Has anyone tried the new tig welder from Harbor Freight?

gayler · Fri Mar 25, 2016 1:21 am

With HF start and foot pedal? Looking for a inexpensive tig and wondered about this one.

thespian · Fri Mar 25, 2016 4:00 pm

gayler wrote:With HF start and foot pedal? Looking for a inexpensive tig and wondered about this one.

I have not, but why limit yourself by spending $400.00 on a tig that is only capable of DC welding.
You can probably find a used AC/DC tig with some stuff, for $6 to $900. on craigs list in your area if you keep looking.

gayler · Fri Mar 25, 2016 4:04 pm

In my area there is next to nothing on craigslist, and when you find something they want new retail price or more.

thespian · Fri Mar 25, 2016 4:38 pm

gayler wrote:In my area there is next to nothing on craigslist, and when you find something they want new retail price or more.

There is always ebay and a drive.
I just sold my Miller econotig for $800.00 , it was on Craigs list for 7 hours.

Oscar · Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:06 pm

I owned the previous model, without the foot pedal. It's a nice little tig, but there are better choices out there for just a little bit more money. It has a decent duty cycle for being Harbor Freight, nice and light, but the torch sucks.

thespian · Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:49 pm

You can get an Everlast Powertig 185 brand new for $790.00, and it is AC/DC with AC Balance control.
I don't think it comes with a foot control, but seems much more bang for the buck, and you could always order a foot control later.http://www.everlastgenerators.com/produ ... wertig-185

exnailpounder · Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:21 pm

thespian wrote:You can get an Everlast Powertig 185 brand new for $790.00, and it is AC/DC with AC Balance control.
I don't think it comes with a foot control, but seems much more bang for the buck, and you could always order a foot control later.http://www.everlastgenerators.com/produ ... wertig-185

There are ALOT of tig machines on CL around me, and I see the Harbor Freight ones on there all the time. I am betting buyers remorse. If it was me, I would buy a decent machine on-line rather than get stuck with something you will most likely outgrow and have to give away to get rid of later. Just my opinion.

ldbtx · Fri Mar 25, 2016 6:26 pm

I got the AHP AlphaTIG200x for $800. AC/DC TIG plus sitck. Comes with a foot pedal and a decent torch. Brand new in the box.

Kevin_Holbrook · Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:54 pm

I own one, it's not a bad tig welder for 165 amps DC , ( have not tried it on stick)

one thing you will need to do , you need to modify the foot pedal

stock from no foot pedal to full foot pedal is 10 to 165 amps

if you wire a 10k pot into the foot pedal cable or in the foot pedal box ( as a voltage divider feeding the pot on the foot pedal ) you can set the range of full pedal amps

Eastwood has a tig welder 200 amps ac/dc for around 700 and a dc tig for less ( no stick weld )

i have the Eastwood 200 amp ac/dc ,works great for 4 years now ( no bells and no whistles )

Oscar · Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:59 am

Kevin_Holbrook wrote:I own one, it's not a bad tig welder for 165 amps DC , ( have not tried it on stick)

one thing you will need to do , you need to modify the foot pedal

stock from no foot pedal to full foot pedal is 10 to 165 amps

if you wire a 10k pot into the foot pedal cable or in the foot pedal box ( as a voltage divider feeding the pot on the foot pedal ) you can set the range of full pedal amps

Eastwood has a tig welder 200 amps ac/dc for around 700 and a dc tig for less ( no stick weld )

i have the Eastwood 200 amp ac/dc ,works great for 4 years now ( no bells and no whistles )

Well that sucks. One would think that if you set the dial to 100A on the machine panel, the foot pedal would go from 10-100A, but I guess not.

gayler · Sat Mar 26, 2016 9:11 am

So when using the foot pedal you get the full range of the machine and not max out at what the knob on the machine is set at? Being a tig stick welder I wonder how well it stick welds.

rake · Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:54 pm

I have the older unit. (no HF or pedal) I bought it for a job that I needed to drag a compact SMAW welder in a tight spot.
Because of noise concerns I could not use an engine drive and long cables. Besides the extra cable would have cost more
than this little unit. I ran 7018 3/32 and 1/8 all day for three days without a hiccup. It had a nice stable arc and was easy to
start. It is an all around decent little hobbyist welder. I've also used it for scratch start tig on steel and it wasn't bad there either. Is it a top quality machine? No. Will it weld for the hobbyist that can only afford $400.00? Yes.

Remember, Harbor Freight has a no hassle replacement warranty policy. (buy the extended warranty)
Craigslist Warranty? You're Fucked!

RocketSurgeon · Thu Mar 31, 2016 9:52 am

I have the upgraded version of this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super200P-220V- ... SwZVhWSt-R

It does everything a Syncrowave can do (maybe not better, but it gives it an honest try).
The torch is a WP-26. I have since updated it with a flex head and made my own scratch start CK-17F rig. I also upgraded the stinger and ground clamp along with the plasma torch.

Yes, a peddle is available for $65 on eBay.

Sandow · Thu Mar 31, 2016 12:35 pm

RocketSurgeon wrote:I have the upgraded version of this:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Super200P-220V- ... SwZVhWSt-R

It does everything a Syncrowave can do (maybe not better, but it gives it an honest try).
The torch is a WP-26. I have since updated it with a flex head and made my own scratch start CK-17F rig. I also upgraded the stinger and ground clamp along with the plasma torch.

Yes, a peddle is available for $65 on eBay.

I tried out that unit sold under the brand name of Stahlwerk and it was complete unmitigated crap. Two machines in a row had multiple major problems. There are good cheap units out there but this is not one of them.

-Sandow

RocketSurgeon · Thu Mar 31, 2016 1:01 pm

I haven't had the first issue with mine. Though, the first thing I did after unboxing it was upgrade the power cord to a 240V/35A clothes dryer cord and replace the worn out breaker with a 50A double.

Still, it isn't a Miller a Lincoln. But, I've run it all the way up to it's maximum 200A on AC for some Al plate.

Sandow · Thu Mar 31, 2016 2:07 pm

RocketSurgeon wrote:I haven't had the first issue with mine. Though, the first thing I did after unboxing it was upgrade the power cord to a 240V/35A clothes dryer cord and replace the worn out breaker with a 50A double.

Still, it isn't a Miller a Lincoln. But, I've run it all the way up to it's maximum 200A on AC for some Al plate.

Maybe I just had terrible luck or got my machines from a bad run. My first machine was fine for a week of light use then steadily declined in all kinds of ways. The second machine was busted out of the box and I was just done with it as a brand.

I noticed that they abandoned the Stahlwerk branding entirely on amazon now. Maybe they got things sorted out and rebranded to avoid the bad initial publicity.

-Sandow

RocketSurgeon · Thu Mar 31, 2016 2:53 pm

I noticed that too. Simadre is the replacement badge.

Stahlwerk's website is still up and they are selling and updated version of my model.