What type of welding is best?

TwoForFlinching · Dec 3, 2019

My welder buddies give me crap for my Kimberly Clark hood, because if it doesn't say Miller or Esab on it, it's not good enough blahs blah... KC stuff is good, and occassionally, Amazon has em half off. Being the holiday season, might find a deal. Switched to a pancake and Jackson Solera months ago. I'll never go back to flipping a scoop

Preacherman · Dec 3, 2019

If you do not have burn scars on top of your feet then you probably haven't ever welded while wearing tennis/running shoes. i vote mig, but they will spoil you. Burn hot!

Profreedomokie · Dec 3, 2019

I would go with a good mig welder. I bought a Lincoln mig welder in 1992 and sold my AC cracker box. Mig is the easiest to learn. I just bought a Eastwood Tig 200. It will tig and stick weld both. I burnt a rod the other day to try it out and remembered I hadn't stick welded since 1992. I've tried to tig aluminum and that will take some real practice to learn. I tried to tig some steel and that was much easier than aluminum but, will take some time.

CHenry · Dec 3, 2019

Shoot Summ said:
Don't sit cross legged on the floor in shorts "just making a quick bead"...

I can't even do that anymore lol

Timmy59 · Dec 3, 2019

MIG..

dennishoddy · Dec 3, 2019

Old school here. I have a 240 amp Miller AC/DC with reverse polarity capability stick welder. Did a lot of tig aluminum way back in the day. That is an artform that takes a lot of day in day out practice to maintain that skill.
A stick can do anything a mig can, and much quicker if going between metals. Weld cast iron with the right rod, weld sheet metal with 1/16"
easy start tip rod 2 minutes later.
More than once have had to stick two rods together and bend them to get at an odd angle to save time.
Best thing I ever saw a stick welder used for was at the power plant I retired from. We had some 9000 hp electric motors that drove pumps to take water from the river to the lake for make up water if the lake got too low. The motors were above ground while the pumps and associated piping was 10' under grating. A quarter sized hole blew out in one of the elbows. No way to get down there without pulling the motor, and would be a gargantuan task taking days.
One of our welders that came from a Nuke power plant put a stick welder stinger on the end of two broom sticks wired together and filled in that hole, then put a patch on top. Used another set of sticks with a chisel wired to it to clean the slag between weld passes.
They always used stick welders in the boilers to replace the heavy wall tubing. Took two guys. One guy would initiate the arc, run 60 degrees around the joint where the second welder would use his rod to pick up the arc and continue another 60 degrees or so before the original welder would pick up the second guys arc and finish the weld. It had to be a continuous bead with no breaks, then Xrayed.
Mig is a lot cleaner, and easier, I'll give it that, but It's a stick for me.
+1000 on the auto hoods! Best thing they ever invented.

Glock 40 · Dec 3, 2019

dennishoddy · Dec 3, 2019

blake711 said:
JB

There are a lot of motorcycles running down the road with some JB weld on the cases.

inactive · Dec 3, 2019

When I was a kid, my dad made a few welds without a mask on (this long pre-dates auto-dimming) finishing up a late-night job at his refractory business (the downsides of owning your own business). He even turned his head completely before tacking the few places he needed to get done, but this was in his brand new shop with glossy concrete floors and fresh white paint on the walls. So didn't matter where he looked, the whole shop was lit up.

He woke up completely blind from the burns. Had to get drops for the pain and prevent infection, I think he took sleeping pills to get through the night, and have bandages on there for like 3 days until his vision came back. I remember little 5-6 year old me guiding him around the kitchen, bathroom etc since he couldn't see to take care of business.

Get the damn hoods people.

Cowcatcher · Dec 3, 2019

Profreedomokie said:
I would go with a good mig welder. I bought a Lincoln mig welder in 1992 and sold my AC cracker box. Mig is the easiest to learn. I just bought a Eastwood Tig 200. It will tig and stick weld both. I burnt a rod the other day to try it out and remembered I hadn't stick welded since 1992. I've tried to tig aluminum and that will take some real practice to learn. I tried to tig some steel and that was much easier than aluminum but, will take some time.

I was real close to buying that tig machine and ended up buying a Primeweld 225.

What type of welding is best?

TwoForFlinching

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Preacherman

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CHenry

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Timmy59

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dennishoddy

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Glock 40

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dennishoddy

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inactive

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Cowcatcher

Unarmed boating accident survivor

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