Watch: Is a Harbor Freight Wire Welder Worth it?

A welder is a good thing to have. After having owned one for several years, I wondered how I’d ever gotten along without it. There’s always something breaking around my place in the country, whether it’s a trailer, tractor, mower, or whatever. And when I take a notion to build something, I can get it done without relying on nuts and bolts to hold stuff together. Heck, I’ve even used it to weld a bolt handle on an old Mauser rifle that I overhauled.

I saved up and sold some stuff to help pay for my welder, which is a 110 volt 90 amp Lincoln wire welder which can handle flux-core or MIG. I could have saved a bunch of money at the get-go by buying a cheap machine, but in the past I had worked with a couple ‘El Cheapo Grande’ welders, so I decided to stick with a well-known quality brand, and I’m glad I did, even though it cost about 4 times what this Harbor Freight (HF) welder does.

This YouTuber also uses a Lincoln, but after being asked about it many times, he decided to try a Harbor Freight welder for himself. And what better project than welding some broken parts of a utility trailer, just like the average Joe would do if he bought a welder?

He begins by comparing the length of the leads, which is kinda moot, since the lead on my 2004 Lincoln welder is roughly the same length as his HF model.

No reason for me to do a blow-by-blow of the video, but suffice it to say the HF welder can weld okay, especially if you already know what you’re doing, and it might be all you need. Chances are, though, that a name-brand welder would serve you better.

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.