Harbor Freight Tools that don't suck

[rangerfredbob]

What size wire do you run to have good luck with the HF 90A? I once had one, a blue #94056 and after some frustration concluded it could do good work only in a narrow range of material thickness and settings, and must have been designed for shop fabrication or something where the application never changed. I've read that the more recent black ones are much better. I finally replaced mine with a Century 110v DC welder with similar specs, it was night and day better. What's your secret, to get good luck with the HF 90A?

I have the old blue 90A version that is hot all the time it is on. I run .035" wire with the best luck and most forgiveness... I've done a fair amount of welding 1/8" material with great success down to sheet metal, welded the 3" channel iron bumper on a small trailer and it's very attached...

 

[crazyal]

Was looking at their welders today. I will be in the market for a new one this month (it's my birthday). Debating on the Titanium 200 Multi Processor, Vulcan 225 Stick, and Vulcan Omni Pro 220. Both the 200 Pro and the Omni Pro 225 would get me into MIG and TIG that I would, but don't have to, learn. My budget is $800 max.

Who in TBN land has experience with these products? The OMNI PRO has some reviews about the software not being accurate and manual adjustments are required. Problem there is if they update the software to fix; there is not input port to feed the data.

Ron

I know it's a little beyond your budget but if you are thinking about TIG welding I would wait to see if a coupon comes along again for the Vulcan ProTIG 200. You give up MIG (unless you add a spool gun) so there's a trade off. I've seen it as low as just over $800 with a coupon. With it you get AC TIG. AC TIG is what you want for welding aluminum. I've got a great Lincoln MIG welder but keep looking at getting an inverter stick welder but every time I look I end up looking at the ProTIG 200. I don't think Everlast (I have one of their plasma cutters and love it) sells an AC TIG for anywhere near the price.

 

[California]

I have the old blue 90A version that is hot all the time it is on. I run .035" wire with the best luck and most forgiveness... I've done a fair amount of welding 1/8" material with great success down to sheet metal, welded the 3" channel iron bumper on a small trailer and it's very attached...

Thanks. That confirms my experience. There were two near-identical HF90's at the time and I chose the one where its two heat choices were near identical. That was a mistake. With .030 wire I characterized the two settings as Too Hot and Way Too Hot. Like you, I found it worked best with .035.

Come to think of it, this was the welder that came with unusable flux core wire. It would only spit globs and there was a flood of customer return 'near new in box' HF90's on Ebay at the time from a single resale vendor, until they cleared that batch of wire. I replaced the wire immediately, after reading about the wire issue. Big improvement, now it would weld beads. 'Some Assembly Required' to make a HF tool work per its specs was the norm back then.

 

[newbury]

I can imagine the new ones use more juice, and I do agree with some statements, it just depends on what you are using the lights for, I have all sorts of flashlights around, grab different ones for different things. Sure the old style put out some general light if you are trying to just add some light in the general area within about 10', but the newer style project the light better if you are wanting to be somewhat focused. I had gotten one of the new style round ones for Christmas, didn't realize they had changed until then and that night had to help look for some Llamas unsuccessfully but the light projected out much further than I expected, some retroflective material on the side of some train cars about 1/4 mile away showed a fair amount of light, was looking for eyeballs so needed some focusing.

Anyway, as with everything it really depends on the application
<snip>

I had been getting so many of the old 9 LED flashlights that my son thought they were giving them away at work and was disappointed when I retired. I am still finding them around the house and shops, and I'm surprised when the battery still works.
But I much prefer the blue oval freebies, with the magnet and hook. It's so darn handy. I've got them all over the houses and shops hooked on door and drawer handles. Most of my toolboxes have one in them. They are easy to hang on something when working on equipment. Could use a stronger magnet though.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Finally got to the end of this video. Price is attractive but I guess I would feel more comfortable with an Everlast unit for a multipurpose unit. I'm still targeting Everlast when I step into the TIG world someday. That said, it sure seems HF is stepping up their game on power tools of all types!

Mark, I am still waiting for our Everlast member to give me a sales pitch. Ron

 

[dragoneggs]

Mark, I am still waiting for our Everlast member to give me a sales pitch. Ron

Ha ha... I want to hear it too!

 

[KubotainNH]

Thanks. That confirms my experience. There were two near-identical HF90's at the time and I chose the one where its two heat choices were near identical. That was a mistake. With .030 wire I characterized the two settings as Too Hot and Way Too Hot. Like you, I found it worked best with .035.

Come to think of it, this was the welder that came with unusable flux core wire. It would only spit globs and there was a flood of customer return 'near new in box' HF90's on Ebay at the time from a single resale vendor, until they cleared that batch of wire. I replaced the wire immediately, after reading about the wire issue. Big improvement, now it would weld beads. 'Some Assembly Required' to make a HF tool work per its specs was the norm back then.

I beat the heck out of an HF blue unit. It did ok as long as I used good wire. I used it mostly for sheet metal and left the big stuff to my stick welder. Now I have the Everlast iMIG 140E and it is so much better. I don't have to use a grinder as much and it will weld the bigger stuff quite nicely. The 3 year warranty is also a plus. I gave old blue away.

 

[Code54]

I'm not saying the carbon steel ones are bad. I'm just saying that the chrome vanadium ones have the potential to be better (given otherwise similar quality steel, and assuming the got the heat treatment right).

The Chrome Vanadium alloy we used most frequently was 6150 grade, which is basically high-carbon steel (roughly a 1050 grade) to which some Chromium and Vanadium has been added. This gives it a lot better toughness and shock resistance when properly heat treated.

6150 grade is hard to weld, however.

Good info! Thank you for that as I don't know much about steel and "grades" so it was helpful and something I will pay more attention to!

 

[Diggin It]

I have a bunch of the old black round 9 LED flashlights and three or four of the old style blue hockey puck type. Picked up one of the new COB blue hockey pucks today.

Also one of the outdoor 'security' motion units for $15 on coupon.

Also grabbed one of the new 'ammo' boxes with the extra internal tray.

My 90A Blue welder is still on the original roll of wire that came with it. I only use it to do some quick tacks.

 

[Threepoint]

I had been getting so many of the old 9 LED flashlights that my son thought they were giving them away at work and was disappointed when I retired. I am still finding them around the house and shops, and I'm surprised when the battery still works.
But I much prefer the blue oval freebies, with the magnet and hook. It's so darn handy. I've got them all over the houses and shops hooked on door and drawer handles. Most of my toolboxes have one in them. They are easy to hang on something when working on equipment. Could use a stronger magnet though.

Funny, I reach for the black ones more often. They're easier to hold in my teeth when I need both hands and I'm fumbling around in the dark trying to make an emergency repair, or just trying to find which dang cable goes to what in the rat's nest behind some electronic equipment.