal grinding to the welds...
I apreciate your feedback once again and although you may not consider your self a pro, I highly doubt your on the same plain as other welders if you have been welding for 40 years, seems a bit modest to me. Tomorrow, (Friday) Im going to bolt the motor up and see how its supported.

As far as welding the mounts to the car, passenger side and subframe, although they sat flush, they had a **** hair of a crack but just enough space for me to shoot a bunch of wire in. Once I did that all around, I welded the outside, do you know what I mean? Even after all that do you think I still didnt get proper penetration?

 

Try to find two pieces of metal of similar thickness, weld them, then cut the pieces in half across the weld to see if the weld is penetrated.