How cheap is too cheap when it comes to a welder?

[@kevin-pk6hd]

I did the 5$ rectifier mod to my harbor freight one years ago, it makes it passable lol. Still was cheaper to buy the welder and materials than have the shop replace my mowers muffler

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

I forgot all about that bridge rectifier setup, I bet that would make a huge difference lol. I think 30% of the wire gets deposited as spatter around the weld lol. 100% worth the price of the setup over paying a shop.

[@VashStarwind]

The black harbor freight was my first welder. That thing was a piece of crap. Never could get it to weld right. No matter what I did, and what wire speed/tension/max/low. Really made me think i couldnt weld for like over a year. Finally got a different welder, and the thing actually welded. It was a great feeling when I got my first "decent" bead. Wasted more money on wire with that machine, than the machine was worth, rather than just getting a machine that was a little more that could actually weld.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

What you described Is what I worry about with a lot of cheap Amazon welders. There becomes a point where it’s too cheap and it will hold even a beginner back. I bet that feeling when things actually worked for you with the new welder was a breath of fresh air lol.

[@VashStarwind]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg Oh yeah, big time ha

[@Yorgh_Drakeblood]

I have that exact Chicago Electric welder I bought off an old roommate for $40.00 and for that price it’s been excellent! I’ve even had some clean slag peels on 3/16” pipe. It’s definitely a usable machine and was definitely worth 40 bucks lol

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

40$ it’s worth it for sure. It pays to have a flux core welder around, they are super useful for small projects 😀

[@melgross]

My concern with really cheap welder, particularly of the no brand Chinese (cheapest welder on Amazon/ebay type) is that there are no standards that they meet for safety or reliability.usually no real warrantee or parts available. One model tested had the work cable literally connected to the case ground!

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

100% accurate. Is it worth putting the health of your eyes at the hands of an imported hood that may or may not have been tested to comply with standards. On this very note I will have a short video up soon of showing a made in china welding mask setup that is stamped with safety ratings that fails simple UV testing. A sticker or paint saying it meets standards is as worthless as the ink it took to print it on. Testing and compliance is far more important.

[@michaelwhiting878]

It would have been interesting to repeat this test with a good quality fresh Flux Core wire especially for the Chicago Electric machine. There is no doubt the Fire Power and ESAB will produce good welds, even with old crappy wire they did well.

[@steeveejee4647]

i had the same welder when I first started and made some really decent stuff with it although i used a ton of anti spatter spray an kept it cranked and controlled everything with my speed of travel it was my first machine and i got my moneys worth out of it for sure

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

The anti spatter spray could make a ton of difference. Up until the titanium 125 came out there wasn’t much in the way of affordable flux core only machines. All of the common welders were just like the one in the video: A/c output, high low for voltage, etc. Many people started with such machines and if that’s what you got you can make it work for sure. I am glad there are a ton of options out there now for affordable machines that are DC output. Makes it a lot easier to make decent welds.

[@steeveejee4647]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg since then i got a titanium mig 140 and it is basically set up as my flux core welder for smaller stuff plus i can run it dcen which is way better with spatter and overall performance and iys very portable

[@nancycook3733]

It would have been nice to see the welding machines after each set of welds, cause it's help with knowledge of machines cause some machines stated in video may have different names by other companies just does same job, and thanks for the video inregards to showing an in experienced wider and some one that's been doing for a while, just have to practice more often lol, and also using the anti spatter spray helps with clean up regardless of skill levels lol, anyhow thanks for the video it helps out to a degree and atleast it's honest about price of machine which does dictates the abilities of the welding machines

[@signalmaintainer]

Nice to see you finally have a guest. Hello, Brad! Great topic as usual, and for my two cents, I recently got an Arc Captain MIG 200 welder with the idea it might replace my old Hobart MVP210. I wanted stick capability which the Hobart will never have. Got some 7014 and 6013 3/32" rods to start, and moved in to the 1/8" 7018. The smaller rods seem to start arcs pretty well, but the 7018 is problematic. I figured if I had spent the big bucks on a nice Esab model, this wouldn't be an issue. So in the meantime, I'm keeping the Hobart. It's a god wire welder, even without all the fancy digital controls.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

It pays to have atleast two welders, that way you have them setup the way you like. Many all in ones have a bit of a rough start issue with 7018, that rod really likes a hot start to run right. It’s probably not as much you as it is the lack of amp boost at the start. You can work around it with practice though. I would highly recommend you look for esab 7018 prime rods, they have a graphite tip to aid starting and that can make a world of difference in a situation like you have. I use them exclusively and find they work awesome.

[@signalmaintainer]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg I think the Arc Captain has a combination setting for arc force and hot start, but it can only be changed in an obscure setup menu that is accessed when you switch the power on and hold a button down. I hope you will try that model soon and see what you think of it. It is very affordable, and seems to be a good wire welder too.

[@wyattflp6163]

Brad: Takes hands out of the film at 2:14
Greg: Brad, please put your hands back in the film!!
Lol

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

😅

[@EXTREMOZAU]

Very interesting video ,i cant even aford a flux welder

[@almostretired67]

Greg, I have a Forney 140 FC easy weld and it runs a beautiful bead. I'm pretty sure I paid less than $250 for it on amazon.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Definately a 100% better welder than the black box Chicago electric lol.

[@DG-fn7qg]

Yet another great production!

[@jarltroyreviews]

Cheap is a relative concept. The $50 temu stick welder won't dial in for me at all. Titanium Flux 125, dials in and was $149, the new Simder is still in the testing phase, but flux core seems close to my usual, but the stick (MMA) seems a little colder than I like. Reviews are coming soon.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Having something that has responsive controls definitely matters. Your description of the stick welder not dialing in reminds me of the 100$ hone brand I bought. I metered it and it’s dead on at 90amps but everywhere else it’s either 20amps higher or lower than setpoint lol.

[@joesteffens613]

It is what it is, If you can only afford a cheap welder, it will glue two pieces of metal together. If you have the money, it would be in your best interest to invest in a better quality welder. All it takes is money right. I wouldn’t want to see anybody end up in the poor house eating ramen and wieners because you had to have an expensive welder. An affordable welder will glue two pieces of metal together until you can afford a better one. Thanks.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

It definitely will, thankfully for very little more there are much better options. It’s crazy how much better the titanium 125 (and many others at 100-150$) are simply because they weld on dc output.

[@MrRacerhacker]

If wanting cheap dc output from welders but only got ac buy a big rectifier and you get dc for cheap, welded with ac for years first def easier with DC but very doable when you dont have much more

[@joesteffens613]

That’s a great idea. There’s a few videos out about that. Thanks

[@delayedsantana]

Awesome video. Please. What is the background music? With the blues guitar. Please. Looking into getting a arccaption mig 200 btw for the multi process. 400$. Have a great night.

[@slowb4lls1]

I’ve found on flux I try and run the anti spatter spray cause the flux makes such a mess all the time, makes life much better. But I still prefer actual mig off c25 and save half ya day cleaning shit

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Mig is definitely far cleaner, especially in weird tight spaces and inside corners. I can get fairly spatter free flux core welds, but when the spatter hits it’s always in the worst place to clean it lol.

[@yurimodin7333]

right now the titanium 125 is on sale for only $40 more than the chicago

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

100% worth the 40$ upgrade lol.

[@psilocin9533]

I think the main difference is longevity. I burned out $120 Amazon welder (Simder 140) in about a year, but it welded just fine for what I needed. Thankfully I paid for the extra 3 year warranty so I could replace it with another, slightly less cheap Amazon welder (vevor mig 250).
I will say that the warranty claim through Amazon was completely painless, and I'd recommend it. I think the company was called Asurion(sp?) or something. Within 10 minutes of filing a claim I had a gift card code for the amount i paid for the welder minus the cost of the extra warranty, about $30. If these welders are gonna die on me every year or 2 I'll just keep upgrading every time until I have something nice.

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

That’s a good point, that warranty could come in handy. It’s not about the equipment you start with, it’s about where you wind up. I started with dirt cheap used welders and slowly got good enough that welding jobs paid for new equipment. It’s the only hobby I have that pays for itself lol.

[@jerrysanchez5453]

It's to cheap when it won't weld

[@derekbryant6137]

I've got the next model up from that from Harbor Freight the titanium 140 I would be interested to see you do a comparison on that one against those other two machines using Hobart 21b flux core or Hobart Fab Shield 23 flux core with either 0.30 or 0.35 wire

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

For straight flux core I use a lot of 21b and find it works great. The 23 is suitable for single pass only (it can produce brittle welds when done multi pass). 21b tends to produce the cleanest general use flux core welds. The difference vs many others is pretty noticeable.

[@derekbryant6137]

@@makingmistakeswithgreg I use Fab Shield 23 quite a bit on singlepass thin wall tubing like galvanized fence posts it works like a charm and I have used 21b for multipass stringers but it was a much bigger wire than what I suggested comparison Weis I use in a older Miller 12 vs feeder 0.45 and I was only suggesting 0.30 and 0.35 because I believe most of the viewing audience has access to smaller machines that work well with that diameter wire

[@dawnac6453]

Hi again Greg,. Could you do a short video on the type of welder I use sometime in the future? It seems as it's pretty popular. I've noticed a lot of non pro welders using these. It's the small Campbell/Hausfield 70 amp hi/low switchable welder. It's a stick welder tho. Only uses 2 kinds of sticks. I have a wirefeed welder too but I hardly ever use it. I got it used from a freind of mine but the wire holding spool on it is screwed up and I can't find parts for it. He just hand fed the fire thru where the spool holder is suppose to be. His hand was actually the spool holder/feeder. I don't know just how he pulled that one off but I know he used that way. 🤷 Thanks, Dawna

[@yurimodin7333]

i have that CH welder, it sucks balls. It will only work with 1/16 rods. The titaniu125 or century fc90 blows hem out of the water on 110v

[@dawnac6453]

@@yurimodin7333 yep and if you have bigger jobs to do then you better have a dozen packs of those tiny rods too. You can go thru rods in a matter of no time. I'll have to look into one of those you mentioned. I don't really do much welding. Only for metal repairs or stuff I may need around my mines so I really don't need any of those bigger and more beefier ones like Greg has shown before. I'd be completely lost with those. Dawna

[@Boodieman72]

Maybe use Anti-Spatter spray with the cheap HF welding machine :)

[@makingmistakeswithgreg]

Honestly I bet that would work pretty well. I wish I had used some on the welding table at a minimum lol.

[@malonejohnson3356]

🙌🙌🙌

[@PittsburghWelder]

Bro the vevor 270 is tits man. I run that sucker all the way up and it runs like butter

[@tinkering123]

Cheap is always Cheap.
I'm calling myself bargain basement buyer. But I'm still a Cheap Skate...