Harbor Freight Flux 125 Welder Review

I have put together a review video of the Harbor Freight Flux 125 Welder Item#63582. This has replaced my older Harbor Freight welder. I ended up building a gate for our house and this thing turned out to be just the right tool for the job. As for my older harbor freight welder, it was a great workhorse for me. I made so many things from car bumpers to roll cage parts, suspension parts, custom scooters, bike frame welding.. So much stuff. In transport it got damaged and the spool axle thing broke. Also, the switch for the trigger started acting up. It gave me about 15 years of work, the first 10 of those 15 were intense use. Anyway, this video, check it out, let me know what you think.

[Thisispointless]

I have the older blue machine and have modified it alot, use a 10lb spool after cutting out the lid and moving the mount, converted to DC with caps so it's heavier now but less splatter and better penetration, reversed polarity, put a fan in it and wired it so the wire feed motor gets power before the coil instead of after the coil so no more feed speed drops, it's decent now lol, there is a bunch of videos of people converting these to DC etc, it's worth doing

[progholio]

Harbor Freight should give you an extra discount if you are using this to repair other broken Harbor Freight tools, like their concrete mixer.

[livewireOrourke]

I'm planning on building an entire 90 story skyscraper (in my backyard) using this welder and scrap metal from Lowe's and my grandmother's old fridge.

[olbear]

15 years? Wow my new one will last till I am 99 years old. Got to get busy and wear it out before I leave. 🐻🤣

[rexmericle]

Same thing for me. I've had mine for over 5 years without issues but I did already have a self darkening shield also bought at HF. One tip for making better looking fillet welds at butt joints and for filling minor gap is to run a "J" weave stringer. This pulls the puddle back and up and then carries the puddle down without burning through. I was a certified welder in the nuclear power plant world for about 10 years and it makes for a better looking weld as well. I enjoyed your video!

[Gabriel]

I've bin welding since 1998 and have used many different machines, big one's mostly gas but even flux core rods. I just recently purchased the 125 you have on here to weld my front custom fencing for my wall and stone pillers. I have to say I was very sceptical about this tiny welder. But to my surprise it did very well on the 3/16 steel gate. It was just simply a matter of setting the appropriate wire speed and temp then getting the hand speed and movement to match the setting. So I'm very happy with it and the price was good I paid $119 but I'm getting a price change next month but it's going on a one month sale for $85. That make it all even better. It's a keeper.👍👍👌

[tommydunn]

I have had one of these for about ten years now. I use it quite a bit, and like it very much. Good home welding unit.

[dangerboy]

I tried this welder and I must say it actually does the job, not the best welder out there of course but it will definitely get the job done, and you can definitely do some nice welds with it if you know what your doing

[stocktrader]

I got one of these and sat it in my garage for half a year. I had no idea how to use it and it looked intimidating to open and use, so I sat it around like probably a lot of you did. This guy makes it easy and straight forward to use. Good radio voice and entertaining to watch. Thank you for this really good video.

[austinlane]

I've had this 125 for several years. It was my first welder and at the time was a great welder. Since, I've gotten a newer more durable name brand machine and it's as silky as a new Cadillac.
Moral of the story, any welder beats no welder.
Get what you can, but also get what you NEED.

[IkeOzurumba]

Just wanted to give you a shout out. I wanted to buy a flux welder and started watching vids on YT. Alot of them are good but claim to be for beginners and they're really not. This video was actually the best video I've seen reviewing/demo'ing/ and explaining a flux core welder. Thank you so much! Excellent content.

[iamkeithmyers]

That “only 15 years” really caught me by surprise lol

[whatfreedom]

I have a old cheap Chicago electric mig I inherited in 2006 and it’s still going. I haven’t used a lot myself but my father in law uses it all the time and it’s been a great little welder for light duty stuff and still works after all these years.

[XHT]

I got one the other day. Hadn't welded in forty years and this is a good little welder to get me back to it so to say. I am making a people gate
in my steel fence and it is working good. My first bead looked pretty crappy but after messing with the settings and tweaking
it I got it to work okay. Can't blame the welder if it doesn't work at first; it's that operator malfunction that'll getchya.

[bigwillbassman]

Can't wait for Christmas I'm so excited, don't know how to wield yet but I have been watching a lot of videos and going to take a 2 day class on basic wielding, your video review is great thanks a lot.

[keeganlantz]

There are only about two people who created a really good welding video about the Harbor Freight 125. Besides that the only people you find are spoiled kids or people who don't really know what they're doing. I bought this machine about a month ago and I really like it it's not a Lincoln a Miller or a Hobart but it's fun to work with if you use the right technique and right metal thickness .you did a good job on the video thank you

[Badkitty]

I recently got a the titanium 125a mig welder and it absolutely works great. I bought this one instead of the one in video because the titanium one has variable settings instead of low/high.

[robertemmons]

I have this welder. For the most part it does what I need. But if you want to improve your welds, simply do these two things.
1) Replace the power cord with a heavier gauge, this will insure that you're using the max amount of amps available in your electrical circuit.
2) Upgrade the ground clamp. Like in all things electrical, a good ground will give you the best results.
Also, replace that cheap mig wire with a better quality wire, (like you had done in the video). This alone will give you more consistent results.

Thanks for the review.

[walter]

I got one a few weeks ago. Picked up the smaller gas less nozzle, I really recommend it. Improves your vision greatly.
I didn’t realize that you could put those large rolls in this machine! That’s awesome.
Nice video hope you make more with this welder.

[ronmcwhirter]

Took a chance on one of these little guys about a year ago.. i must say i am amazed. This welder works fantastic on small items. Ive reaired mower deck built a little garden trailer. Use. It all the time . Very pleased . Well worth the $ 120 bucks. Now im having a hard time finding something to weld