Welding: Stick vs. MIG vs. TIG

>>914250
Well this smacks of shill thread..

>>914250
Well pulsed arc tig is superior in every way. Except for cost.

>>914250
Tig. But I only ever got to use tig a handful of times.. Migs good too. Theres some drawbacks like really tight corners. But maybe theres a nozzle that can direct the gas a bit better so you can have your wire fed further out.

But I don't normally plan to work with mild steels and such. DOM. Stainless. cmoly. And aluminums. Im really into gokarts. One day when I got like a grand or two to drop on a setup I just might. But thats in the very far future/another life kinda deal right now.

Sort of unrelated, but since it's a welding thread: How realistic / feasable is the idea that "you can even weld with a car battery"? My university's got a GMAW setup which is pretty nice, but since I'm a university student I don't exactly have much spare cash, so I was considering doing stick welding for personal projects and stuff. Am I likely to get myself killed if I try the car battery thing? Is stick welding easy enough to pick up if you theoretically know how to do it? I've got a couple of hours of experience with it, but that's with everything set up for me by the lab instructors.

>>914332
Voltage isn't really important as the idea of a welder is based on a transformer but the amount of current draw would run the battery flat in very little time, right before it bursts into flames from how hot it is.

Broke or not, don't be so silly. Save and buy what you need.

>>914332
And no. Theory will only get you so far. In practice it's a different ball game.

> no more welding jobs

Should I just burn my Journeyman ticket and kill myself?

>>914250
Obviously it depends on what you're doing.

I TIG but thats because i'm a hobbiest and I usually do fairly small welding projects that I want to look clean. If I had a lot of welding to do I'd go arc or mig depending on the metal.

>>914342
what are you smoking plenty of good jobs still just go get tssa pipe tickets

>>914250
looks like a decent machine i would be interested
as far as hobby welding tig or stick is all you need when it comes to work you choose your process based on what your doing what kind of access and location of what your welding and what kind of deposition rate you want

>>914332
The only people dumb enough to try that I have seen are ATV'ers and even then they were chaining 3 batteries, 1 parallel and 2 series to get something like 18v I believe.
Even then it was a "oh shit my axle broke in the middle of fucking nowhere" type of deal.

>>914250
My only welder is a MIG, or actually MAG as I weld with CO2. It's got power so its useful! 400V bought-it-used professional welder.

>>914250
TiG is expensive, but the welds you can produce are spunk-worthy.

If I had to have ONE, it'd be a high end Miller TiG.

>>914332

It is technically possible to stick weld with car batteries and is, in fact, done on a fairly regular basis.

The thing is, that "regular basis" is a handful of people needing to weld something and don't have any other option at all, and a few people in Ethiopia, probably.

The $60 110V arc welders from China are liable to give you better welds, just sayin'.

>>914250
Stick because they're much cheaper to own privately. But I'll use TIG if I have the opportunity to use one.

I do MIG but I really want a TIG setup. Lacking funds and infrastructure.

>>914250

Depends on the job. Thick plate, beams, outdoor stuff and repairs, I tend to prefer stick over, say self-shielding flux cored wire (garbage IMO). For stainless, TIG will do an absolutely perfect job, if the welder is skilled enough. A small diameter MIG wire at as low a voltage possible is the way to go for autobody. I hear now they use a silicon bronze wire in stread of steel, as it takes less heat to melt and therefore doesn't have as much of a chance of warping the base steel by putting too much heat into it. Silicon bronze TIG filler and stick rod is the only stuff I've ever used. It's great for joining heat treated steels because the lower temperature doesn't fuck up the heat treatment. Often silicon bronze has a higher tensile strength than the steel it's used to join. Using bronze filler is more of a brazing process than true welding though.

The beauty of TIG and stick is that if you need to do a one off job with some strange metal, you can get whatever you need in a small amount if you look hard enough. Weird alloys and stuff aren't really put into huge rolls for MIG or flux core.

tl;dr, depends on the job

>>914250
Like >>914664 said, it depends on the job.

Stick is good on rusty, painted, or otherwise dirty metal, and it works outside in the wind, unlike gas-shielded processes. So it's good for outside work, dirty repairs, etc, and for situations where you can't bring gas cylinders with you. It also tends to burn hotter with better penetration than short-circuit MIG. It requires more post-weld cleaning than MIG and TIG, and is typically not used when those options are available.

Short-circuit MIG is a high-production shop process. It's fast and easy to do, and can deposit metal much faster than stick and TIG. It is cooler, which produces less distortion, but leaves it more prone to penetration/fusion problems on thick/cold metal. Post-weld cleanup is easy, but it's not as pretty as TIG.

TIG is low-production but high-quality. It gives you independent control of heat and filler, and can weld most metals with the right machine and filler. The ability to reliably produce full penetration butt joints makes it the process of choice for making things like the equipment that processes food and pharmaceuticals. TIG machines can typically manage very low currents for tiny welds, and TIG welds require very little cleaning.

Spray-arc MIG is a very hot, very fast process used for welding big stuff in the flat position. It's awesome at that, but it's not very versatile. It's also not common for home welders.

For my welding at home, I have more arc time with TIG but more filler deposited with MIG. I keep some sticks handy for occasional use. They all have their place.

>>914332
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV5oLPLUzrM

>>914774

You can do other positions using spray if you have a pulser. Pretty cool stuff. Metal cored wire does an even better job in spray, but it's not always worth the cost.

>>914433
it's not dumb if it gets you and you vehicle home so you can make a proper repair.

Stick all the way, nothing beats the mechanical strenght of dat shit, and if the welder is skilled enough, it will do everything a Tig/Mig welder can do

File: plasma.jpg (10KB, 200x186px) Image search: [Google]

10KB, 200x186px

>>915845
>nothing beats the mechanical strenght of dat shit
Depends on the rod. Well-maintained low-hydrogen rods can match the strength and toughness of good MIG and TIG, but a perfect 6011 weld won't.

>if the welder is skilled enough, it will do everything a Tig/Mig welder can do
I've TIG welded to repair the zipper on my pants while wearing them. Are you a bad enough dude to stick weld that? And how good do you think stick is at putting a sanitary surface on the inaccessible inside of a process tube joint? Or welding a 22ga body panel? Stick is versatile, but it can't do everything.

>>914332

It's possible but pretty fucking dangerous. Don't do it unless you have a pretty good understanding of electricity and you absolutely have to.

>>914250
MIG is by far the easiest one to use when you just want to attach something to something else, but if you have to get super-technical then Id say TIG, allthough some welders argue that stick can make a seam even better than tig

not saying that MIG wouldn't make a super good seam just as well

>>914342
How's the market in Canada, specifically southern Ontario? Anyone know?

File: IMG_20151217_134824706.jpg (149KB, 874x492px) Image search: [Google]

149KB, 874x492px

>[muffled moaning in the distance]

how can something this stupid feel this good

>>916446
I know that feel, it's glorious.