brix542 Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 As the title says i need a lil help with welders. Ive been looking for a cheap mig welder to buy for myself lately but being a 17 year old and not having much money really limits me. Today my boss offered to sell me a Campbell Hausfeld Flux core 80 for 25 bucks. Ive used it before working for him but he recently bought a new mig and im currently his goto for any welding that comes in. Im basically thinking of doing lil jobs and whatnot for now. Biggest probably be sliders and bumpers sometime maybe. I have access to my granddads stick welder if i need it. Basically i wanna know if its worth buying or not. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamzan Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 (edited) For 25 bucks you can't really go wrong but if your grandfather has one of those old lincoln farm welders I'd much rather use that since those small flux core welders may not be up to the task of welding sliders and bumpers. Though I don't know anything about the welder you mentioned I just am sharing my experience. I have a crappy fluxcore welder and while it has worked to temporarily patch things, I wouldn't trust it to build a set of sliders. I used it to weld parts of my frame, and while the welds were strong enough, they looked like crap. It bothered me enough that I took it to a friends shop, ground them down and re welded with a real MIG welder (with gas not fluxcore). The most important thing is (and I learned it here) is to keep practicing. Edited January 7, 2012 by adamzan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nismothunder Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 Flux cored .035 wire likes 18 gauage up to 1/4 inch in a 80 amp welder. Mine will weld 1/4 inch surprizinly well for a little 80 amp. But mine is a Dayton, which is considered by many too be the worse welder too buy. But hey it was 20 bucks. In your case yeah, get it. Even if you cant use it on your sliders (I dought) its good for little fix's or trailer building. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RF600 Posted January 14, 2012 Share Posted January 14, 2012 The beads on the flux core machines don't always look good. For the money I would get it and practice. Then when you get some money saved up you can upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyelvis Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 i bought a northern tool welder for like 165. its rated at 125 amps, and everything i've used it for has come out solid! but its only a flux core welder. but hey, thats why they invented anti-splater spray! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerranoNZ Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 If money is tight I'd be asking your boss if you can use the new one to make sliders with. But it's your decision after all. Being a fabricator I tend to push people to better quality welders. The most crucial thing to look for in a welder is duty cycle, not Amps. a 120A welder with a 100% duty cycle will out perform a 200A that has a 50% duty cycle. My pulse TIG is 200A I forget what the Duty cycle is, but at 150A it's 100%. Very seldom I've used a TIG over 150A. But again, Fabricator talking. So take my info like you would a race car driver telling you you need 500hp to drive to work 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremyelvis Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 So take my info like you would a race car driver telling you you need 500hp to drive to work EVERYONE NEEDS 500hp FOR THEIR MORNING COMMUTE!!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alabama_lowlife Posted January 28, 2012 Share Posted January 28, 2012 For $25 I'd buy it, if for no other reason than to sell it for $50. Plus, I'd rather have a flux core than nothing. I wouldn't run out and build a sky scraper with it, but you never know when you might need to weld a muffler on something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brix542 Posted February 11, 2012 Author Share Posted February 11, 2012 Well i got the welder and everything i needed for it. Only to find out that the gun trigger is hung up and runs all the time. Can ya buy the part or is there any guns that will fit it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nismothunder Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Try giving it a good firm whack against a work bench or something. What type of gun is it? Yes you can buy a new gun and/or cable. No I dont know what type you need (although they do usally say on the machine cover or the gun it self) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now