Thank for taking the time to put the informative video together. I just bought this exact welder today. Harbor Freight had a one day $99.99 sale today. It is still in the box. I have a Lincoln 240 volt welder, I needed a portable 110 Volt welder. Thank you!
Also forgot to mention. We have a welding company, we own Miller’s and Lincoln square-wave. I have 28 yrs and certified mig and tig,stick. My son has 10 yrs started when he was a 6th grader. But he still likes to check out various new welders of all types, just for the tech and to checkout new tech. We did look under the hood and well there is a difference in quality. The components are of small compared to the big boys but the part’s are of well known companies so that’s good. One thing to mention is to keep an eye on the fan as it’s the same as what you would see in low end computer and there knows to stop working. Or replace it with a high end fan. Thanks.
Oh 100% agreed. The components used are not to the same level as Lincoln or Miller. I wouldn't be surprised if I need to replace a capacitor or mosfet in this things life. But for the $160 I paid, it's opened the door for me into welding.
@6:05 the "cold wire feed" option is actually useless. Cold feeding is used in gas mig welders due to the fact that when you press the trigger, it also releases gas while feeding wire. Flux doesn't use gas, therefore pressing the trigger is perfectly fine.
Yeah I picked up this welder couple weeks ago- picked up some Victory Alloys .035 wire from my local welding supply house, and it runs just fine, you just have to have a solid foundation of basic welding technique. With flux core, you have to run it relatively slowly. I prefer a straight line weld (about 1/4 inch), then circle back around, then repeat the straight line weld, circle back around, etc. I'm getting some serious dimeage when I do that, and the penetration seems to be completely adequate with good wetting in of the toes.
A BIG BLACK EYE FOR HARBOR FREIGHT I have a Harbor freight TITANIUM FLUX 125 WELDER purchased from Harbor Freight a couple years ago. I am a retired plumbing contractor and backyard hobbyist. I love to build things in my spare time and help friends and neighbors that need something repaired. When I retired and closed my business, I had a stick welding machine but had no convenient place to connect it at my home! It would require an upgrade to my electrical service not worth the trouble and expense! When I saw a couple reviews on RU-vid for this Titanium 125 welder, I thought that would be the way to go. I already had a 110 Volt 30 Amp circuit to my workshop! It took me a while to get adjusted to the flux wire welding. I built a minibike from scrap pipe I had left over from the plumbing shop. The welder allowed me to make other things and make repairs for others I wouldn’t be able to do without it. In the middle of my last project, I cut a couple pieces of metal and got ready to weld them and when I pushed the button on the welder, nothing happened! It was dead! The fan did not come on but the light on the ON/OFF indicated there was power to the welder. I checked the manual for a reset button or a fuse and found no mention of either. So, I called the Harbor Freight 800 number and was told there was no repair for this welder. Harbor Freight has no repair facility, and no support is available. I was told by two different tech reps there is no schematics or parts list available from the factory where this is manufactured. “It is not worth getting it repaired and cheaper to go purchase a new one!” If you purchase this welder or many other things from Harbor Freight You only have 3 Months Warranty. It is considered disposable after that! All the reviews and discussion I have read about HARBOR FREIGHT I have never seen anything about their total lack of support for their products! I didn’t even get an “I’m sorry” or any offer for a discount on a new welding machine! I am retired, was an electronics technician in the Navy, active Ham Radio operator and electronics hobbyist. I feel like the electronics in this welding machine is straight forward non computer controlled and any decent electronics tech should be able to repair this given reasonable support. I removed the circuit board from the welder and found where a small component burned of course not knowing the component value or purpose will make it difficult to replace. Providing a schematic and parts list is a very inexpensive form of support that should be a minimum requirement. Their claim to revenue of 7 Billion Dollars tells me they could afford it! Leland Cox
That's a good point, just as a new user who was trying to compare it to others, it didn't make much sense. Now that I've been running it for a while I can get a rough idea based on the lettering.
Some nozzle gel should also be part of the beginners package, after my first spool I switched to Hobart wire seems to have less splatter than the HF stuff.
the regular mig wire from hobart seems to run smoother than the lincolin electric mig wire.it must be made from better metal than what lincolin makes the there wire with
I've watched dozens of these reviews about this welder Bought it yesterday, used it today RUNNING on a eu2200i HONDA generator just fine Was WELDING *((REBAR))* together in 8 inch pieces Found a old rusty *((TAILPIPE))* to practice with ALSO LOVEN THIS WELDER ☆☆☆☆☆ five stars 👍🏻
I have this welder I love it. Works great for everything. If you think 1 weld will do just triple it and it will hold just fine. Slow is best for this welder super slow.
Honestly I think it's ease of use and setup says a lot about it. It's so small and portable, I can see why a pro might throw it around for a very easy, non critical job.
I have the same welder, but I’ve seen many videos of people saying that you have to switch the polarity from positive to negative to get a better weld. Is this true? I’m a beginner,
Hmm... I've definitely at least *read* about people trying that. I don't recall what the outcome was. For some reason I recall that being more common with stick welding. I would definitely say stick to the stock setup and try it out first!
@@N0Fumar - The Harbor Freight Titanium 125 welder is a flux core wire only welder. It is limited only to using Flux-Core wire. Flux Core wire welders are strictly "DCEN" welders. The letters of "DCEN" stand for for "Direct Current Electrode Negagative" Polarity. in other words, the elctrode is the cable of which the Flux-Core wire runs (feeds), through. It has to be hooked (plugged), into the socket (plug), labeled with (as), the Negative (minus sign), to be able to work (weld), properly. The welders that use an inert gas (usually Argon), Are "DCEP" welders. The DCEP welders are generally welders of which use an inert Gas which means (the letters "DCEP " stand for "Direct Current Electrode Positive" ". The elctrode is the cable of which the Non-Flux-Core wire runs (feeds), through. It has to be hooked (plugged), into the socket (plug), labeled with (as), the Positive (Plus sign), to be able to work (weld), properly. Normally the people (unless they (you), are a professional welder), of whom buy these types of cheap welders have no clue about these facts so they tend to hook the polarity of the two cables up backwards (wrong), and then they very quickly find out they cannot get a good weld bead and automatically assume that there is something wrong with the welder itself, when in fact it is they themselves (due to their inexperiene and/or lack of proper training in the field of welding), of which is the reason why the welder dosn't work (weld), properly. The professional welders in the welding field generally classify (and call), this accidental reversing of the polaity of the two cables by the beginnng DIYer, as the "Idiot Syndrome", because when this accidental reversing of the polarity of the two cables is pointed out to them and has been corrected it makes the poor DIYer feel like an "Idiot" when in fact is nothing more than a simple lack of training and inexperience upon the part of the DIY purchaser. So when that occurrs, they immediately get angry at the welder itself along with getting angry at the manufacturer of which produced (manufactured), the welder and also get angry at Harbor Freight, claiming that Harbor Freight sold them a misserable, cheap, worthless, defective product. Generally being cheap is not the problem in itself. Yes, it is cheap to manufacture, cheap to purchase, and is directed to the normal ordinary DIYer of whom wants a simple easy to use welder for small do it yourself projects around the home. No, it is not (and was not), designed for the expert professional welder, or for comercal welding. The only other factor of which generally prevents proper welding with these cheaper welders by DIYer's is once again the simple lack of training and inexperience upon the part of the DIY purchaser as he does (has), not yet had the proper training and experience in knowing how to properly set the correct voltage and speed of the wire feed. But still that only comes with experience and has nothing to do with the welder itself being a cheap welder. However with just a few hours of steady practice the beginning DIYer can quickly learn how to properly set up and use one of these cheaper welders. As time goes on, and the DIYer has enough patience for more practiceing, and gains enough exprience the beginning DIYer can generally turn out better welded projects. I'm not saying that sometimes the DIYer might accidently purchase one of hese cheaper welders and actually gets a defective product, because that does happen every so often. But it is generally a very rare occurence. The main clue here is to stay calm, not get angry, learn and practice not blame it upon the cheaply priced welder. Sorry about being long winded. Please forgive me upon this part. But I had to try and get the point across by (hopefully), explaining it in simple layman's terms of which everybody might understand.
I've been using mine on and off for the past 9ish months and haven't had any issues. Have run 2 spools of wire through. Just be careful with the duty cycle and give it plenty of time to rest, otherwise you may overheat components and it may lead to premature failure.
I think as long as you've got the settings in, you'll be okay. Just know that there will definitely be a little splatter you will have to clean up. If you're welding in an area where you *really* need to keep splatter to a minimum, I'd recommend a MIG welder.
I bought the same welder just got it no wire came with it called harbor freight the said it wasn't advertised in the add evey one that reviewed it said it came with a pound of wire
Well that's odd... Price has gone up but not including wire? That's sad. If you're looking for good wire on the cheap, Amazon has blue demon flux core wire that I like a lot
I used to weld stainless steel at work. We had to use a special tig welder and stainless steel rods. I don't even know if it'd be possible with this welder. As a side note, be very careful if you weld galvanized steel. It let's off harmful vapors and you must wear a mask.
