Harbor Freight spot welder?

[widebody911]

I'm looking to add a spot welder to my arsenal; Harbor Freight has one for $199; the Miller 'equivalent' is ~$650.

Does anyone have any experience with this, as well as 110v vs 220v? This will be for VW sheet metal.

[Porsche_monkey]

Material thickness? Galvanized or not? Non-structural ? (please say yes)

Neither of these units will give you particularly good results ....if you post a link to what you are looking at I will tell you why.

You need to look for a used industrial machine, or use rivets.

[lendaddy]

Assuming you have the electrical service you should hit the industrial auctions and pick up a real machine for the same or less.

[Tim Hancock]

I would guess that the HF units will work....the 220 unit has more power in the description. We have an old large spot welder at work and it has adjustments for current, squeeze pressure and time of squeeze. I assume the HF unit probably does not have the same amount of adjustments, but once you get it set, the principle of how it works is the same. More expensive industrial units often have liquid cooled tongs and often come with different tong configurations to get around odd shaped parts, but I am sure you could easily make your own tongs from round copper bar if you needed a different shape.

You are the type of guy who could easily make one of these affordable units work for you. If I needed to make multiple spot welds on a major car restoration, I would not hesitate buying one of those. If you were going to use it everyday as a moneymaker, obviously you would want to buy something better, but for occasional hobby use, I say go for it.

Even on our industrial spot welder at work, we always do some test welds on exact material samples when setting it up and then try to peel them apart. The longer and harder you squeeze at a given current setting, the more penetration you get. It is really pretty simple.

[Zeke]

NO on the HF unit unless you are building some light gauge rain gutters. I've checked into this. My B-in-law, the body man, sold his dad's body shop spot welder a few years ago. It was probably something like what SnapOn has. He is still kicking himself. The unit was about a 3 foot cube in size, very old school. This is what you should look for.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by milt

NO on the HF unit unless you are building some light gauge rain gutters. I've checked into this. My B-in-law, the body man, sold his dad's body shop spot welder a few years ago. It was probably something like what SnapOn has. He is still kicking himself. The unit was about a 3 foot cube in size, very old school. This is what you should look for.

Milt, the HF units claim up to 1/8 material for the 110 unit and 3/16 material for the 220 unit. Even if those are exagerated claims, I would think that 18 or 20 ga mild auto body steel would not be too much for them. What am I missing? You squeeze the material between two tongs, introduce a current, the metal melts together, the current shuts off and you are done. I doubt the cheap units have much to adjust, but once you get it set-up, I don't know why you say they won't work.

[BertBeagle]

A tool truck driver once said about another, less expensive tool, "they are like a short d**k - there alright around the house".

That would hold true about a HF welder. If you took the sheet metal / plastic cover off and compared it to a Lincoln, Miller, Esab etc. it would be obvious to anyone which is better.

But it depends on what you are doing with it. Get the best you can afford and not hate yourself the next day. If you can handle a Lincoln or one of the good ones you won't regret it. Buy a used good one before a new HF is another option.

[widebody911]

Sorry, I shoulda posted the links:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45689
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=45690

This will be for casual use on VW restorations: putting on rockers and other pieces which were originally spot-welded.

Looks like the HF units are a knock off of the Miller
http://www.millerwelds.com/products/spotwelders/msw_and_lmsw__air-cooled_/

[vonsmog]

I have the HF 220v one. First one worked great for the first few hundred welds, then started to loose power for some reason. Took it back and the new one was always on. Switch was busted, so it went back. Got another and it is working great. For $159 it was worth it. They have different arms on the web site, but not in the stores. I think I might order them. For doing what you want to do, they work just fine. Alot of the ones that are more expensive are the same things, just have a brand name on them. Most of these tools are made in china now. You might as well save your self some $$ and get the cheap ones. If it brakes get another, you will still be money ahead. I have taken Harbor Freight up on the lifetime warranty a few times and have never had a problem, they just give me another tool. I can send some more photos if you like, of the stuff I have used it on for the Unimog I am restoring.

[widebody911]

I tried to look at your Unimog pix, but it came back as 404

[Porsche_monkey]

Basically those machines are really low-end (he said politely). 1.5 KVA is a joke, but having said that, Vonsmog's welds 'appear' to be half decent. Look at the current and voltage info on the Miller site, you can see 1,500 VA ain't much. They are air cooled so you will be patient when using it, right? Weld. Beer. Weld Another Beer. (Not all bad I guess).

I do not believe you have adequate force control, or current control to get consistently good welds. If you want to use this style machine;

- go for the 230 volt model
- use the shortest possible arms
- buy the time control module (it looks to be an option on the Miller)
- do destructive testing to make sure you pull nuggets on your welds
- buy a tip dresser to keep your contact area consistent, (using a file is a bad idea)
-contemplate some mig stitch welds for security

PM me if you need some basic set-up info. I do this for a living....I might be able to help.

[widebody911]

Thanks!

I'm still a few weeks away from needing this. I plan to drop by the local welding store and see what they have (which means they'll probably talk me into buying one)

Here's the project:

[FastDave]

If you don't know any better you won't know any better. Settle for less and you'll get less. I've owned the cheaper ones and thought they were great. I started with a Century brand (who once made Snap-On's welders) and thought it was great until I used a better model of same brand and thought that was great. Then I used a Hobart - similar to Miller but still not the same. Miller is best by far. I still don't own a Miller but I've used one. I own three Hobarts. Ironman 250 220V wire welder, Stickmate AC/DC 220V arc welder and the smaller 115V wire welder. I'd stick with the name brands if you're going to use it much.

I've even used one made by Clarke and I had to continually adjust the settings because the heat was affecting the interior components enough to mess me up!!! I told my friend to take it back and spend a little more for something better.

[Tim Hancock]

Originally Posted by FastDave

If you don't know any better you won't know any better. Settle for less and you'll get less. I've owned the cheaper ones and thought they were great. I started with a Century brand (who once made Snap-On's welders) and thought it was great until I used a better model of same brand and thought that was great. Then I used a Hobart - similar to Miller but still not the same. Miller is best by far. I still don't own a Miller but I've used one. I own three Hobarts. Ironman 250 220V wire welder, Stickmate AC/DC 220V arc welder and the smaller 115V wire welder. I'd stick with the name brands if you're going to use it much.

I've even used one made by Clarke and I had to continually adjust the settings because the heat was affecting the interior components enough to mess me up!!! I told my friend to take it back and spend a little more for something better.

He is talking about a spot welder, not a wire welder.

[widebody911]

Originally Posted by FastDave

If you don't know any better you won't know any better. Settle for less and you'll get less. I've owned the cheaper ones and thought they were great.

Although I'm talking about spot welders in this thread, for the record, I have a Lincoln 100 and Lincoln PowerMig with a spool gun.

[FastDave]

Ooops, my bad! lol I just thought I was a speed reader, maybe I'm not "fastdave" in that area! lol

[Porsche_monkey]

Originally Posted by FastDave

Ooops, my bad! lol I just thought I was a speed reader, maybe I'm not "fastdave" in that area! lol

Regardless, the settle for less and you'll get less sentiment is applicable. So he was dead wrong. And right.

[MBAtarga]

Here's a Harbor Freight 15% off any one item valid through 10/7. Oh - and a free screwdriver set too!
http://www.harborfreightusa.com//TV/coupon3.html

[Tishabet]

Originally Posted by widebody911

I tried to look at your Unimog pix, but it came back as 404

Oh, man, that is so bad!

[FastDave]

Thanks for the coupon MBAtarga!