Harbor Freight Flux 125 Welder Review

hey what's up Internet I recently replaced my old Harbor Freight welder with a newer model it seems these things only last about 15 years it was yeah what I'm gonna show you is what this welder comes with how it welds and we'll see also if we can tackle this large gap stay tuned okay this is the flux 125 about a Harbor Freight for about a hundred twenty bucks after-tax here's the stats on the box the main point is that you'll need a dedicated 20 amp outlet and also that the metal should not really exceed was it three sixteenths I've welded half inch flat bar to half inch flat bar in the past with near similar machine it worked just fine but I wasn't building anything that needed to call on like the entire strength limit of the half-inch steel flat bar so yeah just keep that in mind I guess okay it comes with this face shield thing and then the lens as well it's a number nine lens slides right in a wire brush with like a knock off tip for removing some of the slack and a one-pound real of flux core wire that's a thirty it's also got two tips Oh thirty in size there's this sort of welding example thing yeah that walls on the left is quite difficult to achieve with this welder practice is required for that kind of product quality yeah it's pretty good though like this little card if you're a noob the manual to is also pretty good the gun itself is attached to the machine so no assembly there that's cool and the o'the thirty tip is already loaded other you're gonna have to remove that two feet wire through anyway the ground clamp is also attached so yeah the machine is is pretty well assembled already the both cables are about six feet long to include the like the electrical cord as well there's a handle that comes with the welder needs to be attached look at that a you can see it slides into two areas on the lid and then the screw goes in here okay for that tip on the gun it says to pull it off and I'm used to doing that like usually can just pull it right off its got some friction but mine was so hard here that I ended up just like screwing it off because it just seemed right yeah I think it's supposed to be able to pause though no well the tip appears to have like gas channels too but the welder does not have that capability okay so that's what it comes with I'm gonna load some wire I've got this large reel of a 35 flux cored wire and you can see me load it into the machine here the spool wires about four years old it's still kicking strong yeah not bad I like the design in the welder where like the real sits horizontally instead of vertically yeah the older style was vertical and that's actually where it broke like the pin that holds the spool anyway the install process is pretty straightforward tension of all the stuff there is also discussed in the manual it's pretty easy to follow and also yeah but she shows it as well here you can see I have some own 35 tips I had to change out and yeah let's take a listen as to what it sounds like when you're feeding wire through a new reel of wire is installed out here I put the screw into the actual handle for the machine oh yeah I mentioned that earlier and yeah I really like how the lead closes it's a good design overall yeah good good updates compared to the old old old mom that I had here you can see me adjusting tension per the literature that comes with a machine yeah you know what let's do some pros and cons okay Pro cooling fan that's nice I had to upgrade that on my old welder because it would overheat like quite a bit but this one comes with a fan stock Pro I used the welder a lot like I will pass its duty cycle and I have yet to make it actually overheat but I'll follow up that with a con it has a duty cycle of like 20 percent or something yeah and that's usually the case with many of these hundreds and 120 volt smaller welders from different brands as well but yeah I didn't suffer any limitations and the duties area cond this thing is heavy and that's usually con for all welders you know maybe they're gonna end up helium injecting them so they make them lighter or something I don't know that doesn't make sense Pro rubber feet they are robust and they securely hold the welder they don't feel like they're just gonna rip off and I definitely put them to the test they're pro nice price per L it's inexpensive totally worth the money yeah it's like a disposable camera you know you use it once and it's done but in this case I can actually keep using it even though I'm done with it cuz I was building my gate con it uses a lot of current possibly yeah so if you have like a regular house outlet that you're using us not good it needs to be like a 20 amp circuit this is according to the paperwork um yeah and for all the welding that I've done with the machine building my gate recently I was using my 30 amp 110 outlet from for my motor home yeah Pro you can weld in the wind sort of I mean not like a hurricane or anything but since the flux core is flux core it's able to weld even if there's a wind or a breeze ma'am at least better than a gas shielded welder yeah con well it's a pro and a con the warranty is 90 days you can get an extended warranty but yeah 90 days isn't so bad I mean maybe it'll break in the first three months right pro it comes with absolutely everything you need to start welding right out of the box you should probably though get gloves and like a respirator and yeah if you want to just rough it though this this whole setup just works alright let's use this thing so here you can see I'm working on my gate which is now done actually it's completely done yeah it's the welder did a great job and that it was I think the absolute right tool for me because of the price and like usability outdoors and like breezes in the wind and stuff and it just mainly the price though cart ten bucks hundred twenty bucks after text it's not bad sometimes I got coupons and these things are like a hundred bucks here I used my Ryobi reciprocating saw to cut out piece of this and start welding it back together after making a 90-degree like angle there and the welder worked it works just like my old one actually it feels really um familiar this was actually the first well I did with the welder and Kosh asked for the face shield that the welder comes with if you have to hold that it'll make you not want to weld with this welder it just it takes an entire hand to hold it and then you're left with just one hand to weld and it's just really not a good way to do welding so you can see I've got this sweet Miller elite welding helmet that I got at the thrift shop for six bucks oh that's right good will for the win all it needed was batteries and it was like a little scratched up but man score and you can also see yeah I got a respirator on and a fire extinguisher nearby because safety right yeah the welder did really good for my entire project but let's challenge it with this enormous gap so the shield that the welder came with I mounted in front of my camera and let's take a look at what goes on behind the glass yeah and just keep in mind this gate is like ornamental mainly and support structurally is secondary it's not built to hold weight beyond the tension from like the wind and like the weight of the fence boards it'll be mounted on it oh yeah and also just the weight of itself so so I'm not worried that the welds are not up to like the strength specification of a hydraulic ram mounting bracket for a backhoe boom or something crazy you know these welds do absolutely fine with regard to what this gate needs as a strength and ya know I did grind down the face of this world so you're not gonna see it before like it is all of its nastiness but yeah look at that mmm not so bad so is it good or is it bad you decide after I decide and all in all this welders good I suggested for projects like this gate or maybe outdoor welding stuff I do not suggest it if you need like pretty looking welds or if welding really thick metals or also really thin metals like body panels on cars it's probably not the best idea you probably just burn right through that stuff my top suggestion regarding buying one of these things is to also get an actual like face mounted you know welding helmet that's the word and a respirator because there's no sense in directly breathing the fumes that is created by this machine like there's just no positive impact to your health from that also gloves and other protective things like the leather arm sleeves or an apron that'd be good you will get sunburned if you're exposed to the just the weld light and that's not good do not weld without a mask and do not look at the well don't do that okay if you have just broken something outside of your house you know like I don't know a fence or something like a piece of some metal and you want to weld it back together and maybe you've got like a quote from a company to repair it and it's a lot of money and you don't like that because it's a lot of money maybe you can do it yourself ooh pro another pro about just flux core welders entirely is that you don't really have to prep the metal like you do with other gas welders yeah the weld doesn't look the prettiest but it does hold and yeah at work so anyway make safety your number one priority and you should be good to give it a shot if you've got that thing that you want to fix or even make it's also a really big point I want to make and I didn't know where to put this in the video but if you have never welded before and you do not have someone like teaching you how to weld you should really really find a video online that shows you how that's it's really good instruction or something because I just looked at other reviews of this welder to try to see if I missed something or anything like that and just there's not really that good at quality videos out right now about it and the welding techniques that I saw people using in their videos was just horrific like there's one guy like pulling hot it's just so bad he's just like spattering slag all over the place it didn't make any sense anyway please search how to weld before you try to start welding because there's so much good content online regarding this or at least at least read the instructions because if you do that and then follow them you'll have a much more you have a better chance at success anyway I'll be working on more videos regarding my gait and how I designed it and yeah it but it's it's done now if you press a button and it opens it is nice and it's working great anyway I hope that helped see you later Internet you

Channel: TRY to HELP you

Views: 1,026,990

Rating: 4.7588291 out of 5

Keywords: harbor freight, flux core welder, flus 125, welder, welding, cheap, review, jobs, salary, diy

Id: EsNOw6AM1mg

Length: 11min 57sec (717 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 31 2018