Thread: Go get your mig welder , Youl Brunner.

What brand & model MIG did you buy?

Originally Posted by soundman

Now I have heard it said that a MIG weld will never be as pretty and a good arc weld..

Them s fighting words.Usually made by a poor operator blaming his machine.
It will be a comment made by someone who has no idea at all how to set and use a decent machine.I would say that they have made a tack or a small weld that has failed to fuse to the mother plate.

Sometimes the cause is lack of setting -usually voltage, sometimes lack of angle or speed.

Your elation obviously indicates that you do not have that problem.

I am confident I can lay a weld that will hold a ton or so with 25mm length of weld on each side of a 6mm T fillet and can assist any reasonably intelligent person to do the same.
If its any help there some notes for setting migs in the sticky at the top of the welding forum page by courtesy of BobL.

Grahame

Originally Posted by soundman

OH YESSS, BABY.
But MIG....did I say OH YEH BABY.

So soundman, I take it you love your MIG welder.

The unit I got was the $800ish, trade tools machine..170 amps I think. it is a combination machine that will do mig ( gas or gasless) , stic and tig....you have to buy the tig handpiece seperate, but it comes with a stick cable and holder.

The same unit is found with a number of brands on it...the unimig is identical ( at least superficialy).

The pretty weld comment was by somebody very proficient at all forms of welding......basicay the intent was that a realy good arc weld could be very pretty.....no inference was intended about strength.

In my hands the MIG will outperform the stick any day any way except on dirty material.

Yes I like my MIG...the more I use it the more I like it.

cheers

I have a job coming up with the kids- 3 mm sheetmetal hopper for their oxy cutting table/bin that will showcase the sheet metal capabilities of the Mig.

I will grab the digital camera and take pics. What you can do the open gap and get peno will surprise the former stick welders.. it will be a week or 2.

Grahame

I wouldnt touch a non 3 Phase Mig with a 10 foot pole!!!! In fact I reckon youd be flat out being able to weld in spray transfer mode hot enough to get close to what you could achieve with good old Stick n Tig from 160Amps down

Id never recommend buying a Mig In my opinion your much better of with a Stick/Tig combo! YOu'll do a better stronger weld that looks the Ducks Nuts (Once you know what what your doing)

In my HAnds I absolutely do all my best welding On the Stick n Tig Its more fun and gi ves you the most options and versatility

Do yourself a favor N learn to Tig your Oh Babys will turn into Oh My Gods!

REgards Lou

Settle down a bit Lou,

Most of these bloke s don,t want to build a bridge or a battleship , maybe just a walkway or a dingy and anyway most won't have access to 3 phase let alone a 3 phase mig.

These blokes don't want to hear not what can't be done with their machines ,but what what can be done.

To make things interesting, I'll use a single phase mig on the hopper at school.

Just Doing the Best With What I Have At The Time

Grahame

Lu mate for most of us stick is no fun at all...too much fiddle, no direct view of the weld in progress....as for tig, well just too much fiddle didle and a more expensive gas.

Most of us mostly want to weld mild steel, mostly in sections arround 1.5 to 3mm...which a small mig will do very nicely.....with a very easy learning curve and consistent results

If things get into heavy stuff 6mm plus where things get much easier for stick... I might plug in the stick... but otherwise....the mig is all over stick like a rash

And a very wide range of metal thickness.....same consumable... just twidde the knobs and weld....I recon I'd be fine with .8mm wire from 1mm up to 5mm and no special methods.... a bit of preparation and multiple passes & 10mm is reasonable.

As far as how pretty the weld is....i supose beauty is in the eye of the beer holder.

cheers

cheers

Hey fellas Great to hear your loving your Migs and are passionate about what you can achieve with them!

N yes I totally agree you can get good results and have no doubt they will serve you well................IF youve got the cash to splash around on gas n consumables just to weld mild steel go for it!

IF Migs what your interested in and thats what you want to learn thats awesome too!!!!!!!

However generally speaking for far less cost less hassles n less "fiddle" you can get just as good a result using plain old stick and HAve more money left in the back pocket to spend on stock to make stuff!................what a Bonus!

Get yourself a good little AC/DC Tig/Stick Inverter for around the same price as a Mig N you have so much more versatility n can literally weld anything from aluminum foil to 6mm plate.

Granted the learning kerb is harder for Tig BUT for around the same running costs as a Mig welder you get so much more!!!!!!

At the end of the day im not about arguing the pros n cons of what welding process you choose to use.

Rather that for anyone whose just thinking about getting into welding to consider that you can get great results stick welding for far less cost and to consider which process will give you the most bang for your buck!

Regards Lou

Well for $800 odd I did buy an inverter stick / tig machine...... but it is a mig too.

It's not a matter of wht we are interested in its a matter of what gets the job done.

OH... its just occured to me how much slag, I'm not sweeping up, and I've forgotten where the chipping hammer is

cheers

Many of us forget that each welding process has "best application".
Its takes some people a bit longer than others to arrive at the conclusion that one machine will not will do it all.

Hopefully you will have luck with your new toy and get the best from it for every application.

Grahame

what he said,well put.

Wait till you do an absolute perfect looking MIG weld and it just falls apart in your hand as it did not fuse to one side...

One thing in stick's favour is that a good looking stick weld is good....A good looking mig weld can be a disaster waiting to happen... I still love my MIG though, and so my stick does not feel left out I stroke it as well...

sorry RC,with respect,but if it fell apart you need to look harder and learn a little more about your machine and mig welding.One of my jobs after my boilermaking app was welding up hydraulic cylinders for heavy machinery,they were tested to 3000psi and spike tested to 4000 psi on occasion and i did them all with a safmig 320bl,one of the finest migs ever built and i didnt loose a single barrel out of thousands.In general fabrication and structural steel manufacture migs do probably up to 75 % of the work.In another scenario ive gone to shuts at olympic dam etc and every lincoln 400 in the state of south australia is on that site,not a mig welder to be seen,Each type of welder is perfect for a type of work,as graham said above.cheers Danny.