Is a Harbor Freight Tig Welder any good?

Lets face it, Harbor Freight sells a lot of cheap Crap. I even have scars to prove it.

But what about the Harbor Freight tig welder 130 amp inverter for 249 dollars?

Sometimes its even on sale for $ 200.

Judging from some of the comments in the welding forums, some people are willing to give it a try and gamble the 200 bones. Still others would be downright embarrassed to be seen welding with a Harbor Freight Tig Welder.

"Save your money and buy a Lincoln or Miller" seems to be the sentiment.

"I dont want my money supporting the Chinese" is another sentiment echoed in the welding forums.

I have a Miller Dynasty 200dx. I like it a lot and I am pretty sure it blows away any Chinese made welder out there. But it was not cheap.

Sure I can weld aluminum, high speed pulse tig , adjust the a/c balance to 99% negative, start at 1 amp and a bunch of other stuff... but a lot of folks don't know what all that sfuff is and they don't want to know.

Have you ever heard the saying " no one who ever bought a drill wanted a drill, what they wanted was a hole".

Plenty of folks dont care about whether the machine is blue, red, or green.

They want to weld something.

If the Harbor Freight Tig welder will weld halfway decent, then it is probably worth the price. Especially if you catch it on sale for 200 bucks.

If you are like a lot of hobby welders, you only need a a tig welder once a month or so.

When you need a tig welder for a project and you see a Harbor Freight tig welder on sale for about 200 bones, it's tempting isnt it?

I still think the best money spent is on a used Miller syncrowave 250. Its like money in the bank because even if you have to sell it, you can usually break even or even make a few bucks. Just make sure to find one that comes with all the accessories like cooler, torch, foot pedal etc.

That stuff really adds up.

You will be proud to show your Miller Syncrowave to anybody....Even your douche-bag brother in law who finds fault with everything.

The Harbor Freight tig welder might just be a 2 bagger you keep hidden underneath your gas grill cover.

I wonder if HF ships it discreetly in a plain brown wrapper.

Here are some of the welding forum links about the Harbor Freight tig welder.
HotRodders forum harbor freight tig welder
Hondatech forum harbor freight tig welder
exit harbor freight tig welder and view welding videos page