how thick do you weld with your wire feed / mig?

[gauthier]

Thats right,a fillit weld is not a full pen weld.If the designer/enginer wants a fillit instead of a full pen than he thinks the fillit will hold whatever till whenever and in that situation work/serve the pupose just as well as a full pen.So,if you went to all the extra work and cost to make that fillit full pen,you are just wasting money.And generally speaking,they way over do most things on even the fillits. And if your goal is just to make a fillit,you don't want it blowing out the back side,[be a real mess].You want good fusion and some penatration,but you gotta rember it ain't full pen,so the penatration part is subject to different opinions,to me,as long as there is good fusion and some penatration,than thats about all you can expect from a fillit,[cause if you want more than that,you have under designed it.]

Tig has its places just like mig and stick,most new construction or outages or shut downs say a power plant ,refinory. chemical plant,use each one every day,in the place it works best,making a bad root on an xray joint with mig will cost you more than doing it with tig to begin with.But if you was to weld hand rails or something like that with tig,they sure would be expensive.

 

[yomax4]

Ok I think at last I understand. Sorry you had to re-explain so many times. I guess a few reasons to opt for stick over mig is when welding Rust, Grease, Paint, Zink Coating or Cast Iron. Stick requires less cleanup and rods can be bough in small quantities.

 

[LD1]

That brings up a good point. Most of us backyarder welders will opt for a stick not because it is supposed to be stronger, but because of wanting to not have to do the prep work. MIG absolutly welds like crap unless the metal is clean and bare.

Which brings me to my point: Most people that preach the use of stick due to 100% penetration, better quality, stronger, etc. etc. also use the example of less prep work as a reason why it is better than MIG.

But...If you are needing x-ray quality welds with no imperfections and 100% penetration, Then you DO have to do the prep work.

So...you cant have your cake and eat it too.

A sticked joint that burnt through paint, rust, oil, etc. will not be better than a MIG welded joint on clean metal.

 

[gauthier]

Yeah,if you want the best weld you gotta clean it down to shiny,with any process,stick and flux core are less fussy, mig and tig are pretty fussy.

Short circuiting mig,[because of how it works],is very fussy.

Sure you can make a suitable weld for the situation,if the situation is just something simple,like fixing a crack on a brush hog or making a small something,with out shining it with stick,better than your luck would be with mig. But your weld would be better if you shined it for stick too. What you try to do is eliminate all the little things,like good filler,machine works right and you got it set up right and its big enough for your job,clean base metal,preheat if its real cold,right fit on joint,etc,than if you are having trouble,you know it ain't that,you know its probably you,and than you can learn and work on what your doing wrong[nothing else to blame it on].Kinda like they say,this glove won't catch,if you can get it down to just you,than you can work on it,but if your machine is to little for job,or your stuck with ac current for stick,or your using low hydrogen rods that are old and damp,or your metal is oily and has dirt and paint on it,its hard to learn.

Than after you get it,your eyes go bad like mine and even though you know these things, you can't see good enough to do what you know how to do.

 

[yomax4]

Yep, Even with the High Tech Mig Equipment that I have, I find myself Force Feeding a Dirty Painted Joint with Mig Wire..It Smokes, Spits and starts me on fire but I still do it in a pinch. Then on the other hand I will Weld Aluminum with Push Pull on Twin Pulse and do Pure Majic. In the End, We do what we need with what we have..

 

[Dargo]

To be honest, I use stick, tig and mig fairly evenly.

Same here. I don't know why, but I carried home a hand full of some 1/2" E12018 rods (electrodes). I don't know what I'm going to do with them since I don't own anything with close enough power to burn them. We used them to weld wear plating on the bottom of huge draglines that were "walking" machines. They had 2 arms that dropped down and would scoot the machine. Needless to say, it's bottom side had to be tough. Every few years it got cribbed up and we cut the bottom off and replaced it. Man, those rods made one heck of a buzzing noise when you burned them! Worse yet, you were welding overhead.

They had a big MIG welder on a truck that used what looked to be 1/4" wire that was used for welding the 1" plating on the sides of the machine where it always seemed to brush against things as it turned. Again, it takes a huge amount of power to run such a machine. Like the huge electrodes, you can't forget the sound of running that MIG. A friend went to the Philippines and said he worked on a project where they used 19mm rods! He said the welding leads were 000 in size. Sounds like brutally hard and hot work to me! I've never seen a 19mm electrode. I don't even know if you can buy them in the US.

 

[Dargo]

Than after you get it,your eyes go bad like mine and even though you know these things, you can't see good enough to do what you know how to do.

LOL, I know what you mean. I was welding up a ragged rip on some 3/8" steel and I was burning away when I realized that I'd gone about an inch the wrong way after missing a turn in the break. I could see my puddle but could only barely see the parent material. Oops. Grinder!

 

[gauthier]

I bought one of them good hoods not long ago,actually just the auto darking lens to go in a regular wide view hood,the auto lens alone cost over 100 dollars,I put that in a jackson 4 1/2 x 5 1/4 hood and I use a 2.50 cheater lens,its the best I ever had on,used regular hoods,glasses,with out glasses but a cheater,but will say the more expensive auto lens work pretty good,those cheaper ones don't.
www.ramwelding supply.com.
they have what I bought,a weldmark brand lens,weld mark brand cheater,the cheater is like bifocails,magnifying part is on bottom,clear part on top,gives you a 2x 3 3/4 viewing area.The thing you would do as others my age have done who still make their money welding is, go to a good eye doctor and have them make you a good set of glasses that are set up to work best at the distance your eyes are from the puddle,thats the best probably,and than get you a very good wide view auto darkening hood.

 

[rcowan]

I almost hate to resurrect this (any posters still alive?) thread but I did a search and it popped up. When discussing MIG I didn't see the qualifier of GMAW or FCAW. Maybe I missed it.

RC

 

[lostcause]

i wrote the post, and i think i'm still alive, though after re-reading it, i remember wishing i wasn't alive afterwards. this post was misread by many people even though the english was pretty darn clear. the post was intended to be as sarcastic as it was informative. it was targeted at people who seem to think that you need x-ray and mag particle tested full penetration welds from a machine costing in excess of $5000 or it will never work to make a holder for your beer can.

i wrote this because so many times i would see people posting that they would use their stick welder but never a wire feeder when building something out of new and clean metal. you could read a few more posts by the same person and find out that they had a wire feed welder that cost $1500 or more. i just was wondering why they bothered to burn so much money on a machine that they never deemed worthy of use. as far as i'm concerned, this post should be dead. if you actually have a question and would like some (hopefully) helpful and insightful answers, you might want to create a new topic. this one strayed far and wide many times.