Mig / Tig Gas question

[woodlandfarms]

So this weekend my wifes cousin came up for the holiday. He was (after the marines) a deep water welder for a number of years (And the stories and things I learned from him, amazing). Anyway, he helped me set up my scratch start tig for my stick welder.

A big note he said to me is that I made a mistake. I should have just bought one large bottle of Argon and forget about 75/25. He said that the argon works fine for Mig, that the cost is not that much different and by me buying a second tank(which I did) I just cost myself in unnecessary gear and inconvenience.

Thoughts? This is not for a pro welding but just an occasional Weekend Welder.

 

[k0ua]

So this weekend my wifes cousin came up for the holiday. He was (after the marines) a deep water welder for a number of years (And the stories and things I learned from him, amazing). Anyway, he helped me set up my scratch start tig for my stick welder.

A big note he said to me is that I made a mistake. I should have just bought one large bottle of Argon and forget about 75/25. He said that the argon works fine for Mig, that the cost is not that much different and by me buying a second tank(which I did) I just cost myself in unnecessary gear and inconvenience.

Thoughts? This is not for a pro welding but just an occasional Weekend Welder.

I think the experts will disagree with your wife's cousin. Can you use it? yes, but the consensus is that the beads will be taller, and penetration won't quite be the same as using MIG mix. Of course for MIG on non ferrous metals, then argon would be proper. I am no expert at all, and am barely a welder at all, but I believer this is what the manufactures will say also.

 

[Shield Arc]

I should have just bought one large bottle of Argon and forget about 75/25. He said that the argon works fine for Mig,

Well I'm not a professional welder, but I wouldn't do it.

 

[1stDeuce]

I have a 75/25 tank for steel, and a 100% Argon tank for welding aluminum. If I forget to switch back to 75/25 when I'm done with the aluminum, and weld steel, I can tell right away... it welds for crap. Yes, it "works", but it doesn't work nearly as well as 75/25 in my experience. I believe the 75/25 refills are also cheaper, but I refill the Argon so infrequently that I can't say how much...

 

[swines]

Different shielding gasses provide different results and welding conditions for steel with a MIG.

Pure CO2 would be the cheapest shielding gas for steel welding. It works well with small wire and provides deep penetration. However, with larger wire sizes (.035 and larger) and higher voltages the arc becomes unstable and you get a lot of spatter. The "sweet spot" for the arc is very small with CO2 and your setup becomes more difficult to balance the wire feed speed and voltage.

75/25 provides good penetration with all wire sizes, good arc stability at all wire feed speed / voltage settings. 75/25 provides a large "sweet spot" when setting up the wire feed speed and voltage. It provides excellant puddle control and low spatter.

Pure argon will be the most expensive gas to buy. It costs me about 25% more for the same size tank to refill my argon tank compared to 75/25 mix. You will get less weld penetration with argon. Arc stability, puddle control, etc. are about the same as 75/25.

The only time I use pure argon with my MIG is for stainless steel or aluminum.

 

[yomax4]

The closest I get to pure argon in Mig is 98 Argon 2 Co2 for digital HD pulsed stainless. Gives the weld a soft straw color. On steel. Straight argon struggles and it's just not the best gas for the application. You can go pretty high on the argon side the 95 A 5 CO2 was an old Spray Arc gas prior to pulse. Now all of the European machines like one of my Lorch Digital HD welders can run any mild steel wire with CO2 with no spatter. They formulate their machines for CO2 because of cost. But then again Europeans mostly all use inverters where in the states we are 10-15 years behind and still buy mainly transformer units which are very limited and run CO2 poorly. I have a gas mixer so I can run any mix I want to dial and can run straight CO2 but I still like a 92/8 or 95/5 for most of my welding including pulse and twin pulse. Color match is better than with straight CO2.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I called the cousin. He clarified. In his shop (he fixes luxury yachts) they do not do a lot of straight steel, pretty much aluminum and stainless, thus no need for 75/25. I think he falls into most of your guys assessments where it can be done, probably not the best choice but if you are on a budget....

 

[Big Barn]

So this weekend my wifes cousin came up for the holiday. He was (after the marines) a deep water welder for a number of years (And the stories and things I learned from him, amazing). Anyway, he helped me set up my scratch start tig for my stick welder.

A big note he said to me is that I made a mistake. I should have just bought one large bottle of Argon and forget about 75/25. He said that the argon works fine for Mig, that the cost is not that much different and by me buying a second tank(which I did) I just cost myself in unnecessary gear and inconvenience.

Thoughts? This is not for a pro welding but just an occasional Weekend Welder.

Carl, you definitely DID NOT make a "costly mistake"

Your MIG welds would probably suffer from NOT using the C-25 mix (or Co2). When it comes to welding I need all the help I can get. Having the correct mix is a small price to pay.

Plus assuming you would be Migging more than Tig it makes less sense to have Argon ONLY. Imho


Terry