Welding

   / Welding #61  
I use both stick and mig depending on the job at hand. Proficientcy comes with practice, lots of practice.:D
Steve

practice is the key to becoming a good at anything
as far which welding process is the best well they've all got their strong points and weak points
most of my welding would be with an ark Welder which you can buy cheap and cheerful even for a fairly large ones my biggest is a 260 air cooled AC which I converted to DC a lovely Welder but not as nice as an old oil cooled
I also have a DC tig and ark inverter with lots of bells and whistles which is by far the nicest of the 2 for ark welding and a very good tig Welder which I'm trying to learn that the moment im also thinking of buying a small mig just for lighter gauge material

I am a member of a diy welding forum and the debate of mig tig and ark
and cheap versus expensive rises it head every now and again but the general consensus is by as good as you can afford
then depending on the type of welding you do determines which type of Welder you should go for

mig the is by for the easiest to learn and very good on light material but they get very expensive for the bigger ones and they are much faster and cleaner than an ark Welder which is important for welding shops

ark is much harder to learn but is very versatile as you can Weld inside and outside and you can pick them up fairly cheaply even the big ones but the expensive ones are by far the best

tig is difficult to learn but you get the best quality of Weld from it. ac tig is the best for welding aluminium but they are ridiculously expensive machines

Well that's more or less my two cents worth the more you practice the better you will get if you don't it doesn't matter what machine you have
 
   / Welding #63  
Here my take as an amature. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The thing about a stick weld is that if you can make it look good, then it's probably a good weld (usually). You can make really pretty mig welds that won't hold.
Im going to have to disagree. (imagine that ;))
 
   / Welding #66  
Im going to have to disagree. (imagine that ;))

You can't just disagree and then run away. We have to get into a heated debate now :).

I'm a self proclaimed ambitious amature, so please do enlighted me. I know that I've made pretty welds with my new (to me) MIG that won't hold. Any weld I can make with my old stick that is tolerable to look at has held. What's your take?
 
   / Welding #67  
You can't just disagree and then run away. We have to get into a heated debate now :).

I'm a self proclaimed ambitious amature, so please do enlighted me. I know that I've made pretty welds with my new (to me) MIG that won't hold. Any weld I can make with my old stick that is tolerable to look at has held. What's your take?


Sounds like a lack of penetration and tie in to me. What size metals were you using with what size wire?

While building wrought iron gates and fence using light guage tubing I use an .023 wire but while building my new landplane with heavy weight tubing and 1/2" plate I used an .045 wire. I have a Miller trailblazer NT with a suitcase mig and use the stick to do fill in work when I don't want to change out the wire in the mig.



Steve
 
   / Welding #68  
I tend to agree,but the real problem is the assumption that a good looking MIG weld IS a good weld.
I would think we have all seen the stories where some guy has built a trailer or motorcycle with a little 110v MIG and has had a catastrophic weld failure.

ouvej, that's me. But the trailer is serving well for 6 years without problems. Since it is built from 3/16' wall square tubing, there was no need for bigger welding machine but my Lincoln Mig.
 
   / Welding #69  
But the trailer is serving well for 6 years without problems.

One of these days....someone is gonna fess up and say " My weld broke and killed my 17 year old son.".... but so far..someone ALWAYS say " I did it" and people continue to get hurt because they don't understand the importance of prep,sufficient penetration and multiple passes.

I COULD build a house using straight pins...but nails are better.
 
   / Welding #70  
Sounds like a lack of penetration and tie in to me. What size metals were you using with what size wire?

While building wrought iron gates and fence using light guage tubing I use an .023 wire but while building my new landplane with heavy weight tubing and 1/2" plate I used an .045 wire. I have a Miller trailblazer NT with a suitcase mig and use the stick to do fill in work when I don't want to change out the wire in the mig.



Steve

Thin guage tubing and .025 wire. Sure are pretty welds. Sure don't hold.

It's my fault. I need to learn how to do it better. My gripe is that the quality control is harder. I can look at a stick weld and know it's bad. I can't tell yet with a MIG.
 

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