MIG or TIG?

[waggy]

Hello all,
Thinking of spending some coinage on a welding plant. Don't want an arc welder, got these at work and the folk to use them.
Been thinking of a small MIG machine but have been wondering what the advantages of TIG are over the MIG, if any? I've had a go with a gasless MIG, a lot of spatter from the flux in the wire. Again, not what I want. I like the idea of clean welds that don't require a lot of work to clean the job up.

Regards,

Waggy.

[havoc]

Well I went on the look for a welding set with the ontention of welding a copper boiler and other small stuff like a loco frame. Thickness range from 1mm to 5mm was my requirement. I spend an evening going round a welding trade show with everywhere the same question. All that dignified themselves to reply recommended a TIG set. Advantage was that if needed special electroded could be made that would allow you to weld inside the firebox.

After I heard that the boiler inspector wouldn't even consider a welded copper boiler I didn't went further along that path.

[circlip]

Cheap quick answer Waggy is that Tig is similar to stick welding without the flux. Electrode is a Tungsten rod and the "Flux" is the inert gas blown down the holder that envelops the weld pool. TIG is virtually essential for welding Stainless and Alloy. If it's for private use think long and hard, Argon like Oxygen is an expensive "Domestic" consumable.
Regards Ian.

[Steve M. W]

I have gas welding equipment,arc, mig and just recently tig set.
I am self taught but my preference would be for tig, which i would liken to gas welding but with out the hassle of oxe/acet.
If you can gas weld you will tig with not to much problem.
My set was of EBAY at £165 so I can not weld aluminum, a thread on another forum said to discard the tungsten that comes with the set and get some proper color coded inserts, this I did and the difference is unbelievable. Having said all that mig still has a place in certain circumstances. Yes Argon is an extra outlay but it is inert gas so safer to keep than acetylene.
Hope this helps.

Steve

Steve

[ron]

Waggy
For general welding I would go for a MIG, it's cheap and reasonably easy to master, TIG makes a much nicer weld but it's more difficult and expensive. Use a bottle of Argoshield not these useless disposable bottles or pub CO2.
Also buy an auto darkening helmet, best thing since the last best thing!
Ron
PS NOT a gasless one either, they're rubbish.

[SteveW]

Waggy,

I went the extra distance and bought an inverter welder. It's small and light and, being DC, also stick welds with ease. I bought the TIG set that went with it and later an auto-darkening screen although not had time to use it yet.

You mentioned also welding alloy. Forget it! You need a very fancy TIG welder that can do some very sexy asymmetric AC (as in alternating) tricks. The point being to break up evil oxides that form by including short cycles of reverse voltage. There was a long series of articles in ME Workshop a few years back on these things. Think thousands for these things against a three hundred for an inverter welder that'll upgrade to TIG.

And no I haven't tried the TIG yet. I have found out that CO2 is only suited to MIG. You need Argon or an Argon mix for TIG else the tip suffers.

[dscott]

Being lucky in my job which is helping students make all sorts of strange things in the name of art, have access to mig tig gas and stick welding, The mig has been excelent in producing a bottom of a chimney for 2 Hunslets made from a tapered bit turned to fit the vacuume cleaner tube chimney, and a thick curved to fit the smokebox washer. Welded the bits in between and angle ground it to shape. Also some track from sections welded to 1" X 1/8" sleepers.

As they are built as ancient wrecks tig gives you perfect little scale welds where for instance part of the front buffer beam was replaced with a patch, just go allong the steel melting it slightly both sides. Running boards as well welded on the angles as it is a port class with a lower footplate.

Both very useful when you have spent days milling something important only to find a hungry milling cutter has taken a bite out of something. a quick blast of hot metal, let it cool slowly!!! and mill to shape.

David.

[steamjohn248]

We've just replaced our old TIG set which required a fork lift to move, with an inverter TIG/MMA. Its only the size of a small holdall, will do MMA to 200 amps and TIG up to about 6mm. If you do get A TIG dont expect to be able to weld ally, as has been said you need A/C for that and even the set we got at just under a grand won't do that.

You must use proper colour coded tungstens and ARGON, NOT ARGOSHIELD as used for MIG. Other than ally you can weld almost anything else and if you are worried that the filler rod available, e.g. copper bronze brass SS MS etc. will not match what you are sticking together, saw a slice off the parent metal and use that or simply fuse the edges of the job together, (the normal method for tanks and Right angle joints).

A big Bottle of ARGON will set you back about £65/year for bottle rental and about £60 for a refill. Tungsten tips are anything up to £2 a go and filler rods esp. Non ferrous are also pretty dear. You'll need a diamond or at least a green stone to sharpen the tungstens which you will be doing quite a lot a lot untill you learn not to stuff the filler rod too far in and collect a blob on the end of the Tungsten.

Our old set had a water cooled torch and a foot control but the little one is air cooled with the control on the torch and we've found this is not really a problem.

Finally there are now some very good SS MMA rods on the market and they are a joy to use so if you've got a reasonable stick welder dont think you can,t weld stainless, you can.

John

[jackrae]

Following on from what john says about welding stainless, I have some ss rods I bought from BOC type code is AWS A5.4-92: E316L-16* (2.5mm diameter) called "Everyday Stainless Steel" and they are an absolute delight to use with my inverter set. I even managed to weld 1.5mm to 6mm with no blow-through.
Mind you, you have to be wary of the weld cover flux which pings off and flies about as the weld cools
jack

[littlechuffer]

hi guys
i have a mig welder and in the past have used it to weld allumuminiun.

by using 1mm dia wire and a small throwaway argon bottle
i have welded/repaired motorcycle crankcases cycl head fins etc.

a useful thing to know is you can weld up a broken mounting hole for instance by using a piece of stainless rod of the same diameter , inserted into the hole to be repaired you simply weld
around the stainless bar.
because the alloy weld does not adhere to stainless you get a nice neat repair.

have also used stainless sheet between crankcases with good result.
and of course great for mild steel

mick.

[ace]

waggy

I bought my mig welder from Machine-mart it can be used with or without gas and I have welded all sorts, just buy the type of the wire required and gas to suit.
Yes there is a small amount of cleaning to do after but you can use anti-spatter spray.

I'd be lost without mine.


Steve

[waggy]

Many thanks for all your replies. It's mainly steel I want to weld and not very often at that, so I'm going for a MIG set. Not sure which one but that's all part of the fun, looking!

Thanks again,

Waggy.

[littlechuffer]

clarke 100E MK11
you wont regret it,

[michael]

I've got the Clarke 150TE and have been very happy with it so far. My welding skills aren't all that great but I'm slowly getting better. Burnt a lot of holes in sheet metal until I switched to thinner wire.

Michael