Hi, new Tig member

[lister]

Hi all,
I tried tig welding on a course a few months ago, really enjoyed it so decided to take the plunge and buy one.
I was initially looking for a DC only machine, but a Giant WSE200 AC/DC machine with foot pedal, came up for £123.96 (ebay) and it's fully working!!!

Since buying it (a few months ago) I haven't had time to use it. I've seen people post on here that they are not the best machines.
Is there anything I need to look out for??
It's mainly going to be used on vehicle fabrication and refinishing so roughly 1mm steel.
Also 1.5mm aluminium for the car seats I plan on making.

Any advice on this machine, set up etc. would be greatly appreciated.

Rob

 

[malcolm]

It's the first I've heard of Giant selling inverter TIG welders. The welders people complain about are their transformer based MIG welders which are completely rubbish.

Generally the Chinese inverters will actually work well, but will be very sensitive to knocks and dirt and generally don't last for very long. But at £124 with a foot pedal that's not really much of a worry.

There are some helpful guides to TIG welding on the Miller website http://www.millerwelds.com/resources/improving-your-skills/tig/

Give it a go on DC on mild steel at least 2mm thick, preferably a little more. 2.5mm rods (make doubly sure they are TIG rods not gas rods) and have a play with as many of the fancy features turned off as possible.

 

[lister]

Ah cool, generally the area will be kept reasonable clean, so fingers crossed I can get a couple of years out of it

To be honest I'm not planning on welding with rods, just using it to weld without rod, I found it gets very little distortion and is easy to plannish.

Here is a pic of welding I've done previously.

Fingers crossed as long as the amp control is stable it should more than fulfil my needs

 

[Bsmith]

Be kinder to it than you were to that steel bin......