Which Welder Is The Right One

[gasgas249uk]

I've had an arc welder for the past 10 years and have done a fair bit of welding inside and outside.

The trouble is it only welds fairly thick steel and i seem to be constantly burning holes in steel and shelling out for aluminium welding.

I've therefore decided to get a Mig and would like your advice on whether to get a Gas or Gasless Mig welder.

I tend to do most of my welding inside but occasionally outside. I weld thick as well and thin alloy and steel.

The weld of a Tig looks better , but i've been told you can get good flowing results on steel and aluminium with a Mig if you turn the power up. Is this right ?

Im i best to go Gas or Gasless ?.

What size (amps ) should i be looking at. Whats this best thickness of wire ?.

I guess ill need seperate wire for aluminium wire and a seperate spool. Is this right ?.

Whats other advice can you give me?

Whats the advantage of a TIG? .

Regards

James

[essex rider]

get a gas mig welder as these tend not to spatter after a lot of welding as for wire thickness i think all you need are different size nose bits and you can run most wire sizes and types. You dont need different attatchments for different materials as far as i know

[scorpa3]

To weld alluminium with a MIG you will need a nylon liner and pure argon gas as well as alluminium wire.

A TIG welder would probably be more suitable for thin or non ferrous work, although it is rather more difficult to master.

[jetset]

Make sure you get a Turbo Welder, they last longer and the fan prevents overheating if you use them for long periods. Mig is far easier to learn and use and good more most jobs around the home or workshop. Tig is fairly specialist really and takes some skill and alot of practise.

Anything less than 100 amp will be too small really,unless you are just welding sheet material. I recently bought a 130 Turbo Mig off Ebay for

[jetset]

Oh and to answer the original question, get a gas one every time!

[kieldp]

Get a gas (Argon) mig, they give a nice clean weld and are easy to use.

[ruffrider]

If I remember rightly when I bought mine, there's gasless models that can be used with gas - giving you the best of both worlds.

I have a gas MIG and tried using it outside once - had to build a wind break around me to stop the gas being blown away. Regretted not getting the 'dual purpose' one.

I'd advise getting the biggest one you can, they don't leap too much in price and the added benefit is worth it.

[scorpa3]

If you do go for a TIG welder, try to avoid buying a scratch start. They are cheaper but easier to contaminate the tungsten.

You will also need a nice 'off hand' bench grinder to prepare the tungstens. The better the grind, the better the arc.

Even top welders get touch downs whilst welding TIG from time to time. Every time this happens you will need to grind the contamination away and resharpen. Learning takes a lot of time, practice and patience.

I teach welding in a large engineering company; a lot of students fail to master the technique and stick to MIG. However, MIG welding non ferrous materials is also difficult and the thinner the material the harder it is to MIG weld.

[alan bechard]

I guess I will come at from a slightly different angle,

I know nothing about your educational system over there, but I have to believe there is some form of school (we would call it Vo-tech) where adults can go to learn skills such as welding. Spend some time in there running the different welders and then evaluate what you plan on doing, and make your decision from there.

As to the MIG Gas or gasless debate, they are truly the same machine, the gasless machine is just missing the gas solenoid that controls gas flow.

By all means buy the machine already set up for shielding Gas and you have the ability to weld gasless (fluxcore) if you so desire.

In my shop, the small mig, (millermatic 130) gets turned on and used the most times of all of them. The larger mig (Millermatic 250) would be second, then the TIG welder (Lincoln Squarewave 255) next I do aluminum Mig with a spoolgun and it very seldom get's used and I have an engine driven unit for ARC that gets used about the same as the spoolgun. (I hate field work) My dad has similar equipment but runs two baby migs, one with gas and one with innershield and he says he swaps between them about 50 / 50.

If I was telling my BIL what to go buy because he wanted to weld. I would tell him to research what is a respected and long standing welder manufacturer in his country (Germany) and go buy about a 150 to 200 amp mig set up to do gas shielded welding. I would also then tell him his next purchase should be a high quality AC arc welder with about 250 amp capability (lincoln Tombstone comes to mind) to back it up in heavier work.

A quality MIG will flat out weld better, last longer, and make you happier then a low quality "cheap" unit. Something along the lines of do you want a new GG or an RTX... They are both Trials bikes and do the same job.

TIG is a learned skill that must be kept constantly sharp to do good work. I silicone bronze the fins into torque converters for a local transmission shop to keep myself in tune. It is not a type of welding that you walk out into the shop once a month and just do, and do well.

Oh, on edit, as too welding aluminum with a mig. It can be done, but it is not normally very practical in the small job shop. To weld with Mig you are pushing, pulling or both on the wire to get it to come out the end. I use the analogy of a spaghetti noodle, a .030 steel wire is like an uncooked spaghetti noodle, and an .030 aluminum is like a cooked one, now lay them on a table and try and push them from one end across the table. Most Mig work you see in aluminum is done with either a push pull type gun, a very short stinger Mig, or probably more common a spool gun that only pushes about 3 inches of wire. While the literature will tell you it works in the little migs with about a 6' gun it is not very practical in my experience. (and yes I have done it) as someone else mentioned, you change out the gun liner, tips, and usually reverse polarity on your machine to make it go like this and my results have never been "impressive" by any means. It has been enough to get mufflers hung back onto a bike to get through an event sometimes and sometimes not (sorry John) but it is certainly not something I would sit down and plan on doing in my shop.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Alan Bechard

[downunder]

Alan

I agree with you completely. I have 200amp MIG that has done so much work on jobs ranging from very thin sheet steel, auto repairs through to making tractor implements. I runs hot after a while on full amps but has been going strong since 1986 (Works out to less than AUS$100 a year), so false economy to buy a cheapy. I have a Tombstone ARC and it lays down a beautiful weld with 4mm rods but does it spin the electricity meter and heat up the curciut breakers fast!

As far as a TIG goes you are spot on about practice. I have done some stainless work with one and found it not too difficult but I have been oxy welding, brazing and silver soldering for nearly 30 years and to me it is just like an electric oxy welder. I plan on getting one in the future but single phase 240volt ones are few and far between even in Australia

[gasgas249uk]

Thanks to everyone who posted a reply.I'm going to go for a Mig and from your postings have made a list of the spec to go for.

Cheers again.