Dorky Thorpy Blog: Giant TIG 150 Review

Friday 13 September 2013

Giant TIG 150 Review

Giant TIG 150 Review - Intro

A month or so ago I decided I was going to build a DIY cargo bike, which would involve joining some thin tubing. I have owned a gas-less mig welder for a few years, but it has very little ampage control and so I opted to purchase a TIG welder. I had a budget of £0. So cheap was order of the day.

The cheapest TIG welder on ebay at the time was the Giant 150 TIG 150.

Giant TIG 150 - Side View

Giant TIG 150 Review - Build Quality

The Giant TIG 150 looks to be well made, it is not rattly and the the connectoprs fit well, and are a snug fit. Obviously this is only half of the story all of the gubbins in the box are important. . . I do not have a clue about those.

The Giant TIG 150 torch cosmetically looks well made, but the electrode comes loose during use resulting in the removal of the cermac cup and tightening of the holder. Hot easy when the torch is red hot!

Giant TIG 150 - Not a bad quality torch

The gas tap on the Giant TIG 150 torch is good and completly stops the flow of gas.

Giant TIG 150 - You will need an adaptor.

The Giant TIG 150 is supposed to run on a 20 Amp supply so you should run a lead from your cooker socket. With an adaptor such as the one shown. I have run this off a normal 13 Amp socket and it works fine, on a low setting (up to 90 amps on welder).

Giat TIG 150 - Comes with a WP - 17 torch.

A slight niggle is that the earth clmap is rather small and will not fit around larger work items. However, this is easily overcome by repositioning the clamps.

Giant TIG - 150 Clamp may not fit around larger items.


Giant TIG 150 - Repositioning May help.

Giant TIG 150 Review - What is in the Box

You get:

Giant TIG 150 - The Welder

Giant TIG 150 - Gubbins

In the bag you get some acessories for the torch, various adaptors to hold various sizes of electrodes. 1.6, 2.0 and 2.4mm. Also three sizes of cup (pink things).

Giant TIG 150 - MMA / ARC electrode holder.

The kit comes with an electroide holder for ARC welding, which might come in handy.

A welding mask is also included.

Giant TIG 150 - Rear of Unit

Giant TIG 150 Review - In Use

Before you start you will need to get some argon gas. I have done a price comparison on argon gas here. You will need to get a flow meter to. The fitting on the torch was the wrong size for the regulator I am using.

Now bear in mind that when I write this next bit I am a complete novice when it come to TIG welding.

Starting the arc, using the scratch start method is tricky especially as you can not see anything through the welding mask, if you have a auto darkening helmet then lucky you, this might make things easier.

The 1.6 mm ceriated electrode that comes with the giant TIG 150 is either poor quality or I was using too smaller cup size, even with 10 litres per minute of gas, the electrode kept melting. A replacement electrode lanthanated at 2.4mm lasts much better.

The picture below is probably around the 5th time I have used this welder, and I am sure that the welder would produce much better welds than this with a decent operator!