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 have a Miller Dynasty 200dx.

I like it a lot and I am pretty sure it blows away any harbor freight tig 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 really 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 just want to TIG 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 used to  think the best money spent is for  a used Miller syncrowave 250.

But they require a lot of power (100 amp breaker)

These days, there are a ton of options for an affordable TIG welder.

Eastwood, AHP, and Primeweld, all offer AC/DC TIG welders in the 650-800 dollar range and I think most folks will be happier with that choice than with a harbor freight tig welder.