So does anybody have experience with the Harbor Freight stud welder? It's about half the cost of the other one i looked at but i don't think it comes with a slide hammer.
I have one of the HF stud welders. It comes with the slide hammer, studs. Pretty much what you need to get started. The welder works well but the slidehammer can be a challenge with the smaller studs, but considering the price difference...I got all my body tools @ HF and had no gripes.
Some advice about air tools. Unless you have a good sized compressor, don't bother. A 2 wheeled Craftsman 1/2 HP $199 special will melt down trying to feed a DA or flatboard. I had a 1.5 HP with a 30 gal. tank that was on the short side of marginal. You wait 5 minutes waiting for the compressor to get maybe 2 minutes of work done.