So I'm an electrician not a welder by any means but want to pick up a cheap welder from harbour freight to mess with. This is the one I was looking at...

http://www.harborfreight.com/90-amp-...der-98871.html

My question is that if I do purchase this thing will it be strong enough to do little fab jobs like roof racks, rocker panels etc etc?

 

That welder would be good for small projects. It says in the description it welds 22ga to 3/16" steel.

I have a Millermatic 135 that does the same thing. If you want to learn then that harbor freight welder will be perfect. Just get some scrap pieces and practice. Make sure you're running on a single outlet line that's on a 20amp breaker or you'll be popping the breaker every 30 seconds

 

Yes I have that lil' guy too. I use it for thin stuff, and it's what I learned on. I've since upgraded. But that thing will do anything you need that's light duty.

 

I would not waste the money, personally... I would get a gas welder the fluxcore wire is very messy and will require a lot of clean up. I got a Hobart Handler 140 from Tractor Supply as a kit and it was like 450$

 

It's good for light fab, leave it set up for quick work access. A little more cleanup than gas shielded. Scrub your welds clean befor any paint. Can't beat the $$, really.
Get yourself a decent helmet. Protect bare skin from the uv light. Use a better welder if your doing structeral or load bearing builds/repairs. If I could buy that welder here for $100 I would.

 

Haha I know I'll have it on a dedicated circuit of its own.

 

Well for never welding in my life 100 bucks sounds alot safer than 450

 

yup $100 isn't a bad investment to learn on.

 

What this guy said!

i just got a Lincoln Electric sp140t i love the gas, flux core cost more per lb if you get a large tank of 75%arg25%co2 it will end up being being cheaper to use solid wire. i got mine for $350 brand new in the box off craigslist. its worth the extra money. also i had a regular mask and i bought a hobart auto-dimer helmet. hope this helps.

 

Ive got a Lincoln 180, I would still buy that for $100 if we could get such deals. I hate wastin time in set up for projects, want the tools set to specific use and ready to go. It's a good deal. I see that welder becoming a future option for on board trail welder powered by an inverter.

 

I'm running flux core out of my Millermatic and its actually not that bad. Its not really splattering much more than with shielding has

 

The HF ones work kinda. Go check home depot the sell lincoln. They had a 125 on sale for 279 a few weeks ago. It doesn't have the option for gas but hey its cheap. I run a hobart flux and a rhino with 98/2 gas for hot n heavy.

 

This is not fab... Read the stickys... Read the thread made specifically for this...

 

I have this welder and I pretty impressed with it considering the price, with some beveling and the highest setting it can handle 1/4th if you know what your doing. Ditch the stock wire and pick up a 2lb spool or two of lincoln .030 flux cored at home depot. The welds aren't clean, you will have some slag but thats how flux cored works. Unless you will be welding heavy stuff or welding very often I recommend it. It's helped with with countless projects for a year now and its holding up great.

 

Thought this was a general chat, I'm not specifically fabbing something, just asking for input...