Flex Core Welder, 115 Volt, 70 Amps, Portable, Thermal Overload Protection, Infinite Wire Feed (Campbell Hausfeld WF215001AV)

Let me preface this by saying I am NOT a welder. I have zero experience welding. I have been a weld inspector for many, many years, but I've never laid a bead, myself. I bought this for around the house projects. The first of which is building a new expanded metal/square tubing shelf for my BBQ smoker. I bought some bar stock and 13 ga, 3/4" expanded metal to practice on. Today, I fired this thing up, and set it according to the inside door panel. The first "welds" I made were ugly as homemade sin. My lack of experience was shining through. I burned right through the expanded metal and couldn't get a good tack for anything. I played around with the settings and eventually set the voltage at 2 and the wire speed at about 4. Next thing I know, this thing is humming along, tack after tack, spot weld after spot weld. I must have kept going for about three hours, total, and the unit never kicked into protect mode once. By the time I was done, I had a decent little table top to work on. I have the steel for the BBQ pit shelf coming in tomorrow some time, so I think I'm ready to tackle it now. I took the dinky ground clamp that came on the unit off and added a more robust clamp. Also, I have the unit plugged in to a dedicated 30 amp circuit.Update 3/25/16: As of this afternoon, I have used up the entire 2# spool of wire that comes with this machine and started on another. The machine still hasn't quit on me. Never even asked for a break. I built a new shelf for my BBQ pit today, and built a new log rack for my brother's pit. I used 13 gauge expanded metal for my shelf, with .065" wall square tubing for the frame. I was halfway expecting it to be warped and off-center, but it came out great! I set the machine down to #1 for voltage, and just past 3 on wire speed.... it didn't burn through, and made good, solid welds. Keep in mind, this is my second day welding..... ever! I even beat the crap out of one side of the frame with a hammer to get it back square, and the tack welds held great. I cleaned it all up with a flapper wheel on my grinder, and painted it with high heat paint. See the attached picture. The new shelf I built today is sitting on top of the shelf that came with the pit for size comparison. I would still recommend this welder to a backyard warrior.I can't speak to how it performs on big jobs, but if you're just looking for a welder to keep around for household projects, then I would recommend this unit.

Wire feed speed will not stay where you set it, I adjusted it as it said , I have used it 3 Days at 4hrs a day. To day it would adjust at all !I can not send it back,Don't know how to fix it,who to call, Other than that, I thought it was a nice tool to have.

My only hesitation in giving this item a rating of 5 stars is that I am such a novice at arc welding that I may not be qualified to give such a high rating to any welder.Prior to purchasing this welder my only experience with arc welding was a brief introduction to stick welding I got as part of a Junior High School shop class back in the late 1950s. I still have vivid memories of how hard it was to try to start an arc and keep it going while also having to flip the helmet down at the same time. Those memories were enough to keep me from even considering the purchase of an arc welder until the morning I got the wild idea to order this welder and an auto darkening helmet.WOW, what a difference using this is from memories of trying to learn to stick weld in Junior High School! After only a few practice welds I was able to create functional welds for use in various projects around my home. The welds I am getting are anything but "text book quality" in appearance. However an experienced welder has looked at some of them and assures me that they are strong and will hold. He also said that my welds will get better as I get more experience. Another experienced welder has told me that it is nearly impossible to get "good welds" with a "cheap welder". That may well be true, but at this point I am sure I would not be getting "good welds" no matter how expensive a welder I had purchased. One reviewer here commented that the trigger seemed to be a bit touchy. Occasionally when I think I have pressed the trigger on my unit nothing happens, however I am more inclined to believe it is due to something I am not doing quite correctly, rather than anything wrong with the trigger itself. This has never seriously hindered my ability to create the welds I want.I am not planning to be using the welder for any large projects, but for a variety of small projects where having the ability to weld will save me from trying to figure out how to bolt together "whatever I can find at the hardware store" to create something I am trying to kluge together. Over the last year I have spent a small fortune on pre-drilled steel, bolts, and miscellaneous hardware to modify commercial scaffolding and build additional scaffold railings so I could work on a part of my home that is nearly impossible to reach. If I had had this welder when I was doing that, I could have saved myself a lot of time and money.I wasn't sure what to expect from a "low end" welder like this! I have found that it does all that I expected and more. One of my first projects involved welding 2" x 3/16" angle iron, and I very happy to find that it handles this material with no problems. (It should be noted that I am using the welder on a dedicated 20 amp circuit as is recommended when using the highest power setting.)While no "low end" welder will meet the needs of everyone looking to purchase a welder, this welder definitely meets my needs extremely well.

Would give this item AND the company 0 stars if the option was available. Received item and was excited to check it out. Right off the bat the wire feeder would not feed. Spent hours trying to determine the problem. Attempted to call the company but the customer service line was ALWAYS busy. Tried for 2 more days to contact the company. Finally found a different customer service number on another company's website. Reached customer service on the first attempt. The customer service person said that the wrong number is on the contact paper enclosed in the box and that the phone company was supposed to direct callers to the new number. Service person took no responsibility; just blamed the phone company. Service person suggested plugging the welder in without an extension cord to get more power. Tried plugging the unit in directly to the outlet without any difference. The wire still wouldn't feed. Called the new customer service number and this service person was discourteous and almost insulting. Sending back the unit and will never buy a Campbell Hausfeld product again.