Firepower FP120

[ramblerx15]

I was messin around on E-bay and accidentally?? won a Firepower FP 120, brand new in the box, for $202.50. I researched it after the fact, found out it is a Thermadyne . I had been looking for a 110v mig to putter around with, as I had a sp 100 for years, and been kicking myself ever since I sold it, 6 yrs ago. I should receive it later this week, so I would like some feedback before I open it up. I did find the owners manual online, but nothing about the country of origin in it. No more than I would use it, it will probably be as good enough. It has a good warranty (5-2-1) so maybe it is of better quality than one of those HF units for about the same price. Do any of you have any experiences with one of these? The retail prices that I found for these ranged from $380 to $600, so maybe it was a bargain. I will post some more when I get it, and give some impressions if Y'all give it a good review. :p :laugh:

[Doolittle]

Whups!! congrats.

[ramblerx15]

I was messin around on E-bay and accidentally?? won a Firepower FP 120, I will post some more when I get it, and give some impressions. :p :laugh:

Got it from fedex friday, and unpacked and assembled it. Pretty straightforward deal, and plugged 'er up. I only had straight Argon for gas, and it didn't seem to like it, it needs some C-25! It came with some .030 wire and it has 4 taps instead of variable voltage so I need to play with it some more, to learn the settings better. Sat. stopped by lws and picked up 2 lb of flux core to test it out. I have very little experience with FCAW so time to give it a shot. Just the few practice beads I ran, the welder ran that wire perfectly and looked really good. penetration and wetting action were fine on the 1/8 angle iron practice piece. The welder itself seems to be a well made unit, solid tweco gun and toolless gun and polarity changes. I think its gonna be a good one, for my needs. Time for the welder cart project! :p http://i3.tinypic.com/345da43.jpg

[phila.renewal]

Good score. The tweco gun is a big plus.

Have fun with it!

[ramblerx15]

Sat. stopped by lws and picked up 2 lb of flux core to test it out. I have very little experience with FCAW so time to give it a shot.
I ran out the rest of that spool of flux core, after hours, but the Orange Box was still open so went there and picked up some NR-211MP Innershield. I could not belive the difference, it was night and day, ran smooth, almost no spatter, incredible. Not ever running FCAW before, I thought the splattery, pinhole, uneven beads were standard operating procedure. The first spool was Washington Alloy brand E71T-GS, lws said they sold a lot of it. I am a Lincoln
man from now on! Top is Innershield, bottom and all those BB's is that other crap.

[ramblerx15]

I put the 75 Ar / 25 CO2 on this and it is primo good! Sure is handy to open the valve, hit the switch, and ready to weld! My review is 2 THUMBS WAY WAY UP !:laugh:

[Roy Hodges]

innershield doesn't use or need gas added . OUTERSHIELD does. we ran a 60-40 gas mix at Kaiser steel, when i worked there. (for outershield ).When i weld in my garage, with hard wire,i mostly use straight CO2, sometimes mix in some argon. I like how "hot" CO2 welds. But, i give most of the credit to my FABULOUS lincoln SP250 mig machine.

[fun4now.]

cool looks like you stumbled onto a good thing.:D congrats on the new toy, i'll bet the projects are already starting ti pile up.:p
you might want to look into a tank of Co2 for it. that small tank of C-25 is going to go fast and get real expensive to keep filling. the same sized Co2 tank will last a lot longer.
i recently switched over to strait Co2 after years of only running C-25 and have been realy happy with the strait Co2. below 200 amps there is not much if any diference if any in the splater form eather of them and the Co2 will let you burn a lil hotter to help the lil fella get stuff good and hot.:D