Harbor Freight Vulcan MigMax 215

[Richl35]

I wanted to throw out a quick review here on a machine I started working with recently. Harbor Freight started stalling a more serious line of welding equipment under the Vulcan name. These machines are built to directly compete with some of the hobby machines built by Lincoln and Miller. Machines in the $1200 - $2000 range. Good machines for the average guy building a Jeep or doing some fabrication work. Not production machines like what we have in my shops at work. Now I don't mean that to be a knock on the equipment because it isn't. What I gain with the $7000 - $10,000 machines at my work is FAR more power and a very high duty cycle. But when it comes to fabbing up some 3/8 thick brackets maybe to hold a farm jack or something like that... Then all that extra $$$ gains you empty pockets... not better welds.

So that brings me to specifically the Vulcan MigMax 215 and my thoughts on the machine. I do want to say I have also used and owned some of the Miller, Hobart, Lincoln hobby machines in the 200A- 220A range so I think I have a pretty good feel for how this 215 falls into place comparatively. I am happy to say it does very well.

Overall quality is good. The controls feel fairly positive and can be operated with gloves on without issue. If I had to nitpick I may say that the knobs feel a little looser than a Lincoln or Miller machine but they are positive and you have no doubt the position they are in. The torchhead is typical quality for this level of machine. Nothing great, nothing bad. Again, if I had to pick on it the only thing I would ask for is some more length. 10ft is pretty tight. The ground clamp is decent quality with a nice heavy duty quality feeling cable. The regulator is good quality and typical of a machine in this class. The case of the unit is typical with a pair of nice grab handles on either end to move it around. The unit weighs 44lbs so it is a machine you can travel with if you wanted too. It has the typical door on the left side of the cabinet so you can spool it. Under that door is a nice set of directions and set up guidelines inside. Helpful info for sure in a convenient place.. The finish I believe is a powdercoat or electrically deposited paint and looks good quality and should look good for years. The wire feed mechanism for a machine at $1200 would be nice. At $649 it is exceptional! All cast metal parts and it feeds very consistent and smoothly. No complaints here. It will also hold 10/12 lb spools of both solid or flux core wire. It comes with drive rolls for .024, .030, and .035 wire. I would prefer a quicker Hobart style drive roll holder that you just push and twist to change but it doesn't.. no big deal. So that's the basics... Now how does it weld?

One word... Great!
It performs every bit as good as the machines they are trying to compete with. It has an available 215 amps when plugged into 230VAC single phase. And a quick note here, the welder is dual voltage. Output is 140 amps when plugged into 120VAC. There is no plug adapter used to switch voltage. Vulcan supplies you with 2 separate cords. Very nice! Back to the welding now... It welds great. It's very smooth. The settings are close to spot on if you go by the guide in the side door. Plenty of power for doing anything we would run into working on our Jeeps. I never hit the duty cycle once and I feel like I should have with the welding I was doing. It laid down some solid beads and there is nice control with the welder. I've used some crappy mig machines in the past that have made me wish for a stick welder but this is not one of them. This would be a solid machine at $1300. It is incredible and an absolute steal at $649. If you are looking for a welder consider this one.

I'll add a couple pictures of the machine and the welds it has produced in the next day or so.

[Hank]

AvE also digs it:

**LANGUAGE WARNING** (not only some cursing... but also some wacky canuck slang)

[Richl35]

So here are those pics I promised in the last post.

[BlackNBlue-ISH]

Would this be a good machine to learn how to weld with? The welds you got look great, but you are an experienced welder. It’s like fast cars can be driven fast by anyone, but not everyone can drive a slow car fast. Would this be a sound investment for a beginner hobbyist? Same question, but for someone only running 130VAC?

[Richl35]

Would this be a good machine to learn how to weld with? The welds you got look great, but you are an experienced welder. It’s like fast cars can be driven fast by anyone, but not everyone can drive a slow car fast. Would this be a sound investment for a beginner hobbyist? Same question, but for someone only running 130VAC?

I would absolutely recommend this machine to a beginner. I have taught a bunch of people how to mig weld. The thing with your three main welding processes is the MIG welding is by far the simplest. If you know how to stick weld then most likely you can TIG weld and mig weld. If you can TIG weld then most likely you can stick weld and mig weld. But if you can mig weld then you can mig weld. It's such a simple process that it doesn't lend itself well too other processes. But I don't think that's really a negative either because MIG welding handles about 99% of anything we would do to our Jeeps so it's a great skill to develop.
A lot of the technique that helps make a weld strong and also look professional is to be able to maintain a repetitive motion. As you weld you have a pattern you are repeating over and over. You want that pattern to be the same from start to end. The pattern you use and angle of your torch creates the look of the weld, your penetration you achieve, how much spatter you have and the buildup of the weld itself. I am over simplifying it slightly because the speed that you travel and your ability to see your weld puddle and manipulate it are also very important but that comes with a little bit of practice. We're just welding brackets in the Jeep world not running the cooling piping in a nuclear power plant. We just have to make a solid weld to hold two pieces of metal together. No one's x-raying our weld for porosity and penetration.

So this machine at 130 volts cuts it's rated power output too almost half. About 140 amps of output. What can you do with a 140 amps? A lot actually. Full penetration on 3/16" steel in a single pass with .030 wire. Some will argue 1/4" with .035 is achievable and for the most part I agree. The only time I might question that is if you're welding heavy brackets on to Axle or suspension components. You might want to leave that up to a machine that has a little more output. But that's the greatest thing about this machine. If you have a dryer outlet you have the power to run this machine at full output. Or, if you don't someone you know does and this machine is very portable.

This welder is priced just barely above the 120 volt 140A machines available from Lincoln, Miller, Hobart but about 1/2 what the 200 - 220A machines are. This welder is such a good deal that I would have a hard time recommending someone to pick up a Hobart Handler 140 over the extra $100 to buy this machine with all the extra features, build quality and power output.

If you were serious about learning how to weld then in a couple hours time I could teach you all the basics you would ever need to know to run a machine like this. It's not that hard to run some good strong welds. It is a little more difficult to make a really good looking strong weld. You know, what is referred to the stack of dimes. But that's just practicing technique.

[BlackNBlue-ISH]

Awesome response! I appreciate you taking the time to drop the knowledge here on the forum.

[Frank]

I have a
Handler 210 from TSC. 240 volts . Mostly using .030/ .035 wire but for sheet metal work I drop to .022 . Also using Hobart wire. Couldnt be happier with the machine. My first machine was a 120 volt and it was finicky with duty cycle . Claim was .25" with single pass . I didnt find that to be true. I would recommend a 240V machine to anyone thinking of structural work ie- brackets , frame , fabrication. Simply "duty cycle) how long a bead you can lay down at one time. Time , and experience will get you what your looking for in quality welds. For a home owner this machine wont need to be upgraded. FjR68

[Richl35]

Awesome response! I appreciate you taking the time to drop the knowledge here on the forum.

No Problem

[Richl35]

I have a
Handler 210 from TSC. 240 volts . Mostly using .030/ .035 wire but for sheet metal work I drop to .022 . Also using Hobart wire. Couldnt be happier with the machine. My first machine was a 120 volt and it was finicky with duty cycle . Claim was .25" with single pass . I didnt find that to be true. I would recommend a 240V machine to anyone thinking of structural work ie- brackets , frame , fabrication. Simply "duty cycle) how long a bead you can lay down at one time. Time , and experience will get you what your looking for in quality welds. For a home owner this machine wont need to be upgraded. FjR68

I couldn't agree more with you. Duty cycle at 120V and full output is fairly short. My Hobart handler 140 is 20% I believe. I have run some great welds with the 120V machine but with heavier materials you need to plan on multiple passes. I have had other machines that were multi voltage like the Vulcan and they work pretty good but always better at 230 than 120. The price of the Vulcan is what got me. I looked at it a couple times and thought it felt like a fairly descent quality machine. I had to pull the trigger and get one out of pure curiosity. I was really surprised at how well it worked once I started laying down some welds. I'm tempted to get an aluminum spool gun for it...

Just for those reading this that don't know how Duty Cycle is rated. It is the percentage of time in 10 minutes you can weld at a given output. So for a machine rated at 20% at full output you can weld for 2 minutes and then you need to allow the welder to cool for 8 minutes.
It's not as terrible as it sounds because you typically lay down 4 -5 inches of weld in 20 - 30 seconds then stop for a couple minutes while you prep for the next one. Also you don't always run the machine at full output. As the power output goes down the duty cycle goes up. Maybe at 90Amps of output power on that same machine welding 1/8" steel your duty cycle is 45%. One of the biggest things you gain with a $$$ machine is a much better duty cycle! The average homeowner/hobbyist doesn't require a 350A machine with 100% duty cycle.