10 Harbor Freight Finds To Level Up Your On-The-Go Welding Kit

Home improvement enthusiasts who want to step up their repair game might consider taking on welding. The task of a welder is simple: It involves the fixing of two or more metal components together in a solid bond. Welding goes beyond the staying power of nails or glue in wood products, and considering the sheer volume of metal products found around the house, in your car, and elsewhere, the ability to weld is a seriously versatile skill. Home welding is one thing, but taking your kit out and about to tackle jobs found beyond the four walls of the house or even to a friend's to offer a helping hand is often called for. A handy welder is someone who will constantly find small jobs here and there to tackle, and this means that an on-the-go welding kit quickly becomes a necessity.

Home welders might even consider tackling contract work from time to time, requiring them to bring a series of high quality tools into their mobile welding setup. Fortunately, the range of available gear is seemingly endless. Harbor Freight tool brands run the gamut from Hercules power tools to Chicago Electric's metalworking and welding gear. These pieces of equipment can help level up your game when it comes to welding outside the comforts of your dedicated shop.

A welding unit is absolutely necessary when talking about any metal fabrication, fixing, or cutting tasks. Welders come in a great many varieties, however. It can be tough for a new welder to select the right kind of unit for their needs and comfortability, considering that different approaches and general processes are involved in each unique avenue for welding work. Yet, a multi-process welder can make this decision making tree a little less overwhelming. The same can be said for an experienced welder hoping to put together a road-ready welding toolkit to tackle projects beyond the managed environment of a home workshop or professional space.

The Titanium Unlimited 200 Professional Multi-Process Welder is perhaps one of the most versatile and user friendly options on the market. The kit includes virtually everything a welder will need and retails at Harbor Freight for $800 (often cheaper for Inside Track Club members). The unit is dual voltage capable with support for 120V and 240V inputs, and features an improved arc start with inverter technology built in. The welder also weighs in at just 24 pounds, making it an immensely portable option capable of a wide range of applications across nearly any setting you might find yourself requiring a weld. For any type of welder looking to build a kit that's ready for the road, this tool should be high on your list.

Not all welding requires a massive setup. Some repairs just need a light touch and a bit of finesse. Some car repair works, for instance, can be accomplished without welding at all. A bit of WD-40 can sometimes remove surface rust, as well. But for more in-depth fixes that don't rise to the level of a full welding job, the Chicago Electric Stud Welder Dent Repair Kit is a massive time and effort saver. It performs the low heat welding tasks that are required for dent repair on auto bodies and elsewhere in the metalworking environment.

Combined with the kit's 2-pound slide hammer dent puller tool, the stud welder offers everything you'll need to repair misshapen metal components anywhere you come across them. The kit also includes 200 studs in 2mm and 3mm sizes as well as a 2mm and 3mm welding tip to round out the needed gear for any automotive or appliance dent repair you might come across. This is simply the right tool for the job when it comes to these kinds of metalworking issues, and with an ergonomic D handle shape and an equally effective overall footprint, it's easy to load up the stud welder for fixes on the move.

A place to set your workpiece is always a must when conducting any kind of repair, fabrication, or demolition. No matter the project, a welder won't get very far without a solid worktop to lay their tools, secure their components, and simply to conduct the work at hand. Bending down to weld or cut at ground level just doesn't work for very long. A table of any sort is a must, but one that includes a few key features can elevate the job and your experience as a fabricator. The Chicago Electric Adjustable Steel Welding Table does just that. With an adjustable footprint, the table can be set in a variety of positions for easy access, and when you're done with a project it folds up for simple storage in the corner of a shop or on a work van.

Indeed, a 5-way adjustment bracket connects the table's top to its base, allowing for locked in positioned at preset angles to help make reaching around your workpiece and getting right into the spot you need to hit a less physically demanding operation. The steel top is conductive, too, allowing the attachment of a grounding clamp away from your work and the spatter that comes along with it. the reinforced legs are sturdy enough to handle just about anything you might set down on the worktop, too, and its table slots make for easy clamping when a workpiece is set down for a welding task.

Clamping a workpiece in place so that it can't shift while you fuse or cut components is a key task in any welding job. Whether you're working on delicate art pieces or more rough work on a large beam, the ability to hold a component still while you work is essential. Many clamps and stands exist on the market, but an easily mobile variety can be hard to come by at times. The Pittsburgh Welding and Sheet Metal Clamp Set (2 Piece) offers the best of a combination of requirements that mobile welders will be searching for.

Housed at the ends of two mole grip-style plier handles with locking and dial-adjustable clamping clearance, the clamps are easily stored away when not in use or being transported from job to job. Yet, when they are called upon, the two clamps offer a wealth of different gripping opportunities because of their distinct jaw shapes. Pipe work and other round stock is easily held in place, while sheet metal and square or flat workpieces are equally grabbable. A 4-inch sheet capacity can be held in place and the clamps can accommodate a 2-3/4-inch welding demand.

A novice welder is particularly prone to messy seams, and the accessory tools that come along for the ride when heading out to perform a job play an even greater role in the process as a result. The Berger Welding/Chipping Hammer is a key component in any welder's toolbox, but it can be an especially handy option for a mobile welder looking to quickly pack up and shift positioning or job location.

Even experienced welders need a good chipping hammer, though, and this one offers a crucial set of integrated features. Two sided operation combines a flat chisel head with a rounded punch point, while the handle's round stock design is open and flared out for easy gripping and ample vibration dampening. At the end, the hammer includes a small, rounded out hook for hanging nearby when performing a weld to accommodate easy access without dropping the tool on the ground. Sometimes the simple and intuitive designs win out over the long term, and all the time and tinkering in the world can't make a tool much more useful. Berger's chipping and welding hammer proves this point with its clarity of design language, smooth dimensions, and key feature integrations that flow seamlessly to provide both form and function in one cheap and immensely cheerful package.

Obviously, portability factors heavily into the mobile welder's mindset when building or expanding a kit. Mobility can be a tricky thing to get right, however, when considering the heft of many pieces of equipment necessary to perform a weld. From the welder to the tanks, setting up quickly and efficiently isn't always something that's done gracefully. A welding cart helps move this along, though. The Chicago Electric Welding 187-Pound Gas Welding Cart features large wheels and more than enough brawn to easily move your gas tanks without setting yourself up for a fight every time you need to work on a metal piece somewhere out in the field.

This cart is yet another tool that might not get the enthusiast all that excited at the outset. However, utilizing the cart makes every other task involved in forging welds or cutting material far less headache-inducing. A welding cart with the capacity that this Chicago Electric Welding unit brings to bear can prolong your work without having to muscle tanks into place or shift gear around manually. When the take comes to move to a new position, a welder can simply fall back on the rugged steel framework and oversized pneumatic tires. The cart also features a self-leveling tool shelf that can hold up to 35 pounds worth of welding gear and accessories for easy access to everything you need to get the job done in one place.

Heat, flame, and precision are all key features in metal working. Welders routinely need to kickstart a burn or heat up a segment of metal for targeted material management. A Butane Micro Torch is just the tool for this job. A tiny accessory in stature, but a massive helping hand in terms of workflow, there's a place in virtually every welder's kit for a torch. A miniaturized version such as this makes welding while out in the field all the more satisfying and effective, however.

There's simply no getting around the utility of this diminutive yet crucial accessory. Bringing one into your on-the-go welding kit improves versatility and eliminates the need to wander back and forth between your welding gear and the car or shop that's housing the rest of your equipment. For just $15, it's hard to compete with the utility of this micro torch. Add one to the kit for a smoother workflow on every job.

Vulcan products are considered some of Harbor Freight's most premium welding equipment. The tools in the range aren't always great for the budget DIYer, but they will get the job done in style and with immense substance, too. Vulcan's 10.1 Square Inch ARCSAFE Auto-Darkening Welding Helmet is a prime example of this massive value that Vulcan brings to the table. A larger viewing window than most, and technological enhancements that make the task easier and safer are to be expected by welders donning the helmet.

The head strap is built with high performance function in mind, too, further enhancing comfortability and function. A ratcheting headband makes dialing in the perfect fit a breeze, and the front pad reaches all the way across the forehead for the best in comfort, even when performing long stretches of welding work. The Vulcan headgear isn't available online just yet, so for now welders will need to shop in store to find this auto-darkening personal safety equipment. However, Harbor Freight notes that the helmet will be available on its site by July 27, 2024, so just a short wait is required for those without access to a physical location or who prefer to shop online.

Welding and other metal fabrication techniques (including cutting) demand a combination of gases, namely oxygen and acetylene in oxy-fuel welding. When deploying this type of welding, you'll need a pair of gas tanks, and the Chicago Electric Welding Portable Torch Kit with Oxygen and Acetylene Tanks provides a complete collection of everything a welder will need to kick off a weld. The kit is only available in store, but it brings together the entirety of the supplies necessary to perform an oxy-fuel weld or cut at a great price—and in a portable framework that's precisely made for an on-the-go welding pro or enthusiast.

A poly carrier tote with longevity and solid performance in mind underpins the kit, but it includes both a 20 cubic foot oxygen tank and a 10 cubic foot acetylene tank as well as regulators and check valves for each. There's also a Victor-style torch included (found elsewhere at Harbor Freight for $90 for an Olsen brand torch), as well as safety goggles, a flint striker, and an additional brass cutting attachment for even more functionality on the move. The kit is only available in store, as is to be expected with the inclusion of the gas tanks, however, for $350, there's little that outpaces the value of this all-in-one cutting and welding kit for oxy-fuel work.

Angle grinders provide the opposite capability to a welding unit, cutting through metal rather than fusing it together. Even so, an angle grinder can be used to shape and polish metal, along with a variety of other functions with key attachment options in tow. A common find among Harbor Freight's digital and storefront shelves is the Hercules power tool lineup, and it's therefore not surprising that a Hercules angle grinder would make the cut here. Hercules is perhaps the brand's most prominently placed power tool brand, with incredible power output and high quality performance and longevity metrics. The Hercules 20V Brushless Cordless 4-1/2-Inch / 5-Inch Paddle Switch Angle Grinder is the perfect accompaniment to a mobile welding outfit.

Just $80 will land you a bare unit, a major victory for power tool buyers seeking high performance gear at a fraction of the cost that big name brands charge. The Hercules grinder is just as capable as any competitor you might consider standing it up against, and it features a key enhancement often found on premium devices. A paddle switch isn't the common starter for standard angle grinders, but it increases comfort while grinding or polishing for long stretches of time. The tool features a Type 27 guard that can be adjusted tool free, and it can accommodate wheels between 4 and 5 inches in diameter. A two position side handle makes for access to workpieces from either handed direction.