I find myself considering a welder and unsure of the direction to go. Anyone here try any of the myriad of cheap inverter welders found across Amazon and Harbor Freight these days?
Some background - I’ve been wanting to get a welder for years for random projects around the house, and maybe eventually auto restoration. Last year somebody gave me a giant old Fourney AC stick buzz box for free. I know it works, but it’s been sitting until I could put a 220v outlet outside. My house has no garage space, only a basement workshop and the outdoors. The welder is too heavy to drag up and down the stairs, so it just sits in the shed.
I’m now thinking about selling that plus the blacksmithing equipment I’ve had since my nerdy homeschooled teenager days (maybe a bad idea with the way 2020 is going?) and putting the money towards something modern and compact. I’m thinking I could get between $700-1000... which could probably buy an ok single process unit or a sketchy multi-process unit.
This is where I keep getting stuck - Should I get something that does it all (but maybe not very well) to learn on? Or should I just get something that does one thing well? If I just get one process, should I go the easy route and get a MIG or should I dedicate myself to suffering but ultimately learn a skill like TIG?
I already know most of what I’d ever need to do I could do with a MIG gun. As is, most of the projects I’ve done so far (exhaust repair, shovel repair, cobbing together a ball joint removal tool, making a lamp out of sheep shears from the dump) could actually be done just fine with the David Tracy special HF flux welder. I really want to learn TIG though, and something like the $599 Lotos 200 that does ACDC TIG, has high frequency start, and a foot pedal is looking pretty appealing. It would be a long time before I’d be good enough to easily use it though.
Is it worth buying a cheap MIG now and saving up for a separate TIG setup? Waiting to get something that could do both? Give up on dreams of stacking dimes and just get a nice MIG and call it a day? Anyone with experience with welders in this price range, especially on automotive applications?