Some cheaper welders have been getting better. There are certain costs you just cant get away from and get it to work right and the competition is so fierce among good companies that the customer gets a great value.
They cant get it to work at 10% of the cost of the real thing. A lot of welding companies have long term vision, some of it is catching up as I saw a brand name unit that copies a foreign cheaper competitor.
There is risk to cheaper and sometimes the other way around but for 2 or 300 juice in a market where how good it works is critically observed by experts a novice can use a world class machine with a super warranty, brandy new brand name, Hobart, Linc or Miller makes the savings marginal.
Hard line tools have enjoyed a rise as did some power tools or parts of power tools which is a slightly different matter but,,, new steel mills in China and other parts of the world make good steel just as cheap as **** in a competitive world market.
Inverter technology has narrowed the gap and isn't finished yet, I know 30 yrs ago I would have said ******** but its here.
Like other commodities the end user isn't always aware of the process but some of it is so good you cant tell it from the real thing and the reason is that it is with a different brand stamped on it, same screwdriver with a different handle sold all over the world at different branding and price levels without the fancy box.
I hammered on a 99 cent China end wrench with a pair of Channelocks beside the road, worked out one of those long Ford brake bleeder, OEM 91. I got high dollar flank drive and I would have expected what you can expect from it but this little Olympia I paid a dollar for as a single from TSC fit perfect (I see they changed brands and raised pricing some) is impressive.
The end user got the result, 1 dollar invested or 30, same work and after a while I come to expect that of these dollar tools when they havnt failed and the fit is so good, I spot one with co0nfidence as a solution.
The welding industry has a reputation of being dependable, I got 2 or 3 decades old and never serviced and a small mig ran beyond any part timer took 1000's of hours to require fan oil. 1 selector switch a long time in reasonably priced and a broken socket when a forklift hit it. The last thing a guy needs is find a faulty machine at a crucial time.
The buzz box was a so-so welder and it worked but it was dependable. I have heard here accounts of cheap welders that work good, never seen much work from one and never seen it in real life and would be worth an ask at the welding stores about how many of their calls with problems from the public come about them.
As someone said at TSC,,, 5% of the sales and 95% of the problems.
