Welding Tips and Tricks

I received 6 broken Riland 110e IGBT flux core welders for free. They were from craigslist in the free section. Apparently they were warranty returns. The guy had 12. gave me 6 and someone else 6. One is dead and the only fault I can find with the rest is the flux core wire feeder is made wrong. complete misalignment that cannot be repaired. so i decided to unplug the wire feed and make a stick welder out of the Riland 110e. So here is the question. I have a Harbor Freight Flux Core 90. i assume the 110e on the Riland means 110 amps. can i use the same auto darken welding helmet that i use for my 90amp HF flux core for the Riland stick welder OR do i need to get a darker lens helmet since its an arc welder and I assume it will be a bigger arc than the thin wire on my HF flux core.?
just thought of a second question. have not bought the electrode yet. I saw that there were twist type to hold the rod. are they good, any suggestions......oh well lol here is a third questions, what is a good welding rod for a begiiner.......if the above is greenlighted to do the conversion

not a good unit to convert.
a quick search shows they are a semi-synergic welder, ie it increases the volts as you increase the wire speed (but no means to adjust manually).
the other issue is it changes wire speed, not amps. arc welders you need to change the amps. basically the electronics is all wrong for arc welding.

electronic variable welding helmets are dirt cheap. i would not bother with fixed lens helmets.

personally i would throw it all in the bin, go buy a cheap basic stick welder, variable shade helmet and a box of 3/32 6013. that you can do some decent welding with.

thanks for the reply. I believe you are wrong. Do you actually know what Synergetic means? I have not been able to find an actual Manual for the 110e , although in the write up on Amazon and a few other sites state that the 110e is a 30-90A welder AND as you turn the knob to increase the Amps it automatically adjusts the wire feed. I did find a manual for a Riland 135e and it is also a flux core welder. here is an excerpt from the manual:: ( the knob) Used to adjust welding current. The power source is synergic designed, After the current is configured, the machine automatically matches the feeding speed. When the pointer points to “stand-by”, the machine is in stand by.
Then about the welding helmet. what I was asking is the helmet I have already for 90a flux core, acceptable to use for Arc welding or would I need a darker auto adjust welding helmet

Yes, the same helmet can be used.

la1 wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 11:33 am thanks for the reply. I believe you are wrong. Do you actually know what Synergetic means? I have not been able to find an actual Manual for the 110e , although in the write up on Amazon and a few other sites state that the 110e is a 30-90A welder AND as you turn the knob to increase the Amps it automatically adjusts the wire feed. I did find a manual for a Riland 135e and it is also a flux core welder. here is an excerpt from the manual:: ( the knob) Used to adjust welding current. The power source is synergic designed, After the current is configured, the machine automatically matches the feeding speed. When the pointer points to “stand-by”, the machine is in stand by.

thats bold.
yes i do actually have a (semi) synergetic mig.

the manual is probably more sales pitch than anything.
amazon had a decent write up on it.

first thing is that for mig/fluxcore is you need to adjust both voltage and amps.
i highly doubt a cheap bottom end machine is going to have proper amp control, it doesn't even have an amp display. its a feature typically only found on high end machines. for most machines out there wirefeed speed is amp control. that machine even has the wirefeed symbol just above the knob.

synergetic does not mean that it controls wire feed speed from an amp setting. proper synergic basically means you set the material type and size, position etc and it adjusts the voltage and wirefeed. semi-synergic (not an official term) is the early form where it selects the voltage from your wire feed speed, which is what you have here (actually mentioned in the amazon listing). its a step up from the crude voltage selection most fluxcore welders have. the idea behind it is that it makes it easy to go from one size material to another. just turn it up and volts automatically adjust with it.
but that machine looks like it does not have any means to alter the voltage from its synergic setting, which will make it hard to dial in properly (typical for cheap machines).
with mine it has menus for tweaking the voltage up/down. some fluxcore wires are really touchy in getting the voltage set just right.

as far as converting goes, you will need an suitable amp meter to test it to see if it has an amp controlled power supply. rig a clamp and a 3/32 6013 stick to the lead and measure amps when you run it and see if amps change when you change the wire/amp setting.

If it’s a low end FC machine, to run stick you’d either need to run DCEN rods or be able to convert the machine to DCEP, right?

Good news, I beleive I told you i received 7 Riland factory returned welders on craigslist. I forgot one was a TIG 200p. Seems to work, or at least the MMA stick weld part. Did not have cables or stinger , so i made a pair out of one set of the flux core. It's also 220v so i had to use a generator......works great.... was thinking right now of an episode of Home improvements where Tim walks in with a big grin on his face and Jill says....Have you been welding? lol is there a device to hold 2 pieces of metal with a 90° cut to weld to make a corner?

thats good to hear.