Harbor Freight tools thread.

Buy a Lincoln or Miller. Small welders to learn on are cheap these days, (I paid less than $300 for my handy mig), and with name brand you can sometimes trade them in on better units.

 

Is it worth it to buy someone’s used Miller or Lincoln?

 

Not unless you know what you're doing. There's a lot of ragged out garbage out there

 

Find a welding supply store and ask about used welders, or some sort of upgrade program. More expensive than CL, but they won't sell you broken crap. And you're going to have to buy supplies like gas anyway, so a relationship with a supplier is a plus.

 

It's the greatest pain to put together.

 

Worse than an ikea kitchen?

 

Hobart Handler is a great setup for some wanting an hobby level Mig.

 

I am thinking about going with an ikea kitchen. Still looking at all options though.

 

An Ikea kitchen was one of the worst experiences of my life. And i've done lots of difficult stuff.

Choose wisely.

 

I have never bought anything from ikea.

 

Migmax, or the multi process one.

 

When you catch them heat guns on sale and just use them for everything
https://youtu.be/3ZYm6NQiSpc

 

MIG 140 works great. @Sociopenguin and I have welded up two bumpers from Coastal with it.

 

Get a bottle of Stargold to go with it. Been doing good for us.

 

Quick question, though this one might be a long shot.

I just started working with the HF Central Pneumatic pressure pot, refitted by a friend for curing resin. It works really well for sucking the bubbles out, it leaks like a mofo unless you set it up really well. I usually run it at ~55 PSI if I can get the clamps tight enough to not leak around the 30 PSI mark.

I've just been made aware of many horror stories about these pots being absolute bombs. I wanted to know if anyone else had experience using these, and if you're a bit knowledgeable about what would make the lid blow through my house, please inform me


My main worry is I have difficulty hand tightening the clamps on top enough to keep more than that 30 PSI in the tank, so I'll fill it until I hear it leak, and stop there.
I'm starting to think that might not be so smart....
From what I gather, the clamps are the main weakness on the pot, but I didn't do a deep dive with my research. Most of what I saw online was just "Don't use it because my cousin's uncle..." type shit.

 

Are you struggling to close it securely because it takes to much effort to turn the knobs? What if you were to remove those bolts with the knob on top, and replace them with a normal bolt that you could use a socket on and get more leverage.

 

That might be a good idea. At the moment, I've just been using clamps to get them extra tight. Since this isn't my pot, I was thinking about just rigging up some sort of cheater bar.

 

replacing those bolts is less than $1, and can easily be swapped back to the current setup when returning the pot(although if it works better, Im sure they would say thanks for the mod). The socket wrench would be the easiest, and safest cheater bar.

 

Any pressure chamber is a bomb. Good on you for being cautious! Lots of people don’t think about anything and we read about them online.