cap'n cook

sorry to say this, but your inexperience at welding is the problem. i welded up my xj fenders that the PO cut to far with a 110 HF flux core without burn through. i like quality welders, but the hf welders do have a place and i think they are a great first welder or home project welders.

to the OP. i would recommend checking craigslist. for example in my area craigslist there is a 220v hobart i have been eying for 200 bucks. you will definitely notice the difference when using a quality welder. wait till you get the chance to use a $5,000 miller or something. they are a dream to use. to bad i cant afford one lol.

heydockyle

Harbor freight is all hit or miss. Some stuff is junk, but like said here some of their pro stuff is good. I have a couple of their newer extendable ratchets, and have tried to break them without being able to. Also have pretty good experience with their cutting/drilling supplies.

EZEARL

Used one of their 3ton $99 floorjacks Saturday to jack up the front of a Durango. Got HARD to jack real quick.

PUNISHER

X2..

A friend called me up about two weeks ago asking me if I could bring my welder out and weld the bucket and throttle bracket on his old Ford tractor. I showed up and told him to grind the bucket down along with the throttle bracket. He broke out the old HF 4" grinder, grinded off and on because the grinder kept stopping. Well this went on for about 15 minutes, him grinding, grinder stopping, him beating grinder..you get the picture. I leaned over and said let me see that grinder my friend. I took it out of the garage and threw it in the woods..He had that look of YOU SOB all over his face. I said this is my time your using, so lets make it count becuse I have crap that I need to get done also! So I went out to my truck and broke out the old and trusty Milwaukee grinder and got the job done..

investinwaffles

I was in kind of a crappy situation. I had just totaled my car and wound up getting hosed on it because of how much money I spent on aftermarket parts. A week later, my tool-box got stolen out of my friends truck who was borrowing it.

I scrounged up about $1800 for a Jeep, and managed to score an XJ for $1500. Went to HF with the remaining $300 and I was a KING!

Bought a full set of hand tools, an angle grinder, battery charger, torque wrench, BFH, nice multimeter, sawz-all, and tons of small odds and ends like gloves and such. Diddnt even spend $200 on it all!!

Took the last $100 and bought a 12-pack and filled up the gas-tank with Shell 91 octane to clear out any cobwebs.

Obviously the tools make working on the truck a f-ing nightmare sometimes, but I would really have only been able to afford hand-tools if I went to Sears or the like. I upgraded to some nicer Craftsman ratchets which really made my life easier, but I still use the HF socket sets every damn day with zero issues. Lifetime warranty too, so if I need to bash the hell out of one or sacrifice it, no big deal.

cap'n cook

this is the thing with harbor freight. their stuff might work ok or even great, but it will let you down when you need it the most. and that is the reason professionals use such high quality expensive stuff, because you cant lose out on a day of work because your $20 grinder broke.

stang65

Harbor freight is a get me by. I buy there stuff not exspecting it to last as long a some others but to get me till i can afford the nice stuff.

mr white

I tend to not buy electronics at hf. My buddy has the hf 90amp wire welder for $90 on sale and it works real well for 1/8 and 3/16 steel. Any thinner and it burns through on both low and high settings. That was. 03 wire though. Might not burn with thinner wire as that's what the specs recommend for thinner steel is thinner than .03. Haven't tried it though. I'd get one with gas though as flux core welds dirty. Not a huge deal if you also have a grinder with a flap disk to clean off the slag.
Don't buy a grinder or sawzall at hf. They suck. The grinder fails because the switch sucks ***, easy fix. The sawzall fails because the gears strip.

skife

this

my welds look alright with the harborfright $100 wire feed, worked great for doing the floors in my jeep, wouldn't be to bad for doing body work or thin stuff. production welding is out of the question as it has a 20% duty cycle.

I like their 4.5" HD angle grinder, had alot of success with it.