Decisions, Decisions Eastwood, or New HarborFreight TIG fun!

Hi all! I up in the air on making a decision on either of three AC/DC tig welders.

Two of them are a bit above my budget of @ $850.00, the Eastwood TIG 200 Digital AC/DC Welder @$900, and the Vulcan ProTIG™ 200 Welder with 120/240 Volt Input from Harbor Freight, Item#63619 @ $900.00, while the third welder, The Eastwood TIG200 AC/DC Welder, Item #20565, sits at a comfy $680.00. I'm fine paying the extra $100.00 for the former, but not much more.

I'm not getting a Miller/Lincoln at twice the cost when I only use a welder sporadically for hobby purposes. The warranty is longer on the Eastwood and it's no-hassle. The new Vulcan is designed by former Lincoln engineers, but did they source decent components? Sure would be nice if Youtubes' AVE could do a tear-down/comparo for us. Thanks for your help 

I'll stand by my AHP alphatig machine, which was right around 695 shipped and has been doing fine for almost 2 years now

I have no experience with either machine but as a general policy I have a higher confidence in something sold by Eastwood than Harbor Freight.  For what it's worth my Miller makes me look like a better welder than I am and I don't expect to have to replace it in my lifetime.

One year no questions asked satisfaction guarantee on the Vulcan. I'd buy it and try it out, worst case, take it back and but the Eastwood. 

N00b TIG welder and haven't put many hours on it yet, but so far happy with my Eastwood digital TIG.

I was trying to decide between that and the premium for an Everlast.

The only thing that's concerned me so far (and here I want to re-emphasize my limited use and skills) is that the primary setting-twiddling knob is one of the lightest, cheesiest-feeling things I've ever touched.

Patrick- looks like your  AHP alphatig machine is real popular! Its at $830.00 shipped.

APOwner- I would normally agree with you on that. However, all of my more expensive tools (lathe, mill, older TIg welder) from HF have worked like a charm for years!

RevRico- I'm thinking the same thing! Plus, if i want to take it back, I'm sure that the price of the Eastwood Digital TIG would have come down by then.

Now, about that cheesy knob, Ransom? Cheezy how? Like it's gonna crack into pieces and fall off, cheesy, or wear out quickly, cheesy?

I know it's usually better to buy new, know what you're getting. But sometimes these pop up slightly used. Someone buys a name brand welder and uses it a couple times, gets frustrated and sells it. Have to keep watch for one though and snag when it appears.

I have a Miller MIG setup for gasless/fluxcore but has provisions for gas that I'm "storing" for someone. He sold and moved out of a farm into an apartment and asked me to hold the welder for him and I'm free to use it all I want. It's been a couple years, probably should pay him something for it and keep it. Doubt he wants it back, he sold the reason he had it anyway.

In reply to 2GRX7 :

I don't know how (or whether) it will fail, but you know how a nice piece of electronics has knobs that feel solid and weighty, with a smooth resistance to being turned? This is the opposite of that. It's been a long time, but I suspect the Betty Crocker EZ-Bake Oven controls feel like this.

In reply to Ransom :

LOL! Now I've got the "shakes" over recalled memories of biting into one of those hard-as-E36M3 Easy Bake cakes!

My BIL has the Vulcan 215 mig and loves it. He did a bunch of research and said that the rumor is that HF hired the lead engineer from Miller it Lincoln to design the new line. It says some nice welds.

I'll weigh in here a little bit.  I've been tig welding for 7+ years or so now and have used and owned many many machines. I also sell some but nothing in your price range..yet.

I owned the lincoln sw200 which is an identical copy of the Vulcan with the only real difference is the pulse has gone from 20 (lincoln) to 200 (vulcan) other than that they are identical. For the casual hobby or beginner the machine may fit the bill, but for someone who is more advanced and can appreciate a good arc it fails..hard. Many things I personally don't like about it. However with that price it's hard to complain too. Except you will piss away a lot of money in wasted gas since there is no post flow adjustment.

I had the original eastwood machine. Good DC arc, AC did ok. Nothing to write home about, inexpensive machine (mosfet design) and it works. Foot pedal sucks. Their newer digital one seems to be a step in the right direction.

The AHP is without a doubt the best bang for the buck. I had 2 at one point and left one at my parents house if I ever had to tig there. Still have it there. Great arc, great low amp start, good amount of options, good duty cycle and dual voltage. What I liked the most about it is that it can spit out nearly 150amps (per the display, never measured it) on 115v 20amp circuit. 99% of my work is aluminum and when I was limited to only 115v input this machine got it done no problems (I weld a lot of 1/8" and under aluminum). You will be hard pressed to find a machine that can compare in performance to the AHP. Newer pedals are available for it and newer torches are coming out shortly. So figure a few upgrades, still under $1000 and a well performing machine. Again I don't sell this brand and gain nothing but I have to say it is a great machine.