cheap TIG welder

Harbor freight has a relatively cheap TIG welder on sale. Looks like it might be OK for light use, sheet metal repair?

I would stay away from Harbor Freight welders. I tried one of their wire feed welders a couple of years ago and was not impressed.

Do you own a dc stick welder? If so a tig torch is under 100 bucks

I've thought of making a DC welder from an alternator. Used to have a HF buzz box that worked well for years. Was a smaller unit but seemed to like heavy use now and then. It still works, but I have a small Hobart Mig now.

This is good advise, there is no support for Chinese tools in our country.

Beagle

(quoted from post at 17:47:36 03/06/17) Harbor freight has a relatively cheap TIG welder on sale. Looks like it might be OK for light use, sheet metal repair?

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If you're talking about the one for $209, I have a feeling that "Quick starting with high open circuit voltage" is not near as good as high frequency. I wouldn't buy it without the opportunity to try it first.

I have one of those welders. I have never had much luck with it.

I have a lincoln arc welder. not the smallest but not a DC. tell me about adding a TG torch?

MI-Bill: If you have a DC stick welder, you can use a TIG torch on electrode negative to do scratch-start TIG welding on things like steel and stainless steel. Video I'm linking is one Lanse did a few years back showing his setup--he's moved far beyond this now, but it's a good introduction and there's plenty more videos on Youtube if you want more info. You can't do aluminum with this setup--that typically requires AC and a high-frequency starter box. That's the setup I have on my old Lincoln Idealarc 250. It is by no means as good as having a "real" TIG machine, but as I make no claims to being a professional welder it gives me enough added capability that I can do the occasional oddball repair or fabrication myself instead of taking it to a "real" welder, and it doesn't do anything to diminish the capabilities of the machine when using it as a "regular" welder, which is how I use it 90% of the time. With an AC-only machine, even a decent one, you're probably not going to gain anything over a purpose-made machine cost-wise by the time you round up all the necessary bits & pieces, and you're going to give up quite a bit of functionality, so it's almost certainly not worth your while to add TIG capability.
scratch start TIG