Ratty
Putting the She in Sheds
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- 1,775
Hi all - just back from a heavy w/e conference in Derby where I had a long chat with mate Carl who is a professional welder. He knows the kind of stuff I work with and his advice was to stay with my stick welder and forget a mig! Not what I wanted to hear I have to say (I want a new toy!!). In his opinion, mig is fine for nice clean mild steel but as I use old rusty steel which is a mixture of garden implements, agricultural machinery and components, old bedsteads, tools, car parts, nails, bolts, brackets, buckets..you name it!...all sorts of found stuff (some of which is probably antique) which could be high tensile, hardened or whatever (sorry I've no idea how many different non-stainless types of steel exist), then I might find a real problem with mig welding and my welds might look great but stand a good chance of failing.
Does anyone have any ideas about this? Is he right? Before I'm asked, I always clean the area to be welded back to clean steel but not the surrounding area, (I like the appearance of rusted steel and actually I'll chemically cause the clean welds to rust so they match the rest of the sculpture) Carl said if even a small amount of rust got in to the weld (whilst I was welding that is) this could cause problems. On his suggestion I will take a few examples of the stuff I use to my welding course and see what they say but any advice/opinions would be much appreciated.
The more I find out the more ignorant I feel...welding...didn't realise it was rocket science.
Does anyone have any ideas about this? Is he right? Before I'm asked, I always clean the area to be welded back to clean steel but not the surrounding area, (I like the appearance of rusted steel and actually I'll chemically cause the clean welds to rust so they match the rest of the sculpture) Carl said if even a small amount of rust got in to the weld (whilst I was welding that is) this could cause problems. On his suggestion I will take a few examples of the stuff I use to my welding course and see what they say but any advice/opinions would be much appreciated.
The more I find out the more ignorant I feel...welding...didn't realise it was rocket science.