I convinced my boss to let me buy a Harbor Freight Tig/Stick welder and the last two days I have been using it. The best thing you can do for a Harbor Freight welder is to NOT use their welding rods! I bought some 3/32 7018 and 6011 with the welder. I was having a hard time starting the weld and while the welder is 240v input and welds smoothly, although I think the voltage is a bit low. However I got some Lincoln 1/8" 7018 at Home Depot because they didn't have 3/32". Wow, what a difference! At the same current setting the Lincoln 7018 was easy to start, burned smoothly, and was easy to restart.
This job was all out of position welding on the frame of a machine and lots of vertical and overhead welding. I had to be a contortionist to reach many of the welds and some of the fit ups were not very good. So I decided that I would use the Tig instead. I managed to make very nice welds very easily in all positions except a couple where my non-focusing eyes (cataract surgery) made it difficult to see, even though I bought reading type lenses for the helmet and I wear varifocal glasses. The welder came with a foot pedal current control which is nice for bench welding. However it also had a start button on the torch but you can't vary the current. However I learned Tig welding on a machine with no current control, and learned to control the heat by how fast you move and feed the filler so no problem.
This job was all out of position welding on the frame of a machine and lots of vertical and overhead welding. I had to be a contortionist to reach many of the welds and some of the fit ups were not very good. So I decided that I would use the Tig instead. I managed to make very nice welds very easily in all positions except a couple where my non-focusing eyes (cataract surgery) made it difficult to see, even though I bought reading type lenses for the helmet and I wear varifocal glasses. The welder came with a foot pedal current control which is nice for bench welding. However it also had a start button on the torch but you can't vary the current. However I learned Tig welding on a machine with no current control, and learned to control the heat by how fast you move and feed the filler so no problem.
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