Well I'll represent the cheap welders.

They are NOT equivalent to a Lincoln, Miller, etc...but I can't kill mine either.

I have had a 170a Harbor Freight 220v mig for 3 years and have a couple hundred hours on it by now. I've welded significant items with it, primarily for heavily modified Jeep wranglers. Control arms, track bar mounts, hydro-assist steering bracketry, control arm mounts, roll cages, axle trusses even welded the Knuckle C's to the axle housing (and it hasn't come apart yet).

That welder was $180 or so. The lead is short, the ground wire needed upgraded, and the rollers are not all that good any more. But holy moly, did I get my monies worth out of it. At the time, it's exactly what I needed. I put another hundred or so hours on the machine for sheet metal and rust repair work on my Barracuda. Worked out just fine.

I will replace it with a higher quality machine, when it dies. For what it's worth, I taught myself how to weld on...you guessed it..a 90a Harbor Freight MIG (flux). While that wasn't a "good" machine either, it served it's purpose. I still have it as a 110v option if ever had to take it somewhere that didn't have 220v available.


The barriers to entry for welding is steep enough as it is. Had I purely listened to the "buy one for the rest of your life crowd", I'm not sure I would have ever gotten there. I have around $400 in my 220v machine with a decent hood and a shielding gas tank.



..That's my 2cents.