$219 tig at harborfreight anybody use this POS

I havent bought the TIG, but I have a Clarke MIG from HF that is going on it's 5th year with no problems and I use it a lot. I think it was $249 with the cart and the regulator. Also have some off brand of 3 ton floor jack from them that's held up pretty good for the last few years, and got a $99 Clarke chopsaw two years ago that's doing fine.

 

I work at Harbor Freight and most stuff is okay though I buy used stuff. Stay away from their compressors though, nearly every one comes back. I like the machines from the 1960's and lower.

Take a look at these sites that I'm usually on:
www.owwm.org www.owwm.com

 

i bet miller has chinese internals... and if they arent made in china... then they were made by mexicans here in the US... take your pick.

 

Bite your tongue

http://www.millerwelds.com/about/

Miller has consistently been one of the best US welder manufacturers in existence.

 

"I think I'd rather buy a welder made by a Chinese guy that takes pride in his work than a welder made by some drunk (or at least hungover) American that is too lazy to do the job right."


I'd like to think that we Americans have pride in our work also.
Having worked for an ISO 9000+ company manufacturing construction equipment,we ALL knew people could die if we didn't do our job correctly.
The company inspectors were very critical in their approach to aproving machinery for shipment.
Individual pride in workmanship;not a hoaky commercial catch-phrase.
That's why that brand is the industry standard/leader.
Noone stood over us "driving" us to do our job either.Bet the chinese can't say that?

Funny how the U.S.A. has always produced and everyone else has copied?

 

Pete's rules of purchasing:

Welder: Lincoln.
Welding GLOVES: HF

Tools: Craftsman.
Paper towels to wipe off tools: Wal-Mart.

You win a donut if you see the trend.

Pete

 

Not mine but these rigs have been proven to work. Limited in ability but will do the job.


You want tradition?

You want inexpensive?

Do yourself a great favor and learn how to use an Oxy/Acc rig properly. Practically ALL welding cand be done with a simple torch set and a set of bottles. No fancy welding helmets, exotic materials or health hazzards (***ociated with arc type welding) No Arc flash.

Get yourself an 000 tip and practice. With experience you will be able to produce near TIG type welds on sheetmetal as well as other materials.

Want to go hi-tech and still stay within the realm of "tradional" welding. Splurge and get a Henrob style torch.

 

I like HF because they admit their tools are made in China and charge accordingly.

Why should I buy the same thing from Sears or Home Depot and pay 2x, only to find the "made in china" label hidden somewhere on the box.

While I have a Lincoln welder and generally try to buy American, the one thing that pisses me off more than Chinese **** is Chinese **** that is p***ed off as American (Craftsman).

And, just so you know - these are American companies making all of this **** in China. The people ultimately making the decisions on quality and safety are Americans, not Chinese.

It's not that the Chinese only produce ****, It's that the Chinese produce what we ask them to.

Keep asking for / only being willing to pay for ****, and that is exactly what they will keep making.

They aren't a country full of back***wards dumb****s (anymore than the US, anyway). They have developed nuclear weapons and have put people in space. They can hang with us just fine... That's the scary part.

 

I have a lot of very old tools which I prefer, but Delta, Craftsman, MAC, Stanley are all foreign now. Not to mention the Grizzly line-up is sold at Harbor Freight tagged Central Machinery. I've rebuilt the same Grizzly as the Central Machinery I put together for the display at work.

 

I see the trend.....jelly filled please.

 

The trend should be:

New= Chinese
Old= American

Buy your tools from a flea market, garage sale, second-hand shop, or craigslist.

I could go for a donut.

 

There's alot of truth in that. When I took a welding cl*** I told the teacher I was wanting to build hot rods. The old guy stuck me in the corner for 3 weeks with a gas rig and made me weld thin stuff with the 000 tip until I was really good at it. Then the last week he put me on a Syncrowave 250 and I instantly started tigging pretty good.

FWIW, I have "almost" bought the cheap HF unit a couple of times but ended up getting other stuff instead (the $7 bow saw and $3 hacksaw work really good, just like the US ones). Two weeks ago I found out my company owed me over $3000 and now I'm shopping a Miller.

 

I'd buy a used miller/lincoln first. I looked around for used and ended up just getting a new miller sync200, worth every penny in my book. I had a tough enough time learning on it, i'd hate to imagine trying to master one of those hf scratch start units. HF has its place though, I have been looking hard at their shrinker/stretcher setups though, because I know I wouldnt use it much. Which is what their stuff is for. LIGHT DUTY, or one time use.

 

I love the excuses people make for buying chinese stuff.

 

I don't mind buying foreign stuff but I will not finance the communist's army. I don't want my shirts sewn together by some overpaid union American- I want it sewn by the cheapest NONCOMMUNIST foreign labor that's out there.
As for the original question (wow, long time back!) that rig ain't worth a ****. Trust me- you do not want to start learning how to tig with a ****box scratch-start that has no frequency control. Sorry but this is one of those things that you do not gain from going in cheap. As has been stated, either get a gas rig and practice or get a real tig rig. If I have to buy, Invertec is the only one, in my book.

 

Better give a listen to James McMurtry sing "We cant make it here anymore"

Sobers you Right up....

 

I don't buy stuff fro HF cause its made in China. I don't buy from them cause they sell ****.

 

Only good for real thin metal----Cigarette paper thin---Don (welding since 1951)

 

I can't even sell American made wrenches at the flea market for 50% or better off the original prices. I got a deal at a closeout sale and bought a bunch, kept a few and bring the rest to shows. I've sold maybe 6 or 8 of them in a year. They're brand freaking new wrenches, not used ****.

The reason the China stuff even has a market is because the consumer is a cheap ******* and the retailer wants to sell SOMETHING so he can eat, too.

 

Steel only (no aluminum)
35% duty cycle (probably closer to 20%
(that means for every minute you weld you have to wait three for it to cool off)
Air cooled torch..
(which means you will melt the torch right before you fry the windings)
Bad unit?
Not if you are doing occasional light work.
I had one, and melted it.
No refunds if you melt it.
Went to a bigger water cooled Lincoln and never looked back.
Jeff

 

the problem with those is that you plug it into the wall and it hacks into your local gas company and makes fire come out of stuff it ain't posed to. send pictures of your credit card to china. It then hides in your medicine cabinet and watches you pee.
I wouldnt mind buying made in USA stuff if it wasnt overpriced to begin with. this isnt comparing to made in china stuff either it just overpriced on its own.
China is scary. They routinely ignore copyright law. Also they would love to get their hands on our missle systems black hawk turbines and f-16 jet parts and have been caught trying to do so.
I would like to know if this thing does nice looking welds too.

 

i was driving along one day and my engine started clatterin'. i pulled over and checked it out and discovered my lower alt. bolt was coming loose. i happened to be near harbour freight, so i went in and got the 5/8: wrench i needed to tighten it back up.......when i got it to im guessing about 40 ft lbs the ****er broke. the wrench not the bolt!
ever since that i wont buy anything from harbour freight

* oops, diednt see how old this thread was... sorry*

 

At least they replace it free. I've twisted off two of their 3/8" drive breaker bars - the first one, they were out of stock, they gave me a 1/2" (more $$) instead. So later I buy a second one and eventually broke it too.

 

There are two tool boxes at the body shop I work in. One guy filled his with made in China harbor freight tools. The other guy put all craftsman in his. The made in China bax has at least one broken tool in every drawer. I don't even care about patriotic "made in America by Americans." It's worth the extra bucks.

 

Always read the duty cycle on a welder before you buy it. That's gonna tell you right there how good it is. I think HF's 220 Mig set up at maxed heat has a duty cycle of 37%. That means for every 100 minutes of welding you want to do, it'll only weld 37. Been using a Millermatic 250 for a while now at the shop I rent out space from...I just watched the guy who owns it weld together some one inch plate with it...nine p***es on each side...he got it so hot he smoked the cable off of the ground clamp... Fixed the cable and went back to welding....It's sure hard to beat Old Blue, plus Miller welders are made in Appleton, Wisconsin...