The Forney Easy Weld 261 is undoubtedly one the best flux core welders. It comes with many exciting features that make it a unique welder. While this is not a commercial welder, this is a perfect welder for DIY enthusiasts, beginners, and hobbyist welders.
This welder is very portable and can be moved from one workstation to another with much ease. Although it is a flux core suitable for light welding applications, it still offers impressive performance compared to similar welders.
Let’s see why this is among the best beginner-friendly welders you can get today. It weighs just 19 lbs. and is more powerful than most other welders in this price range.
Forney 261 MIG Welder Specifications
Forney Easy Weld 140 FC-i Welder Overview
The Forney Easy Weld 261, 140 FC-i Welder is a great flux core welder with an impressive current output of 140A. It can be easily set up by both armatures and intermediate welders. Aside from that, it is pretty affordable.
This welder has some impressive features that enable it to offer optimum performance and durability.
What are the other aspects that make this Forney welder unique
1/ Gas Less Flux Core Welder
The Forney Easy Weld 261 is a wire feed welder.
It is specifically designed to use a flux core welding mechanism that eliminates the use of gas for shielding the weld joints being made. It does this by continuously feeding the wire electrode through the motor and simplifying the welding process.
The gasless flux core welding feature makes it an ideal welder to use in outdoor or windy environments. It is also suitable for welding metals that require deeper penetration because of its high metal deposition.
As a result of this, you cannot do gas-shielded MIG. Also, the 140 FC-i does not support a spool gun, meaning you cannot weld aluminum. So, if your welding projects involved aluminum, this unit won’t serve you.
2/ Compact and Light Weight Design for a Welder
Unlike the traditional heavy welders, the Forney Easy-Welder weighs only 19lbs, making it a very light and portable welder. However, the small size doesn’t mean less powerful.
Unlike the traditional heavy welders, the Forney Easy-Welder weighs only 19lbs, making it a very light and portable welder. However, the small size doesn’t mean less powerful.
3/ A Welder with Impressive Performance
The Forney Easy Weld 261 is a 140A unit. This is strong enough to enable you to weld on stainless steel and make joints of up to a quarter-inch thickness.
In addition, the welder offers many position settings to ensure you get the perfect way to weld easily.
4/ LED Light Indicators for Safe Welding
The 140 FC-i comes with various light indicators that help you know when the machine is on and off, which helps minimize accidents. It also has a dual light-on mode that is turned on when the duty cycle is exceeded. This alerts you that the machine has to be given some time to rest before being operational again.
Who does the Forney Easy Weld 261 MIG Welder Suit Best?
If you’re dealing with household repairs or have an upcoming DIY project, then the Forney Easy Weld 261 will be a smart option. It offers good features and is also a great welder for beginners. This is one of the best machines to use when learning the flux core welding process.
This machine can also be a classic choice for people who work in a different location and need a portable welder that can be carried around without much effort. It is also a good fit if you are looking for an affordable welder that offers the best combination of performance and value.
Although this model cannot perform professional welding tasks such as MIG, stick welding, and TIG, it is still an impressive welding machine.
What Welding Job can the Forney Easy Weld 261 handle?
One of the most important factors to consider when buying a welder is knowing the type of welding job it does. Since this is a basic flux core welding machine, it will do a great job in projects involving stainless steel, provided the thickness is less than ¼”. Since It is a wire feed welder, it doesn’t support gas-shielded welding, so you cannot weld aluminum.
Reason to Buy the Forney Easy Weld
Now that you’ve known all the specs and features that this welder has to offer, what are some reasons you buy it? Although there are better flux core welders out there, this one is still one of the most affordable.
Some aspects that make it a unique and ideal welder to purchase.
1/ Top-tier body quality
When you look at the price of the Forney Easy Weld and compare it with the building design and quality, you’ll notice that it offers quite some value for your money. While its ground clamp is small, the MIG gun is very impressive. It also has multiple air vents that lower the cooling time.
2/ Portability of Welder
This is one of the most portable welders you can get on the market, with a weight of 19lbs. It is still a more powerful welder than most of its rivals in its price range.
It has a plastic built-in handle that gives room for easy carrying and feels more comfortable than many other metallic handles. Since you won’t need a gas tank, it’s pretty easy to carry this model.
3/ Welding Machine Ease of Use
It is vital to get a welding machine that is easy to use. Well, that is precisely what you get using the Forney Easy Weld. You can easily set this machine up and running in less than five minutes.
It comes with a short user manual with all the details about starting and using the machine plus some safety measures to consider. The front part contains an adjustable knob with an infinite number of voltage adjustments between the minimum and maximum of the knob.
It’s also pretty easy to install the wire spool, and it has an in-built ground clamp and torch, which means there is no need for connecting them.
4/ Highly Reputable Welder
This is one of the most reviewed welders online. Most users have given it a five-star rating due to its unrivaled quality and unquestionable performance.
Better still, it is among the bestselling welders at an affordable price. It also has a broad user base, making it more popular than other flux core welding machines.
Because of this, most people prefer this welder for many projects and have confessed to having gotten the desired results.
Pros and Cons of The Forney Easy Welder 216
The Forney Easy Welder Pros. Here are some of the things you’ll like about this fantastic welder.
- Affordable: Unlike other expensive welders, Forney Easy Weld is more pocket-friendly and cheap to maintain.
- Beginner Friendly: This welder is easy to use and can be suitable for both professional welders and beginners.
- Portable and Lightweight: It is one of the lightest welders and can be easily carried from one workstation to another.
- Good Built Quality: This welder is well built to make it very durable and sustain heavy welding.
- Good performance MIG gun: It comes with a good MIG gun that is very convenient.
- Unlimited voltage adjustments: The welder has infinite amounts of voltage adjustments that make it very efficient for welding in different positions.
- All-metal Casing: It has an all-metal casing that protects the internal part of the welder and contains corner protectors.
- Compatible with regular sockets: The welder can be easily connected to standard sockets without any modifications.
- On/Off power state light and duty cycle light: it has a light that indicates when it is in the power state and when the duty cycle limit is reached.
The Forney Easy Welder has its fair share of demerits like any device. Here are some common shortcomings.
- The 140 FC-i is a flux core welder only
- An extensive amount of cleaning is required for the flux core welding.
- Doesn’t offer top-notch final weld quality, more so with 0.035″ wire.
- Sometimes the wire feed speed is slower when welding some applications.
- The wire feed system is made of plastic, so you have to be careful not to break it.
- The leads are just 8 feet long.
- The wire speeds are not specified
In Conclusion-Forney Easy Weld 261 MIG Welder
The Forney Easy Weld 261 welder is one of the best flux core welders Getting a reliable welder at this price range is almost impossible. But what we have here is a welder that is light and easy to move making it portable. It is Ideal for beginner welders and DIY welders.
The maximum output of this welder is 120V and 140A, beating some of its close competitors. We would therefore recommend it for lightweight stainless steel welding projects and DIY applications.
