welding problem

admin

hi im new to this forum and welding. i just bought a 120 amp arc welder from harbor freight. its nothing special but hopfully it will do the little stuff i need it to do. i tryed welding with it and all i get is splatter not a bead of weld. even when i up the amps or lower them. could it be because i dont have enough amps running to the welder from my curcuit panel. all im welding is bed frame. like i said im new to welding iv never welded before. is it the way im doing it? please help! thanks!
Reply:Hey dugan,Ok, you post that you know nothing about welding & you went & bought a welder. In retrospect, would you buy an airplane if you didn't know how to fly? Don't get mad! It's simply a question to illustrate your initial mistakes & hopefully will allow you to simply think. Your first solution is to get a welding book, do some reading, & get a basic understanding. Then look in your area for a vo-tech class or evening adult class, or even a college welding program to learn the fundamentals with each welding process. You cannot learn to walk until you learn how to take the first steps.DennyComplete Welding/Machine/Fab. ShopMobile UnitFinally retired*Moderator*"A man's word is his honor...without honor there is nothing.""Words are like bullets.... Once they leave your muzzle, you cannot get them back."
Reply:Dugan, Denny made some good points. Look into a night class at a local tech school. When you add up what materials, rod, electric and so on would cost you, not to mention the instruction, a class is usually stupid cheap. The school I help out at, it breaks down to something like $10/ hour with materials and rods included. Pretty much a no brainer if you apply yourself. It's not hard to burn up $30 in materials in one class if you are serious about learning, about what you paid for that class session when you break the cost down by hour. You also get to use a much better grade of equipment than what you bought, and that will make a huge difference in how easy this is to do.When you say a 120 amp arc welder, I'm guessing it's this machine, more commonly referred to as a stick welder rather than an "arc welder" which can mean any type of electric welding machine.http://www.harborfreight.com/welding...der-98870.htmlIf you are running it on 110v like many who have no idea about welding, chances are your rods are too big. On 110v input, that machine really will only burn 1/16" or maybe 5/64" rods. It simply doesn't have the power needed to do anything else. With rods that size you are extremely limited in what you can accomplish. It lacks the power to weld steel greater than say 1/16", but stick welding thin material is a real PITA if you don't have the skills yet ( read next to impossible). Add to that that the machine itself has several issues. You won't get a good arc with one usually and quality control issues makes the behavior of many of these machines erratic at best. It's hard to learn to weld well when your machine itself isn't consistent between beads. Also duty cycle is just about nonexistent above 60 amps even on 220v. on 110v power you are fairly limited even at the lower settings.If you plug that machine into a 220v outlet, like I believe it can be, then you have the power to run 3/32" rods and do 1/8"- 5/16" material with some issues. That's still a bit on the thin side with stick, but certainly doable. Duty cycle is like 6% on 220v @ 95 amps. 95 amps is mid to lower range on most 3/32" rods, That means you can weld for something like 36 SECONDS at 95 amps before you hit the duty cycle limit on the machine and have to wait the rest of the 10 minutes for the machine to recover! Once past the duty cycle weld quality will drop off at best, and damage the machine at worst.Do yourself a favor. Take the machine back and return it within the no questions asked period while you still can. For the amount of money you spent, you can find a very nice, almost new/lightly used AC transformer stick machine on CL. Most of the older plug style machines will run you $50-100 and the tapped output machines like the Lincoln AC225's will set you back between $100-150 most times. Several here have picked up larger industrial quality stick machines in that range or AC/DC capable machines occasionally or maybe for say $50-100 more. Any of these machine will let you easily run 3/32" rods with no issues at all, and 95% of them will also run 1/8" rods with no issue making them capable of 1/2" easily.If you add your location to your user CP at the top left, so we know where you are at, you might find someone here with an older stick machine they can let you have cheap, or since many of the guys here watch CL daily they might spot a deal and let you know.Good luck.Last edited by DSW; 11-20-2011 at 06:26 AM..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by dugan978hi im new to this forum and welding. i just bought a 120 amp arc welder from harbor freight. its nothing special but hopfully it will do the little stuff i need it to do. i tryed welding with it and all i get is splatter not a bead of weld. even when i up the amps or lower them. could it be because i dont have enough amps running to the welder from my curcuit panel. all im welding is bed frame. like i said im new to welding iv never welded before. is it the way im doing it? please help! thanks!
Reply:Dugan-I was experimenting with the same welder at a friend's place.We found that with the welder running on 120v.,the only rod we could burn was 1/16(6013 from HF).3/32 rod would stick whenstarting or,if we got an arc going,it was difficult to keep it going.It also seemed like plugging in to an outlet closer to the circuitbreaker panel made it work better.  Good LuckMiller a/c-d/c Thunderbolt XLMillermatic 180 Purox O/ASmith Littletorch O/AHobart Champion Elite
Reply:Dugan, if you decide to return the welder for something else, take a look at the Everlast PA140st or the PA200. The PA 140 is a 120/220 unit and it works nice. There is 2 video's & some reviews posted in the Everlast Section of this forum on the 140.________________________________Everlast PA140STEverlast PowerPlasma 50And no you can't Borrow them
Reply:thank you evreyone for the advice, i only bought this welder to learn on and before getting it i did do alot of research on how to stick weld. i wil go to a smaller rod and change it to 220 if i can. and in the spring i definetly will buy a nice welder. thank you so much for all the help i apreciate it so much.
Reply:Originally Posted by dugan978thank you evreyone for the advice, i only bought this welder to learn on and before getting it i did do alot of research on how to stick weld. i wil go to a smaller rod and change it to 220 if i can. and in the spring i definetly will buy a nice welder. thank you so much for all the help i apreciate it so much.
Reply:I agree with the others. Take that welder back ASAP and use the money for a Craigslist transformer stick welder for about the same price. By spring you should know whether you like the used Craigslist welder enough to keep it or sell it for what you paid for it.Learning on an AC welder is difficult enough, but learning on that HF welder will take more patience than most would ever care to devote. Bottom line...get a real welder for the same money. Used stick machines, if they are working when you buy them...most are...will be working for your grandkids with not much more maintenance than blowing the inside out with compressed air once or twice a year.Lincoln PrecisionTig 275Miller 251Miller DialArc 250Bridgeport millHossfeld bender & diesLogan shaperJet 14 X 40 latheSouth Bend 9" 'C'Hypertherm 900Ellis 3000 band saw21"Royersford ExcelsiorTwo shops, still too many tools.
Reply:I will have to agree....the old Lincoln cracker boxes work really well to learn on. They are 220 amp and you can weld on about anything, I know of guys that still use them every day. They are also cheap and lots and lots on ebay, craigs lists, ect....stay away from the one off brands they offer no support or parts. Lincoln, Hobart, Miller, ESAB to name the big guns are the best to look for. When it comes to welding stick stay with 220 amp minimum, its so hard to learn when the mach is fighting you.A young green pipe welder asked an old salt one day...How can I make the weld on the bottom of the pipe look like the top.......The old salt replied....Screw up the top......
Reply:If your starting out and just learning you have taken a major step backwards and severely handicapped yourself with that machine, you will fight it every inch of the way, want to end right , start right. Take it back or sell it , get machines listed above. sounds like you have 220 power so no excuse. Trust us,  get a used Lincoln AC225, Miller Thunderbolt or equivalent and you will instantly see a difference.  good luck."Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum"Lincoln Idealarc 250 AC/DCMillermatic 251   Syncrowave 300   30A spoolgunLincoln MP210Hypertherm 45(2) LN 25(2) Lincoln Weldanpower 225 CV(4) SA200   1 short hood    SA250    SAM 400