Out of all the reviews I’ve watched this is definitely the best I’ve watched and this video is why I bought mine. This is the way videos should be. Straight to the point and no fancy stuff.
I have the same machine. works great. A little pointer for you. You should be leaning the rod 5 to 10 degrees in the direction of travel "drag, not push". It will improve your welds. A lot.
Hi! Nice review! I got the same machine and love it. Being an electrician I had to test the unit to how mutch amps it does really delivers compared to what the display is showing so while my son was welding, I clamped the whip lead with a klein cl800 clamp-on meter. The results were right on! The only thing I would add is that on 120v, it does not go well over 90 amps, the machine will show over 90, but it’s not giving it. If you want it to be precise and powerfull, use 240v. Some other brand I tested, Yeswelder I believe, had a technologie that adjusted the readings on 120v so you’d get the amps that it was set to, but I found the deko to be less stiky and better machine overall. 120v works well but you got to keep in mind the amps doesn’t go much over 95-96 amps, and display is off a bit. But on 240v it does go to a solid 160 amps and the display is spot on! Hope it helps.
Thank you very much for this video. I was on the fence on purchasing one, and your take on this welder got me ordering it right now. Greetings from the tiny Pacific islands of Palau!
Your bead would've turn out better in every way if you'd did one thing differently. Any time you're running a process that produces slag, you use a 5-15 degree drag angle on your rod or gun if it's flux-core. You gotta stay in front of your slag and it flattens out your bead, and gives more penetration With other processes that do not produce slag like mig or Tig you use a push angle. Just a tip from an old hand. Overall a good video and I'm looking at one of them little machines. Thank you for the review.God bless you brother.
Nice video man. Looking for a cheap 110 arc welder for around the house, will definitely check this one out. One thing that will help you out, drag your rod, you never push stick or flux. Old saying, if there's slag, you must drag. Thanks for the video man!
I just bought this machine and I'm pretty happy with it. This machine is absolutely capable of making pristine welds you just need to practice your technique more.
I've had one for a little over a yr now on my farm and it's been great, welding everything from steel, stainless, cast iron, it does it.. the tiny issue for me the one-off switch is tricky cause of the wires in the back, you kinda have to fiddle around to find it..
Great video! Glad to see that you and all the rest who have purchased this machine are happy with it. Not too often these days when one can score a real bargain. One word of advice though is that you should be using a "drag" technique when stick welding, never "push".. The old saying of when it leaves slag, drag, still holds true. This will produce a more sound weld deposit. This also holds true for flux-cored welding.
*2 years: Best 10 min welder out there. I have found Forney E6013 to be the sweet spot rod wise and I regularly use it to drill a bolt hole in half inch when we're moving road plates, thought it could never weld half inch 110v. If you're burning 7018 it better be super clean and max settings.*
I want to believe your opinion but that machine looks pretty clean for 3 years of occasional usage. Might have to give it a check out at least, so thanks overall sir.
That wiring looked scary but at least some of it is labeled, so shows someone might have actually cared somewhat about it. Might not have cared so much about the neatness of their work and was just looking for working properly. Can't knock it if it works and doesn't burn down.
I can't right this minute but I'm interested. I work for a poured wall company in northern Michigan. We recently did a lot of panel repair. Lots of heating and bending. Lots more welding. There is a Miller mig welder at the shop but....I brought in my own welder. The condition of the material called for SMAW. My Hobart stick mate is an 80 pound machine. This would be sooooooo much easier to transport. Thank you for sharing your video. And, I promise to use your link.
Great review bro I feel more confident in buying one I had one orders earlier today Looking to start my business with it. I could hear you choking the rod in the puddle though😅
Lol well it’s kind of a term I coined myself. I live in a town in Oklahoma that is very prone for tornado damage. The average lifespan for a wooden fence around here is about 5 years. I built a steel reinforced wooden fence that I am confident will hold up to small scale tornado activity.
I'm looking into buying one of these to use at my off grid property. I have a steel gate i need to weld up. And i have some pieces of 6ft long square tubing i may use for a carport. Or deck framing. Or whatever.
Hi, I recently bought a Amico electric, 200 amps. multi-purpose 3 in1 welder, from Amazon. I got the the welder. However i discovered, it have a factory defect,(the wire speed dial isn't working). I informed Amazon about it. They asked that I return the item. However to do so is costing more than i bought it for. I am outside the usa. So I am left stuck with a a defective product.
@CBDC that’s a good question. It looks like the 160A version has the “smart panel”. I’m not 100% what is different between them other than that. I went with the 160A and am not disappointed.
@@MrJustinWheeler I’m not a welding but I do a lot of small projects around the house and is pretty good for a $135. I even let a friend used it and his a welder n he was happy with the machine.. no complains here
Having lots of problems fillin gaps with 6013 rod, will changing to 7018 reduce problems with slag inclusion? I have same welder, can you recommend current settings for 2.5mm and 3.2mm rod?
@@MrJustinWheeler just trying to under stand all the safety stuff like obviously gloves face shields ECT .no wet anything. But it's the not getting shocked part lol . Like understanding how can I touch the stick on the stick welder and not get shocked
@@angelov2648 I’m probably not the best person to offer safety advice, as I’m self taught (RU-vid taught). I did have someone comment on my video the other day saying to never hold the stinger and the ground clamp at the same time. I have a bad habit about doing that.
FYI your reviews were one of the reasons I bought that welder. Been happy with it on 110. Do you remember where/what replacement stinger you bought? Mine seems fine now but been meaning to pickup a spare.
@@MrJustinWheeler Do you just replace the stinger, and keep the wire, or do you buy a complete stinger and wire? (Never looked to see how they attached the stinger to the wire)
Been a Ironworker that does stick welding for 14 years. Bernard stingers are a little pricey but so worth it. Best stinger out there, last forever. I prefer the twist heads over the clamp style
My guy… you said you went to fast. Nice and shiny weld but not to sure about the strength of it. Yes you connected the metal but as an “apprentice” welder for bridge welding, and not to dog you out, that weld was not great nor did you say it was. So I’d like to see a video of you slowing down as you lay down your weld and penetrate more than just the surface of that metal. Also some close up view of finish product. In my opinion you did throw me off when you started talking about how other people usually just trying to sell the product and pump up the item or what ever. Just sounds like a cop out for your intentions. It’s a single opinion but if I’m going to buy this product to practice for tests out of my garage I need to see a better weld. For the length of that bead I’m sure your could have used a full rod. Maybe I suck or maybe I have beasts in welding to teach me. I just want to see an honest review. This I feel you were honest as far as your skills go but that did really say much about the machine at all. (Inmyopinion)
Cool video man, i’ll be posting a video this week on this machine. i few months ago i watched tim welds video then yours and i pulled the trigger on buying one. i’ll be doing a review on it, wish there was a tagging feature so i could tag you on it 💯
It’s probably no heavy duty enough to be used in a welding shop full time. But, they are so cheap you could afford to keep a couple on the shelf as spares in case one breaks.
How well does it do on a 15 amp breaker? 20 amp wall circuits are far less common if you want to take a small unit off the property to use, and the reason I ask is I just got an even smaller unit from Simder and this dang thing is a breaker poppin mama. Does wonderful work at 220 volts but can hardly get through a whole 3/32 rod on 110 even on a 20 amp circuit. If this is a better unit , I am gonna return the Simder machine.
Hey James. I can it off a 15 amp breaker at my residential property and never had a problem. Very very rarely pops a breaker. Even when I’m going non-stop.
@@MrJustinWheeler I must have a problem with my electrics then because I did return the Simder unit and bought the Deko with the smart panel and I gotta tell ya ...it's no better than the Simder at 115 volts and even the 220 performance is less even with not popping the breakers. I have to turn the amps way higher than expected for the rod size/type so I suspect the readout is inaccurate. About to give up on the idea of a portable 115 volt welder. Probably should test the unit on a friend's outlet to see what's up.
@@MrJustinWheeler Well , I changed the breaker and the unit now works okay on 115 volts . I did notice that when I tried to run 7018 at a proper setting , it will pop a 20 amp brkr after a while, but won't if you turn the amps down. However , this is so low that starting and keeping an arc is difficult. Ran out of 3/32 6013 which would require less power but will see if that rod is more ideal when I get some more. BTW , got some Lincoln Excalibur 3/32 7018 and it's awesome. The slag comes off like it was 6013.
Could this work well on exhaust work? Or are bigger units recommended for that or would I be very pleased getting it to weld up a exhaust I would love your input on that
It’s definitely got enough power to weld exhaust. I think it would just depend on what metal the exhaust is made of and making sure you have the correct electrode. If got some exhaust projects coming up, I’ll see how well it works.
As in car exhausts? You can weld metal that thin but honestly an arc welder is not the tool for the job.. It will be extremely hard to keep the arc going on steel that thin without blowing holes in it. I rebuilt a whole car body with an arc welder back in the 80's because thats all I had... But it was very difficult. Then a few years back I used my first mig welder.. OMG what a difference! Even a small MIG running flux core wire will weld as thin as body panels and up to 1/8th thick. Get the mig dialled in for the thickness you're welding and its almost as easy as using a hot glue gun. Thats what you need. I have 40 years of amateur welding experience.
You can pull it off just have to start stop start stop start stop and clean off slag in between start and stops I’ve welded plenty of thin materials this way
That's a good questions. I'm not sure, as I almost exclusively run it on 110/120. But I'm pretty positive that my 220 receptacle at the house is a 50a breaker.
I just bought one and I can’t seem to figure out how to set everything right… I have 6013 3/32 and 1/8 and I can’t seem to strike an arc and lay a bead, all it does it spark and die out. Any help?
What kind of metal are you trying to stick together? Is it clean? Keep in mind even bare metal from the supplier will have mill scale that needs ground down a little. Tell me a little bit more about what your situation and I’ll do what I can to help.
Hey Steven. I really don’t. The Hobart rods from tractor supply have been 90% of what I’ve used. But I haven’t really noticed a difference. If the metal is clean, warm, and grounded, it’ll melt.
Hey Jake. If the bracket is and swingarm are of comparable thickness and cleaned well, I think it would be fine. The only time I struggle with this machine is when I am trying to connect dissimilar thicknesses. And that may just be bc I’m not that good yet. 😅
Depends on whether you want more penetration. Positive for the stinger= more penetration. Negative for less penetration, such as when welding thinner metal so you don’t burn a hole through your material. 6013 penetrates less than 6011
The machine automatically adjusts to either 120 or 240. To weld on 240v you just need to plug the machine into a receptacle that’s wired to 240 in your breaker box.
