Finally someone who makes sense and clearly explains things without talking about the weather or using a lot of ums and pauses. Thanks for the articulate instructions!!!
@Guitargreat confusing comment you respond to Anthony who says you DON'T drag a wire then you say you would never be caught dragging so your statement agrees with what he said even though you say you don't agree...
I have this welder. My training...youtube videos. My welds look like dog turds, however...my hay wagon has taken 300-400 hits from 50 lbs flying bales from my kicker and my weld is still holding. I'll consider it a win. LOL
LOL! Good job! I think my welding is worse than whatever yours is and you’re putting it through rigorous testing. I’ve only had mine for a couple weeks and both use cases haven’t had to withstand any substantial strain. I’m sure they’ll break though and I’m sure I can learn and improve. Farmer you have yourself a blessed day and may your hay in May prosper I pray.
You think this would do the trick for a minor frame patch on an old truck? I've got a 97 C/K blazer and the lift point on passenger side is just about doneskis.
I bought that same welder over 7 years ago I still have it and with 100's of hours of use I'm actually impressed the little thing still works, for the money you can't beat it
They are great welders. I have two, the Chicago flux 125 and a Jegs 100 flux I bought off Amazon for like $120. Both weld great and are very handy to have. Fact is most ppl that hate on them can't weld to start with so they blame the machine. These machines have lots of potential if the one holding the torch does their part
i have watch hundreds of welding videos and not one person has said to wait tell you see the weld puddle form i think this might be the trick for me i alway struggle to see the weld puddle that everyone talks about thanks man liked and subscribed.
I went to college for auto trades, and the administration thought that i should be able to learn how to weld within 2 1/2 weeks. I didn’t learn a damn thing, and the instructors made almost no effort to help me out. I’m really glad you made this video because I’ll be grabbing one of those flux 125 welders to try and get the education that a state university couldn’t give me.
Nice video I've been welding for 25 years . I don't do big weld jobs anymore. I do small weld jobs and this welder from harbor Freight is worth the money had mine for 5 years you did a fantastic job on your video for people that buy one of these welders and like to do their own work this will really help them out you did a fantastic job
Most concise and helpful guy on UA-cam. You don’t just tell me how but you also tell me why and that to me is the best way to learn. Thanks dude. I’m tired of dying from exhaust fumes in my work car so here goes nothing
Great video. Very helpful. Just picked up a 125 today for $85 + plus. This is my first time ever welding - it literary took all day to finally get somewhat of a decent weld. I can now see the pool as I weld and have a little control over it now. It'll take time to get better. Videos like these really is a big help. Thank you much!
Sj Canalita For you and all entering the welding world, buy a good welding helmet with auto darkening shield and a couple different levels of shades for said helmet. Each of us see welds differently with different shades. Great tutorial video!
You are welcome, thanks for watching! That sign was from the video before this one. Harbor freight slapped a new label on a welder and called it a different welder, and I joked that I'm not an expert but I can slap a new label on and now I am an expert.
I bought a $150 Campbell Hausfeld welder from walmart back in 2001. Worked its ASS off for 9yrs ! Only thing I did was splice in 20' piece of household romex to the wall plug cord so it was more portable around a build. This dude is spot on ! Thanks for keeping the content real .
I was originally taught to weld in a HS shop class and was just good at it. Then I went into steel fabricating and loved it. I got out of construction type work so I have to think back but, I seem to remember being taught to push with your rod or wire tipped in the direction you're welding so you're preheating the steel ahead of you. It seems I may have held it closer to 90 degrees and used a "U" shape motion, where you spend a little more time on the steel and drag across the gap. I never cared for the circle motion because I felt it was easier to introduce garbage into the weld. Some projects required X-ray welds so that wasn't an option. It's been years since I did that work but I do miss it sometimes. Great job with your video!
Great video! I've had my HF welder for over 5 years now and have used it on many projects. Just this evening I finished welding up a stand made of heavy 4" channel iron for my 1 hp buffer. Years ago I was a certified welder, with much of my work completed in nuclear power plants. One technique I learned works very well with my HF flux core unit. When welding on heavier steels using a fillet weld, I apply a backwards "J" weave stringer. This allows the puddle to fill in for a brief second and then you carry off the excess flux using the tail of the reversed "J" and then sweep back up to do more fill in. This allows for excellent fill in and heat distribution.
Im one project deep, about an hour of actual welding (maybe less) and i have no idea what your talking about , but it sounds useful. Any tips or resources for beginners?
Thats correct I’ve watched a lot of welding videos, but you’ve done the best most simplest explanation. Puddles back in my youth it took me a long time to master I was real good at straight up oxy acetylene welding and braising. .
I built a trailer for my mower with this welder using .030 wire on 1/8” angle and some 1/4”. It went together just fine and looks and works as intended. If you’re a home-gamer and only weld occasionally and can’t fork out the big bucks for a “name brand” then this welder and others like it in the HF line will serve you just fine. I’m going to upgrade to the Mig170 eventually and try my hand at true MiG welding. Flux core is nasty and the clean up sucks, but it will do the job.
I bought one of the new Titanium ones yesterday since they had them on the weekend sale for $149. I started learning to weld like 20 years ago and gave up when the guy teaching me died. I am thankful for channels like this.
Just bought the same welder 2 days ago, and did my first weld job yesterday, didn't look as pretty as yours, but weld is strong on my office chair, used a flapper disc to sand smooth, primer and then black paint. rock solid. I was skeptical on the price vs doing the job, but it worked beautifully. I cam to this channel to get tips and tricks to improve my skills. Awesome video, clear ,concise , practical knowledge and implementation... I really found it helpful and informative.....Great Job!!!!
Great Video with good advice & tips, Have you tried placing a glass shade 11-12 in front of your camera ? With 40 years under the hood, I have a decent understanding of welding. I started tig welding stainless from 11 gauge sheet metal to stick welding 3/8" and 1/2" plate for fish processing boats in Alaska, and I retired as a structural Ironworker, double-teaming American Standard Wide-flange columns with 4" + flanges that were 20"+ wide. I was the first in my state to become certified to the standards set by FEMA after the 1994 Northridge earthquake & those welds were tested for absolutely Zero occlusions. The best advice I received when I was young was from a FEMALE welder. You give good, sound advice in your video, but there's something you did that's going to be instinctual, that you didn't vocalize.... When you were welding metals of dissimilar thickness, you focused your wire on the thickest part (great technique) and you talked about using that bushing on the muffler pipe, you just forgot to mention focusing on the heavier metal because you naturally covered it in your head. Nice work, you've got good sound advice that will hopefully allow your viewers to skip the embarrassing first welds that my step-dad saved on an old piece of angle for 30 years.
I think you need to put up some videos of welding for beginners. You sound very knowledgeable! I really need to learn to weld. We live on a farm and I cant tell you how much money has been spent getting someone out here to repair this and that. And the majority of the time the Welders spend tops 15 minutes fixing something. Mostly pipe fencing. And recently a few horse carriages. So it's about time I learn and safe us all some money. Besides it's something I've always been interested in! So if you are able or interested in I encourage you to do videos.
Used my titanium flux 125 first time yesterday and after watching this video I understand what I was doing wrong. Thanks for your detailed explanation on controlling the pool, etc. 👍🏼
I agree with David Keppler, Good review, and great advice. Easy, and to the point unlike many UA-camr's I belive just love to hear themselves talk and tell you a bunch of CRAP that you don't need to know, and generally has little to do with the reason you searched for the information in the first, second, and third place. Thanks for a good review and the advice to amature welders like myself that last welded in high school some 45 plus years ago.
You are good! Great video for a beginner. Just what I was looking for. I'm subscribed. I am a 72 year old guy who is over educated, so when I say you are good, I mean you know what you are talking about, you clearly present the information, you give tips that aren't available elsewhere, and you are not irritating. Some get on your nerves either in the beginning or in the course of a few videos. You don't. Glad I found this channel. Keep up the good work. I will be back for much more.
I'm glad you found my channel too! I do try to be helpful but not annoying. At the end of the day I make videos because I like watching videos, so I'm glad I can make helpful content! Thanks for the kind words!
I have this welder, bought it before this fine video was made. I followed some of the tips here that were posted in the HF review section for this welder and it makes a huge difference in performance. One thing not noted here...HF supplies this welder with a MIG gas shielded nozzle. I have no idea why, as you aren't welding with gas and it really blocks the view of the weld puddle. As a beginner everyone kept talking about the "puddle" and had no idea what they were referring too. Removed the shielded nozzle and put on a gasless flux core tip. It was huge AHA! moment for me.I could finally see what I was doing and move the puddle better. Almost 5 years later and I'm passing the old flux core to my son and just bought the HF TITANIUM UNLIMITED 200 Professional Multiprocess Welder.
Great advice my friend! I've been having fits trying to weld with my cheapo 125. Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise with hackers like me!!
Thank you for showing the general setup. You also told the key general points to welding. One thing to prevent blow out is to do joint or gap weld (I can't think of what it's called), then come back and fill in the gaps so there is one continuous weld all around. Great job.
Fantastic video. You covered points that others don't mention or emphasize enough. You are very good at this so keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Great video very informative and well spoken. As a self taught fluxcore welder myself one of the most helpful tips I was given in the learning process was stick out. I like a lot of noobs would just cram that point in and jerk that trigger fully expecting perfect fillers lol.
I just bought the flux 125 welder kit couple days ago when my local HF was having the garage sale! Good timing on this vid too! Learning to weld so i went and tried to find the latest videos. And bam your upload! Thanks man
Thank you so much for posting this video. I've been getting back into practicing with my HF welder for doing exhaust work, and you just explained something that I had a suspicion about but haven't seen it in a video before specifically mentioned. (the concentrating the heat at the very start until the puddle forms). I slowed myself down and just did it to see what happens since it made sense in my head with 0 welding experience...and sure enough the bead was much better than any that I'd laid down before. Time to get some more scrap metal to practice on, over and over and over and over and over and over again :)
You're welcome man! It can be tricky when first starting out, but the welder will do the job as long as you can be patient and do what you need to do. Biggest things are puddling it up, and cleaning the welds after. Mine has done lots of exhaust systems and they hold up great! Good luck!
I want to say that I went home last night and went right to the basement to get some practice in after not really messing with this for maybe 6-8 months (still only touched it a couple of times trying to learn it to no success). Watching your video and JUST the tip about waiting for the puddle to form (something I've never heard anyone say specifically) and how to manipulate it from there.....I managed within maybe 5 minutes of checking wire speed and cleaning the old parts for testing....laid my first proper bead. I managed to practice for about 30-45 minutes laying beads around a few old exhaust couplers I had, and it went awesome! Thank you SO much for saying just that one line and showing everything you did. I was trying to move too quickly and I couldn't get anything to work properly and just some thin lines and stuff I wouldn't trust if it was work I NEEDED to be done right. Wait for the puddle to form. Make sure you stay in the puddle. Focus the heat on the lower pipe in that overlapped union. Boom, I can stick things together now and they didn't look like crap or break haha. Thanks again, time for more practicing.
Kamukix Man, it's really good to hear! So many people just dont know, and they're really only a few pointers away from being decent welders. When I first learned I was taught TIG, and they literally didnt give you filler rod, they gave you two TINY pieces of stainless, and told you to fuse them together without rod. It all boiled down to two things: getting your heat right, and carrying that puddle. You master that, and you're in business! Let me know if you need more pointers, but it sounds like you got it.
Strange Garage thank you! I need to figure out how to work with material if I DON'T have overlapping pipes since it's thinner and will burn through easier. It'll come with practice, I just need to put in the time to figure that out. Any tips perhaps using that HF welder? Actually any tips in general for wire speed vs power level? I don't imagine that I'll be using the higher power setting almost ever with exhaust pipe......but maybe I'm wrong?
Kamukix I dont use High temp for thinwall pipe, burns through too easy. If you don't have overlapping pipe you can either "stitch" it together in small increments, or make some "weld rings" out of chunks of pipe, essentially doubling your material thickness. If the pipe is real thin then thats the route I would go. Just practice and you'll get it...
Thank you for taking the time to share! I bought this thing better than 6 months ago and looking to finally try it out on something. I will keep your tips in mind. Thanks again. Be well.
Saw on another channel, and it worked out really well for me, one of things that made flux core click in my mind on how to attack my work: IF IT HAS SLAG, YOU DRAG. If you don't follow that tenet, you're pushing that slag back into your work and contaminating it.
I've always wanted to weld, never got around to it. I was going to go to the community college.....Then I saw the class price!!! I'm not trying to go pro, this is what I need! Thanks!
Check your local library. Mine had 4 or 5 different textbooks on welding. Metallurgy knowledge is just a book checkout away. How many millionaires are self taught? Plenty.
Welding school instructors are pretty much thieves. In my welding class's i pay 2 grand per quarter and the instructors are always gone and unavailable, don't teach, half the time they have our advanced student do their job. basically you're paying for a shop, consumables, a welder to use, andddd then an instructor that'll give you the time of day if hes in a good mood.
Michael Smith mine is 395 dollars for a self paced course. Taught by the top welding course and instructors in the country. Idaho state university. None of the college bullshit, just one night a week for 5 hours pounding out beads. I’m taking my first course and then advanced course after this. I’m transitioning from trucking to welding while I’m still young.
Thank you for the excellent tutorial. I did a lot of stick and some MIG years ago. Picked up one of these HF 125 to do some auto and hobby work. Your tips will get me on the right track.
Thanks for making this video. I’ve recently purchased this same welder and my first 2 practice attempts on scrap were horrific. I joined 2 thin pieces of galvanized metal forming an ‘L’ and it stuck together but were a bunch of little metal balls all over. I showed my work to son and he bent the L to test strength and it easily broke being so brittle. Your video inspires me to not give up or blame the welder. There wasn’t any wire included with mine and it’s possible I bought the wrong kind. It’s possible my wire feed speed is wrong, my speed across the work is certainly to fast. I was surprised how long your first pass took. My first piece was about that same length and I covered the distance in 1/4 of the time. Thanks again, have a good day.
On butt joints you have options. 1st..chamfer your edges. You can bevel one or both pieces. 2) Leave a slight gap between pieces when you tack them together. You can run a bit colder and/or slow your wire feed. Practice your weave technique. 3) Multiple passes. I run it hott all the time cuz I want my final crown to barely raise above the flat surface with no undercutting of the home material or slag inclusion. In the old days, we would grind the weld to a mirror finish. You couldn't find which part had been welded
I was advised to drop Intro to GMAW and FCAW a year ago.. have been practicing skills in a friend's art metal shop and at my developing novice skillset found a barely used Harbor Freight 180 MIG on Craigslist to be my best bet. Just picked it up today and have found this video a lot more helpful than taking stabs in the dark hour after hour at Austin Community College..thank you for dissecting "watch the puddle" as into the hows and whys.
Thanks for the tips. I am a novice and just picked up the Titanium 125 so taking in as much advice and pointers that I can get. Well explained and to the point.
Been using one of these for years and am only just learning after all this time that you need much more stick out than normal with flux core, more than you see in most of the videos on YT. Otherwise the wire doesn't get hot enough while it's feeding and doesn't have time to melt cleanly. Striking an arc initially is always messy too, as the wire is stone cold, so what I do is get some stick out and tap the electrified table a couple of times until my wire is glowing. Then I start the weld. It also makes it easier to see where you point the gun if doing intricate spot welds. To reduce spatter from longer stick out, I have my feed rate down. I get good penetration with machine setting on lowest and wire speed at 3, and moving slowly.
The warning, about wearing eye protection, was a good addition to the welding video. I would have also, given as a reason that the wires are prone to fly out of the wheel.
Awesome video brother! I needed some tips I just picked one up because it was a cheap auto feed welder to try I'm used to stick welding and it was totally different feel and everything I appreciate your taking the time to make a good video with everything explained
Thanks for a very informative video. I’m about to start welding for the first time in my life and your video was exactly what I was looking for. And I really appreciate how you said that your stance has changed about throwing out the default wire that comes with the budget welder. It tells me that your focus is providing the most useful information to viewers and can put ego aside.
Bro you explain stuff really great for me, evidently for others as well. Just wanted to thank you. Can't wait to get my hands on welder running. PEACE ✌️
@@StrangeGarage I've gotten better, been also using different wire. Welded my own rear strut bar for auto crossing, welded broken bolts back into flanges, just recently started welding my own custom exhaust pipe and headers. Tried it on today and found out I was a little bit to long on the ORP, so I'll have to shave it down an inch and then reweld O2 sensor bungs back on. Still trying brother, getting better.
I just bought this 125 and thank you , your explanation on how to operate this machine is on point. I'm hitting the job of welding some bumpers on my 2001 Jeep XJ thanks again keep up the good videos.
I'm rectifying the AC current using a bridge rectifier, electrolytic capacitor, and bleed resistor. (also using a 12v transformer for the wire feed motor, to give it clean power). Also I'm making a CO2 MAG system for it, ya boi likes shielding gas!
haha, no clue yet actually! Just realized that I want to work with my hands more and get a job in a fabrication shop. Been watching hundreds of hours of videos on the subject and welding was always something I enjoyed in school. I do know for certain that I will be recreating the door from ZNA Productions new video at some point (link: ua-cam.com/video/BdME0bCTCYw/v-deo.html). I'm a hobbyist electronics guy so I'll be making my own rotary tables and supplementary metalworking machines (I've made things like 3d printers/small CNC mills/mechanical keyboards) and I think I want to make an inverter welder next!
What's your work background? Sounds like you have a lot of skills already. I'm lucky that I've had a few jobs that required me to pick up a great deal of skills, hopefully a fab shop will give you what youre looking for!
Another tip you can give when welding thick metal, heat it first with a torch. Personally I do not have any problems welding most things with my HF welder. It is a good machine. How I made sure it would weld a good weld is I too a .22lr caliber barrel and welded the lug at the bottom on a derringer I made from scratch and send a few rounds through it. The weld I did held very well and was 1/8th inch thick and the barrel was as thick as a Ruger 10/22 barrel because thats what I used since I wanted rifling. For those who might not know a .22lr creates pressure of 7000 - 8000 psi when it fires and that is a ton of pressure on a weld. It held, didn't crack so I would say you can weld everything you normally would weld with it. Good video with very good explanations.
@franko I've pushed a puddle many times in places I couldn't manage to pull the puddle with fluxcore and those welds are still holding in service infact many of them were structural on my 12k lb trailer .
@@yerwrng it can be done, obviously, but those welds are likely contaminated with slag and gas bubbles. not an issue for most home diy stuff, but something to be aware of
thats false. slag you drag isn't always right. with mig and flux cored you should actually push. you get better penetrations by pushing. -welding school
Simple and to the point. Good tutorial. I've been welding for over two decades and if your thinking of getting into it. Watch this. Right on point. Keep it up bro bro. Qsto.
Have you every tried to pump CO2 though the welder to see if you can use mig wire? Paint ball tank, ice maker tubing and maybe, just maybe, something different. Great video btw. :-)
acklan3 I have not tried that. I dont want to buy the bottle, lol. My argon bottle with the regulator was $410. Maybe some other time, lol. Thanks for watching!
I bought yesterday and used today. Last weekend was my first time ever and I used a mig with gas. Today on this HF Flux welder seemed like high is too high and low is too low. Still seems hard to see what I'm welding with an automatic helmet.
Im more of a tig welder than mig but needed a mig for small side jobs on mild steel got one of these for $50 and ima tell u definitely worth the price. I do mig at work not as much as tig but this little flux machine actually shocked me with the welds i was able to make.
What sucks is trying to weld exhaust tubing with a stick welder. I did that a couple years ago and had to do a lot of restarts to fill holes but hay I saved myself $40.
I love how soooooOoOOo many people say these welders are completely useless and worthless to buy. I'm just trying to weld my own custom exhausts and exhausts of friends for the cost of lunch instead of rent. Looks like this is more than capable. Even for a newb.
For real man. I hear it all the time. Just remember, a poor craftsman blames his tools. I did SO many exhaust jobs with these welders, my 90 amp paid for itself so many times!
@@StrangeGarage that's crazy, i was checking the prices and the 125 chicago is now 140$ and the titanium is 170$ so i feel like with the prices being so close, might as well get the titanium. But if I could find the chicago for 100$ it would be so worth it lol.
@@johnnyloveee My chicago was on sale for $87. I mean, Titanium might be worth it, but if you're spending $170 I would get a hobart, or any DC welder that you can add gas to later if you want. MIG is worlds better than flux core. I have lincoln flux core welders at work, I tell everybody that they are a LITTLE better than a Chicago 90 amp. Up to you, just my $0.02.
throw the recommendations inside the lid out the window. cut your speed back to 4 and slow down your pass speed. that will cut down on your splatter and give you the penetration you want. keep your bead small, same thickness as your steel that your welding, you put more heat into the joint where it matters and less into the steel around the joint. concentrate on the gap. treat .030 and .035 the same. the wire size is the filler amount, if you use a smaller diameter than what your used to, and slow your pass down, you to get the same bead size, you put more heat into joint and have better looking welds. you will start to prefer the .30 over the .035. due mainly to the appearnace of the weld, and you will have a stronger weld. don't be in such a hurry. either or, or both, bevel your edges or put a slight gap into joints. this is for the penetration of the weld. when using stick on thick metal this is fundamental and should be treated with the same respect in mig and flux core. a 15 to 25 degree bevel will make a world of difference or just a small gap. if you are going to d a multi pass, use a multi pass wire. it burns a little hotter and will penetrate into the previous weld better and gives better penetration. it is designed specifically to go over your previous weld. it also has better results with appearance. the biggest thing to having good and good looking welds is not to short cut any of the steps and to simply take your time.
Mark Cobb HoWDy, FelloW welder!😎 I gotta ask, do you collect those crazy welder/roofer hats? The gawdier, the better. I miss those days😂. Like riding a bicycle! Welding is the next best thing to having a your man-tooL in your hands!
Mark Cobb Started out stick..then Mig, Fluxcore, Squirt and Aluminum! I showed some folks how to close a 3/8inch gap with a Miller Aluminum mig welder, then finished it with a single, 1.25wide, fillet pass, on 1/2in stock. Smooth as silk! They said it could'nt be done. Aluminum comes out, fast, hot and runny. If you take your time and pay attention to the puddLe?.... Yeah BaBy! Keep your fLaps over your ear. Nothing like a hot spark to get you to dancing! thanks
Mark Cobb, I like your recommendations, i'm gonna try that. I want to reduce the splatter and more penetration with my Forney 125 flux welder. I hope your recommendation works the same.
good video, im sure your a pro welder. Im not a pro but i use my welder, basically the same dam thing, good quality wire and i get PRO welds out of it, you have to know these machines and with 20 hours of welding even a pro can make this turd box make epic nice welds.
I have one also. Place the machine near you so you can touch it and then set the voltage a little high and as you are welding keep one hand on the wire speed nob with it down low and as you weld slowly turn up the wire speed until it creates a puddle with low spatter and good penetration.Good luck. That's how I adjust the gun on ships.
Finally someone who makes sense and clearly explains things without talking about the weather or using a lot of ums and pauses. Thanks for the articulate instructions!!!
Thanks man! I'm working on making good content, glad to hear it's paying off! Thanks for watching!
By the way have you seen other UA-cam channels
Or using gas.
U don't drag a wire welder (mig) u push it and drag a stick
@Guitargreat confusing comment you respond to Anthony who says you DON'T drag a wire then you say you would never be caught dragging so your statement agrees with what he said even though you say you don't agree...
I have this welder. My training...youtube videos. My welds look like dog turds, however...my hay wagon has taken 300-400 hits from 50 lbs flying bales from my kicker and my weld is still holding. I'll consider it a win. LOL
It doesn't matter what it looks like mi amigo if it holds however you can get pretty welds if u use Lincoln wire and slow it down
Mine look like herpes break out lolol cluster f.
¾0
LOL! Good job! I think my welding is worse than whatever yours is and you’re putting it through rigorous testing. I’ve only had mine for a couple weeks and both use cases haven’t had to withstand any substantial strain. I’m sure they’ll break though and I’m sure I can learn and improve. Farmer you have yourself a blessed day and may your hay in May prosper I pray.
You think this would do the trick for a minor frame patch on an old truck? I've got a 97 C/K blazer and the lift point on passenger side is just about doneskis.
I bought that same welder over 7 years ago I still have it and with 100's of hours of use I'm actually impressed the little thing still works, for the money you can't beat it
You'er right it is a 90amp my mistake they look damn near identical
They are great welders. I have two, the Chicago flux 125 and a Jegs 100 flux I bought off Amazon for like $120. Both weld great and are very handy to have. Fact is most ppl that hate on them can't weld to start with so they blame the machine. These machines have lots of potential if the one holding the torch does their part
@@tylerturner5442 yup I really need to blame the welder and not the tool! I just need some good scrap for practicing.
this is what need for startup
buy one make the first job then you can buy bigger
but honestly it can make nice money even on the long run
i have watch hundreds of welding videos and not one person has said to wait tell you see the weld puddle form i think this might be the trick for me i alway struggle to see the weld puddle that everyone talks about thanks man liked and subscribed.
I went to college for auto trades, and the administration thought that i should be able to learn how to weld within 2 1/2 weeks. I didn’t learn a damn thing, and the instructors made almost no effort to help me out. I’m really glad you made this video because I’ll be grabbing one of those flux 125 welders to try and get the education that a state university couldn’t give me.
I appreciate your explanations and knowledge on welding and Harbor Freight welders.
Nice video I've been welding for 25 years . I don't do big weld jobs anymore. I do small weld jobs and this welder from harbor Freight is worth the money had mine for 5 years you did a fantastic job on your video for people that buy one of these welders and like to do their own work this will really help them out you did a fantastic job
Most concise and helpful guy on UA-cam. You don’t just tell me how but you also tell me why and that to me is the best way to learn. Thanks dude. I’m tired of dying from exhaust fumes in my work car so here goes nothing
Great video. Very helpful. Just picked up a 125 today for $85 + plus. This is my first time ever welding - it literary took all day to finally get somewhat of a decent weld. I can now see the pool as I weld and have a little control over it now. It'll take time to get better. Videos like these really is a big help. Thank you much!
Glad I can help man! Thanks for watching, and good luck on your welds getting better and better!
Was that price after using a coupon?
@@rosskstar ya the 20% coupon.
@@rosskstar thats weird
Sj Canalita
For you and all entering the welding world, buy a good welding helmet with auto darkening shield and a couple different levels of shades for said helmet.
Each of us see welds differently with different shades.
Great tutorial video!
You can tell he's an expert bc there's a sign that says it in the background.
But honestly, ty for the tips. I'm a novice and this helped a bunch
You are welcome, thanks for watching!
That sign was from the video before this one. Harbor freight slapped a new label on a welder and called it a different welder, and I joked that I'm not an expert but I can slap a new label on and now I am an expert.
Thank you. I really enjoyed this frank uncondescending elucidation of the finer points of working with a low end bit of kit.
Thank you, I have been there before. I just hope I can help people who are in the same place that I used to be.
I bought a $150 Campbell Hausfeld welder from walmart back in 2001. Worked its ASS off for 9yrs ! Only thing I did was splice in 20' piece of household romex to the wall plug cord so it was more portable around a build. This dude is spot on ! Thanks for keeping the content real .
I was originally taught to weld in a HS shop class and was just good at it. Then I went into steel fabricating and loved it. I got out of construction type work so I have to think back but, I seem to remember being taught to push with your rod or wire tipped in the direction you're welding so you're preheating the steel ahead of you. It seems I may have held it closer to 90 degrees and used a "U" shape motion, where you spend a little more time on the steel and drag across the gap. I never cared for the circle motion because I felt it was easier to introduce garbage into the weld. Some projects required X-ray welds so that wasn't an option. It's been years since I did that work but I do miss it sometimes. Great job with your video!
As a welder your explanation and not making excuses on equipment was excellent and concise, well done man. Keep up the good work and I’m subscribing 👍
Great video! I've had my HF welder for over 5 years now and have used it on many projects. Just this evening I finished welding up a stand made of heavy 4" channel iron for my 1 hp buffer. Years ago I was a certified welder, with much of my work completed in nuclear power plants. One technique I learned works very well with my HF flux core unit. When welding on heavier steels using a fillet weld, I apply a backwards "J" weave stringer. This allows the puddle to fill in for a brief second and then you carry off the excess flux using the tail of the reversed "J" and then sweep back up to do more fill in. This allows for excellent fill in and heat distribution.
Im one project deep, about an hour of actual welding (maybe less) and i have no idea what your talking about , but it sounds useful.
Any tips or resources for beginners?
@@nateb4543 he's making repeated upside-down Js for the weld pattern.
This was the most concise explanation - as a total noob it was exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you!!!
Thats correct I’ve watched a lot of welding videos, but you’ve done the best most simplest explanation. Puddles back in my youth it took me a long time to master I was real good at straight up oxy acetylene welding and braising. .
I built a trailer for my mower with this welder using .030 wire on 1/8” angle and some 1/4”. It went together just fine and looks and works as intended. If you’re a home-gamer and only weld occasionally and can’t fork out the big bucks for a “name brand” then this welder and others like it in the HF line will serve you just fine. I’m going to upgrade to the Mig170 eventually and try my hand at true MiG welding. Flux core is nasty and the clean up sucks, but it will do the job.
I bought one of the new Titanium ones yesterday since they had them on the weekend sale for $149. I started learning to weld like 20 years ago and gave up when the guy teaching me died. I am thankful for channels like this.
Not a welder but just bought that welder to fix my fence and came to watch your video you got yourself a new subscriber. Great video
I find using the anti spatter spray works really well with flux core
I've actually found that I like Harbor Freight wire better than Radnor or Lincoln, and it costs 40% less. Good video man!
Just bought the same welder 2 days ago, and did my first weld job yesterday, didn't look as pretty as yours, but weld is strong on my office chair, used a flapper disc to sand smooth, primer and then black paint. rock solid. I was skeptical on the price vs doing the job, but it worked beautifully. I cam to this channel to get tips and tricks to improve my skills. Awesome video, clear ,concise , practical knowledge and implementation... I really found it helpful and informative.....Great Job!!!!
Great Video with good advice & tips, Have you tried placing a glass shade 11-12 in front of your camera ? With 40 years under the hood, I have a decent understanding of welding. I started tig welding stainless from 11 gauge sheet metal to stick welding 3/8" and 1/2" plate for fish processing boats in Alaska, and I retired as a structural Ironworker, double-teaming American Standard Wide-flange columns with 4" + flanges that were 20"+ wide. I was the first in my state to become certified to the standards set by FEMA after the 1994 Northridge earthquake & those welds were tested for absolutely Zero occlusions. The best advice I received when I was young was from a FEMALE welder. You give good, sound advice in your video, but there's something you did that's going to be instinctual, that you didn't vocalize.... When you were welding metals of dissimilar thickness, you focused your wire on the thickest part (great technique) and you talked about using that bushing on the muffler pipe, you just forgot to mention focusing on the heavier metal because you naturally covered it in your head. Nice work, you've got good sound advice that will hopefully allow your viewers to skip the embarrassing first welds that my step-dad saved on an old piece of angle for 30 years.
I think you need to put up some videos of welding for beginners. You sound very knowledgeable! I really need to learn to weld. We live on a farm and I cant tell you how much money has been spent getting someone out here to repair this and that. And the majority of the time the Welders spend tops 15 minutes fixing something. Mostly pipe fencing. And recently a few horse carriages. So it's about time I learn and safe us all some money. Besides it's something I've always been interested in! So if you are able or interested in I encourage you to do videos.
Used my titanium flux 125 first time yesterday and after watching this video I understand what I was doing wrong. Thanks for your detailed explanation on controlling the pool, etc. 👍🏼
U have any issues getting ur titanium to arc and weld. I grounded it or so I thought and never got a arc from it to weld. Idk
I agree with David Keppler,
Good review, and great advice.
Easy, and to the point unlike many UA-camr's I belive just love to hear themselves talk and tell you a bunch of CRAP that you don't need to know, and generally has little to do with the reason you searched for the information in the first, second, and third place. Thanks for a good review and the advice to amature welders like myself that last welded in high school some 45 plus years ago.
You are good! Great video for a beginner. Just what I was looking for. I'm subscribed. I am a 72 year old guy who is over educated, so when I say you are good, I mean you know what you are talking about, you clearly present the information, you give tips that aren't available elsewhere, and you are not irritating. Some get on your nerves either in the beginning or in the course of a few videos. You don't. Glad I found this channel. Keep up the good work. I will be back for much more.
I'm glad you found my channel too! I do try to be helpful but not annoying. At the end of the day I make videos because I like watching videos, so I'm glad I can make helpful content! Thanks for the kind words!
I have this welder, bought it before this fine video was made. I followed some of the tips here that were posted in the HF review section for this welder and it makes a huge difference in performance. One thing not noted here...HF supplies this welder with a MIG gas shielded nozzle. I have no idea why, as you aren't welding with gas and it really blocks the view of the weld puddle. As a beginner everyone kept talking about the "puddle" and had no idea what they were referring too. Removed the shielded nozzle and put on a gasless flux core tip. It was huge AHA! moment for me.I could finally see what I was doing and move the puddle better. Almost 5 years later and I'm passing the old flux core to my son and just bought the HF TITANIUM
UNLIMITED 200 Professional Multiprocess Welder.
Great advice my friend! I've been having fits trying to weld with my cheapo 125. Thank you for taking the time to share your expertise with hackers like me!!
Great video. I haven't welded for several years, but am thinking of getting the Easy 125. Your advice was really helpful.
Thank you for showing the general setup. You also told the key general points to welding. One thing to prevent blow out is to do joint or gap weld (I can't think of what it's called), then come back and fill in the gaps so there is one continuous weld all around. Great job.
You're a really excellent teacher. I already know how to weld but I found myself captivated just listening to how you explain it.
Iam an experienced welder you did such a good job you helped me so much you told it exactly right thanks
I have to agree that you don't word vomit and youre straight to the point. Great video!
This guy helped me more in 15 minutes that hours of other videos.
Thank you very much for this video. Just bought this welder today. $ 149. $119 with coupon. I have no Welding experience. Can’t wait to learn.
Good video and info! 2 weld jobs and my HF 125 has paid for itself. My dog pen gate and daughters riding mower deck. Zero complaints .
Fantastic video. You covered points that others don't mention or emphasize enough. You are very good at this so keep up the great work and thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Good explanation. Also important to note that a bit of pre heat treat helps fusion
Great video very informative and well spoken. As a self taught fluxcore welder myself one of the most helpful tips I was given in the learning process was stick out. I like a lot of noobs would just cram that point in and jerk that trigger fully expecting perfect fillers lol.
I just bought the flux 125 welder kit couple days ago when my local HF was having the garage sale! Good timing on this vid too! Learning to weld so i went and tried to find the latest videos. And bam your upload! Thanks man
Perfect timing! let me know if you have any problems.
Thank you so much for posting this video. I've been getting back into practicing with my HF welder for doing exhaust work, and you just explained something that I had a suspicion about but haven't seen it in a video before specifically mentioned. (the concentrating the heat at the very start until the puddle forms). I slowed myself down and just did it to see what happens since it made sense in my head with 0 welding experience...and sure enough the bead was much better than any that I'd laid down before.
Time to get some more scrap metal to practice on, over and over and over and over and over and over again :)
You're welcome man! It can be tricky when first starting out, but the welder will do the job as long as you can be patient and do what you need to do. Biggest things are puddling it up, and cleaning the welds after. Mine has done lots of exhaust systems and they hold up great! Good luck!
I want to say that I went home last night and went right to the basement to get some practice in after not really messing with this for maybe 6-8 months (still only touched it a couple of times trying to learn it to no success). Watching your video and JUST the tip about waiting for the puddle to form (something I've never heard anyone say specifically) and how to manipulate it from there.....I managed within maybe 5 minutes of checking wire speed and cleaning the old parts for testing....laid my first proper bead. I managed to practice for about 30-45 minutes laying beads around a few old exhaust couplers I had, and it went awesome!
Thank you SO much for saying just that one line and showing everything you did. I was trying to move too quickly and I couldn't get anything to work properly and just some thin lines and stuff I wouldn't trust if it was work I NEEDED to be done right.
Wait for the puddle to form. Make sure you stay in the puddle. Focus the heat on the lower pipe in that overlapped union. Boom, I can stick things together now and they didn't look like crap or break haha.
Thanks again, time for more practicing.
Kamukix Man, it's really good to hear! So many people just dont know, and they're really only a few pointers away from being decent welders.
When I first learned I was taught TIG, and they literally didnt give you filler rod, they gave you two TINY pieces of stainless, and told you to fuse them together without rod. It all boiled down to two things: getting your heat right, and carrying that puddle. You master that, and you're in business! Let me know if you need more pointers, but it sounds like you got it.
Strange Garage thank you! I need to figure out how to work with material if I DON'T have overlapping pipes since it's thinner and will burn through easier. It'll come with practice, I just need to put in the time to figure that out.
Any tips perhaps using that HF welder? Actually any tips in general for wire speed vs power level? I don't imagine that I'll be using the higher power setting almost ever with exhaust pipe......but maybe I'm wrong?
Kamukix I dont use High temp for thinwall pipe, burns through too easy. If you don't have overlapping pipe you can either "stitch" it together in small increments, or make some "weld rings" out of chunks of pipe, essentially doubling your material thickness. If the pipe is real thin then thats the route I would go. Just practice and you'll get it...
Thank you for taking the time to share! I bought this thing better than 6 months ago and looking to finally try it out on something. I will keep your tips in mind. Thanks again. Be well.
Saw on another channel, and it worked out really well for me, one of things that made flux core click in my mind on how to attack my work: IF IT HAS SLAG, YOU DRAG. If you don't follow that tenet, you're pushing that slag back into your work and contaminating it.
This was a better video then the pros I've been trying to watch. Thanks
Thanks man, I'm glad I can help!
I've always wanted to weld, never got around to it. I was going to go to the community college.....Then I saw the class price!!! I'm not trying to go pro, this is what I need! Thanks!
Check your local library. Mine had 4 or 5 different textbooks on welding. Metallurgy knowledge is just a book checkout away.
How many millionaires are self taught?
Plenty.
it's worth it. federal pell grants and state programs picked up about half the cost of technical college for me
Welding school instructors are pretty much thieves. In my welding class's i pay 2 grand per quarter and the instructors are always gone and unavailable, don't teach, half the time they have our advanced student do their job. basically you're paying for a shop, consumables, a welder to use, andddd then an instructor that'll give you the time of day if hes in a good mood.
Michael Smith mine is 395 dollars for a self paced course. Taught by the top welding course and instructors in the country. Idaho state university. None of the college bullshit, just one night a week for 5 hours pounding out beads. I’m taking my first course and then advanced course after this. I’m transitioning from trucking to welding while I’m still young.
Holy smokes, that gap explanation was what I was missing the whole time.
Same with everybody. You master puddle control and gap fusion then you are a welder my friend.
Looks like an effective welder to learn on for a reasonable price that can be used for home projects
A fan blowing the smoke out of your line of sight will help your welds.
I need to do this
Thank you for the excellent tutorial. I did a lot of stick and some MIG years ago. Picked up one of these HF 125 to do some auto and hobby work. Your tips will get me on the right track.
Thanks for making this video. I’ve recently purchased this same welder and my first 2 practice attempts on scrap were horrific. I joined 2 thin pieces of galvanized metal forming an ‘L’ and it stuck together but were a bunch of little metal balls all over. I showed my work to son and he bent the L to test strength and it easily broke being so brittle. Your video inspires me to not give up or blame the welder. There wasn’t any wire included with mine and it’s possible I bought the wrong kind. It’s possible my wire feed speed is wrong, my speed across the work is certainly to fast. I was surprised how long your first pass took. My first piece was about that same length and I covered the distance in 1/4 of the time. Thanks again, have a good day.
Just bought this exact welder. Wanted an idea of how I should do my exhaust. This video is gold.
I got an exhaust video on my channel too, check that one out! Good luck man!
No complaints with mine, especially for the price! Great video!
On butt joints you have options. 1st..chamfer your edges. You can bevel one or both pieces. 2) Leave a slight gap between pieces when you tack them together. You can run a bit colder and/or slow your wire feed. Practice your weave technique. 3) Multiple passes. I run it hott all the time cuz I want my final crown to barely raise above the flat surface with no undercutting of the home material or slag inclusion. In the old days, we would grind the weld to a mirror finish. You couldn't find which part had been welded
I was advised to drop Intro to GMAW and FCAW a year ago.. have been practicing skills in a friend's art metal shop and at my developing novice skillset found a barely used Harbor Freight 180 MIG on Craigslist to be my best bet. Just picked it up today and have found this video a lot more helpful than taking stabs in the dark hour after hour at Austin Community College..thank you for dissecting "watch the puddle" as into the hows and whys.
Thanks for the tips. I am a novice and just picked up the Titanium 125 so taking in as much advice and pointers that I can get. Well explained and to the point.
Good content! Picked up a 125 a few months back, and been impressed with it so far! Nice household welder
Awesome tips! Thanks for taking the time to do this. Never welded before but want to start so picking this up in the near future
Been using one of these for years and am only just learning after all this time that you need much more stick out than normal with flux core, more than you see in most of the videos on YT. Otherwise the wire doesn't get hot enough while it's feeding and doesn't have time to melt cleanly. Striking an arc initially is always messy too, as the wire is stone cold, so what I do is get some stick out and tap the electrified table a couple of times until my wire is glowing. Then I start the weld. It also makes it easier to see where you point the gun if doing intricate spot welds.
To reduce spatter from longer stick out, I have my feed rate down. I get good penetration with machine setting on lowest and wire speed at 3, and moving slowly.
The warning, about wearing eye protection, was a good addition to the welding video. I would have also, given as a reason that the wires are prone to fly out of the wheel.
Awesome video brother! I needed some tips I just picked one up because it was a cheap auto feed welder to try I'm used to stick welding and it was totally different feel and everything I appreciate your taking the time to make a good video with everything explained
Thanks for watching my friend! Glad I could help! Good luck!
That's the best explanation of welding I've ever heard. Thanks for this!
Glad I could help! Good luck!
Great video! Fast, No BS, clear and concise, just what us noobs need. Thanks!
Thanks for a very informative video. I’m about to start welding for the first time in my life and your video was exactly what I was looking for. And I really appreciate how you said that your stance has changed about throwing out the default wire that comes with the budget welder. It tells me that your focus is providing the most useful information to viewers and can put ego aside.
Maybe you can get up with him and toss his salad.
@@wildestcowboy2668 Thank god for people like you.
Dude, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and knowledge. This cured my anxiety of doing 18g floor pans with a harbor freight welder. 🙏
Bro you explain stuff really great for me, evidently for others as well. Just wanted to thank you. Can't wait to get my hands on welder running. PEACE ✌️
They are a great opportunity to learn to weld for people who otherwise can't afford it. That's how I started 7 years ago. Good luck my man!
@@StrangeGarage I've gotten better, been also using different wire. Welded my own rear strut bar for auto crossing, welded broken bolts back into flanges, just recently started welding my own custom exhaust pipe and headers. Tried it on today and found out I was a little bit to long on the ORP, so I'll have to shave it down an inch and then reweld O2 sensor bungs back on. Still trying brother, getting better.
Awesome explanation about the puddle. I Got a better grasp at what I have to look at. Thanks.
Been wondering how good harbor freight welders worked! Thanks for the video, answered some questions for me!👍
You do awesome work,...really nice. Thanks for the Tutorial.
Two additional points 1. Clean the mill scale off the metal 2. Use Anti-Spatter.
I just bought this 125 and thank you , your explanation on how to operate this machine is on point. I'm hitting the job of welding some bumpers on my 2001 Jeep XJ thanks again keep up the good videos.
Idk if your like me but.. This video taught me to weld ON the job. This is the one stop looking
Thank you for this tutorial... It has helped me understand a lot...
Ayyy! Just finished up your winch bumper build and bought one of these CE 125A machines three days ago!
good stuff my dude
It'll get the job done. I like them anyway, but we aren't snobs. Snobs hate them.
I'm rectifying the AC current using a bridge rectifier, electrolytic capacitor, and bleed resistor. (also using a 12v transformer for the wire feed motor, to give it clean power).
Also I'm making a CO2 MAG system for it, ya boi likes shielding gas!
Mickey Kincaid nice dude. One of my friends did the DC conversion and he's adding a gas setup too. Good stuff! What you gonna weld with it?
haha, no clue yet actually! Just realized that I want to work with my hands more and get a job in a fabrication shop. Been watching hundreds of hours of videos on the subject and welding was always something I enjoyed in school.
I do know for certain that I will be recreating the door from ZNA Productions new video at some point (link: ua-cam.com/video/BdME0bCTCYw/v-deo.html).
I'm a hobbyist electronics guy so I'll be making my own rotary tables and supplementary metalworking machines (I've made things like 3d printers/small CNC mills/mechanical keyboards) and I think I want to make an inverter welder next!
What's your work background? Sounds like you have a lot of skills already. I'm lucky that I've had a few jobs that required me to pick up a great deal of skills, hopefully a fab shop will give you what youre looking for!
I finally got to your video and you explained how the flux will "dirty " the weld, that will stop me from going back over it and do some cleaning.
Very helpful for a first time welder. makes me understand the process better.
Good tips! That machine seems to do just fine !
It's really not bad, but for $87 it's fantastic. Still not as good a deal as the $20 welder I got, but this is way easier to use. Thanks for watching!
bought the same one ... you can basically leave the gas nozzle off and you get way more visibility and maneuverability with the tip
And more heat and less splatter
It’s a flux core welder 😂😂😂
@@zerodegrees8 yeah I know but it comes with a big ol mig nozzle screwed on it.
Another tip you can give when welding thick metal, heat it first with a torch. Personally I do not have any problems welding most things with my HF welder. It is a good machine. How I made sure it would weld a good weld is I too a .22lr caliber barrel and welded the lug at the bottom on a derringer I made from scratch and send a few rounds through it. The weld I did held very well and was 1/8th inch thick and the barrel was as thick as a Ruger 10/22 barrel because thats what I used since I wanted rifling. For those who might not know a .22lr creates pressure of 7000 - 8000 psi when it fires and that is a ton of pressure on a weld. It held, didn't crack so I would say you can weld everything you normally would weld with it.
Good video with very good explanations.
Good job. You have a gift of teaching. Probably not just with welding. There are kids out there who don’t get that. Keep it up. 👍🤜🤛🤙
Don't push the weld when using flux core wire...if it's slag...you drag
Michael Davis Drag the slag
@franko I've pushed a puddle many times in places I couldn't manage to pull the puddle with fluxcore and those welds are still holding in service infact many of them were structural on my 12k lb trailer .
@@yerwrng it can be done, obviously, but those welds are likely contaminated with slag and gas bubbles. not an issue for most home diy stuff, but something to be aware of
thats false. slag you drag isn't always right. with mig and flux cored you should actually push. you get better penetrations by pushing.
-welding school
Michael Smith Odd...it seems you are the only one that says this.
thanks man! just picked up a 125 at the easter sale today.
Lay down some bead with that bad boy! Good luck man! Any trouble hit me up, I'll help you out if I can.
Cool I appreciate that! I did a couple little projects already and it gets the job done for sure.
Simple and to the point. Good tutorial. I've been welding for over two decades and if your thinking of getting into it. Watch this. Right on point. Keep it up bro bro. Qsto.
After your video, I am ready man to use my cheap welder. No going back. Thank you
Have you every tried to pump CO2 though the welder to see if you can use mig wire? Paint ball tank, ice maker tubing and maybe, just maybe, something different. Great video btw. :-)
acklan3 I have not tried that. I dont want to buy the bottle, lol. My argon bottle with the regulator was $410. Maybe some other time, lol. Thanks for watching!
I bought yesterday and used today. Last weekend was my first time ever and I used a mig with gas. Today on this HF Flux welder seemed like high is too high and low is too low. Still seems hard to see what I'm welding with an automatic helmet.
Great information for a guy like me that will use it occasionally. Thank you
Im more of a tig welder than mig but needed a mig for small side jobs on mild steel got one of these for $50 and ima tell u definitely worth the price. I do mig at work not as much as tig but this little flux machine actually shocked me with the welds i was able to make.
I just pick one up today on sale to , and I have a project doing some piping for a integra turbo car .
Juan REVUELTA Nice, that sounds like a good project!
Thank you for your guidance. I was able to understand and do shit a lot more better. Thanks.
I did some Flux welding before and this machine is good for to start out on and every time a person use it get little bit better each time they use it
Thanks for the Great Video.....it cleared up a lot of questions that I have in trying to get some acceptable welds with my Harbor Freight Welder..!
Important Caution: when welding galvanized metals BE CERTAIN to wear respirator or be outside with a fan blowing gases away from you.
And be sure to clean the galvanize off the metal use like a wire wepd or a sander
What sucks is trying to weld exhaust tubing with a stick welder. I did that a couple years ago and had to do a lot of restarts to fill holes but hay I saved myself $40.
Allen McKinney literally the same issue here. I tried to stick weld my exhaust but ended up making millions of holes down the road
@@Taronenko1 don't bother. Mine rusted and fell off.
Use stainless stick most exhaust is made of stainless steel I've one it with 7018 but its a giant pain in the ass.
Thanks for the vid im planning on using this welder to build a shifter kart and this video really did increase my confidence in this welder.
I love how soooooOoOOo many people say these welders are completely useless and worthless to buy. I'm just trying to weld my own custom exhausts and exhausts of friends for the cost of lunch instead of rent. Looks like this is more than capable. Even for a newb.
For real man. I hear it all the time. Just remember, a poor craftsman blames his tools.
I did SO many exhaust jobs with these welders, my 90 amp paid for itself so many times!
@@StrangeGarage that's crazy, i was checking the prices and the 125 chicago is now 140$ and the titanium is 170$ so i feel like with the prices being so close, might as well get the titanium. But if I could find the chicago for 100$ it would be so worth it lol.
@@johnnyloveee My chicago was on sale for $87. I mean, Titanium might be worth it, but if you're spending $170 I would get a hobart, or any DC welder that you can add gas to later if you want. MIG is worlds better than flux core. I have lincoln flux core welders at work, I tell everybody that they are a LITTLE better than a Chicago 90 amp.
Up to you, just my $0.02.
throw the recommendations inside the lid out the window. cut your speed back to 4 and slow down your pass speed. that will cut down on your splatter and give you the penetration you want. keep your bead small, same thickness as your steel that your welding, you put more heat into the joint where it matters and less into the steel around the joint. concentrate on the gap. treat .030 and .035 the same. the wire size is the filler amount, if you use a smaller diameter than what your used to, and slow your pass down, you to get the same bead size, you put more heat into joint and have better looking welds. you will start to prefer the .30 over the .035. due mainly to the appearnace of the weld, and you will have a stronger weld. don't be in such a hurry.
either or, or both, bevel your edges or put a slight gap into joints. this is for the penetration of the weld. when using stick on thick metal this is fundamental and should be treated with the same respect in mig and flux core. a 15 to 25 degree bevel will make a world of difference or just a small gap. if you are going to d a multi pass, use a multi pass wire. it burns a little hotter and will penetrate into the previous weld better and gives better penetration. it is designed specifically to go over your previous weld. it also has better results with appearance.
the biggest thing to having good and good looking welds is not to short cut any of the steps and to simply take your time.
Mark Cobb
HoWDy, FelloW welder!😎
I gotta ask, do you collect those crazy welder/roofer hats? The gawdier, the better. I miss those days😂. Like riding a bicycle! Welding is the next best thing to having a your man-tooL in your hands!
Mr. Mill actually.... Yeah I do. I also know it's time to get a new helmet when there's no more room to add stickers.
Thanks for the post and good advise.
Mark Cobb
Started out stick..then Mig, Fluxcore, Squirt and Aluminum! I showed some folks how to close a 3/8inch gap with a Miller Aluminum mig welder, then finished it with a single, 1.25wide, fillet pass, on 1/2in stock. Smooth as silk! They said it could'nt be done. Aluminum comes out, fast, hot and runny. If you take your time and pay attention to the puddLe?.... Yeah BaBy! Keep your fLaps over your ear. Nothing like a hot spark to get you to dancing! thanks
Mark Cobb, I like your recommendations, i'm gonna try that. I want to reduce the splatter and more penetration with my Forney 125 flux welder. I hope your recommendation works the same.
good video, im sure your a pro welder. Im not a pro but i use my welder, basically the same dam thing, good quality wire and i get PRO welds out of it, you have to know these machines and with 20 hours of welding even a pro can make this turd box make epic nice welds.
My HF Titanium doesn't usually make pretty welds, but it always makes a weld that holds and is easy to use. A great rig for $180.
I have one also. Place the machine near you so you can touch it and then set the voltage a little high and as you are welding keep one hand on the wire speed nob with it down low and as you weld slowly turn up the wire speed until it creates a puddle with low spatter and good penetration.Good luck. That's how I adjust the gun on ships.
Excellent video. 1. Chicago electric 125 may be a mistake but it ends up being what you have. 2. Concentrating focus on the puddle.