cheap welder, worth it?

Yup, good to know. Prolly a decent welder for regular DIY weekend guys then I suspect.

 

Just a mig like tig pattern.

 

Exactly what it is otherwise there'd be metal flow as one drags a torch.

 

It look a little cold, but I don’t think his truck is going to fall apart. I posted that more to show that a. You don’t need gas to build a good truck and b. You don’t need gas to avoid spatter. Plenty of guys have built much more serious and tested rides on DR that on most on this forum with flux core and do a bunch of more serious welding on farms and on machinery than a weekend warrior on here with a 110 volt mig w/ gas. This thread started to sound like a 3rd Gen on 33’s w/o a lift discussion when they said you can’t get a good weld without gas.

 

Was just a response to the post; I'm aware that flux can lay down some nice beads and won't argue that at all. In fact it penetrates pretty damn good too, and even moreso when going dualshield.

Normally all the bad flux welds are those from newbies, and it's usually a newbie complaining about flux (yet bought it because they're some of the cheapest welding machines out there). With that said, an experienced welder will lay some nice beads with flux.

People say stick is even worse, but I certified in stick first myself running 5G on pipe.

 

May be late to the party, but I'm a fan of Eastwood welders too. We have had 2 of their 250s. They are usually comparable price to the HF welders with much better duty cycles... That was the deciding factor on our last purchase over the HF.

 

@TacoTuesday1 you said you tried an extractor tool so far but you might have better luck with some of these methods.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PnXu1tLJT8M

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_d9oVPjb4

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KCKGVldVqRc&pp=ygUgU291dGggbWFpbiBhdXRvIG1hbmlmb2xkIHRoZXJhcHk%3D

Sometimes getting a nut to weld to a stud isn’t easy if it’s in a difficult area to aim the gun at the right angle. Without a pic or knowing if you’re going to pull the manifold it’s hard to tell.

 

FluxCore sucks

 

"Tell me you don't weld without telling me you don't weld"

 

Good info, heard similar remarks about these. Couple projects I have in mind, might just grab one.

 

I got one of those earlier in the year, it's been a decent machine. Dual voltage and gas/gasless welding. The ability to swap the leads to make it a positive ground when doing flux core makes a big difference in the splatter control. I handled 3/16 on 110V, although that is pushing it.

 

Duty cycle is the key. HF welders suck at duty cycle.

 

Ehh I mean I guess but at the end of the day that's a really good way to ensure it's cold lapped all the way around what appears to be a roll cage. I can assure you that this is not a good weld.

 

Given the application of smaller little welders you likely arent going to be doing foot long welds. Random fixes and small projects. Once i linked to has a 60% duty cycle at full tilt amps (this would mean 6min straight of welding at full tilt). Even if its half that duty cycle in practice, 3min straight of welding, your hand in a glove from stabilizing is going to be HOT.

 

Many of those machines are in the 25-30% duty cycle range. Choose wisely.

 

Just say fuck it and get you a 3 phase transformer-based machine for that 100% duty cycle

YOLO

/thread

 

Even then... if the machine has 25-30% duty cycle... thats 2.5-3 min of straight welding....

Dont get me wrong I have welded with better machines than the one I linked to, but for 99% of the stuff most of us on here are going to weld, a Flux Core small welder will do the job amazingly.

 

Thanks.

fought for it for another 5 hours.
For sure had a leak at passenger side. Stud broke there.
I am hoping that is what caused bank 1 sensor 2 faults: voltage too low and P0430 cat efficiency.

stud was practically welded into the end outlet of the manifold.
Grabbed my Milwaukee titanium drill bit set and gradually stepping up in drill bit size, drilled it out.
Unfortunately didn’t perfectly center the drill and the hole is a tiny bit ovaled, enlarged, threads partially stripped.

threw the stock y pipe back on so I can smog it. Replaced the now gone stud with nut and bolt. Leak seems now gone.
May take up to 100mi to confirm readiness OK and no codes/CEL.

if I do put the aFe Y-pipe back on later hopefully if installed without any leaks this time will not cause any CEL and whatnot.
this whole pain makes me wonder if an upgraded Y pipe is even worth it.

what would make a CEL even worse is not knowing if something else goes wrong. Unless a monitor is coded out or spacer.
Because if some other DTC happens later on, there would be no way to notice that just by looking at the dash without periodic scanning/reading as the CEL magic light would already be shining.

 

No problem - there are other builds using flux core but it was the only one I remembered the name of off the top of my head over on DR as I am not on that forum as much anymore. Wanted to demonstrate that gas isn’t a necessity for a quality job. Seems like his settings were too low for that one which did not directly relate to not using solid wire and shielding gas.

 

Dynasty 280