mig or arc

[oilcooled :)]

i have always welded with arc, done everything, thick and thin, and have always managed to get thin stuff decent but not to mig standard. about 2 months ago i started working for a fella makeing rollers for class balers and i was using an unmig 252, i found it hard to adapt to ,cant see what im at, burnin the crap my out ofself, and a desperate wire feed, i found it to be more severe on the body and a shocking heavy torch. my question is if your makeing i dunno something for the back of the tractor and theres the a good mig and a good arc there how many old schoolers would be arsed with the mig.. . .im not biased towards mig in anyway and dnt want the OR in the title to become a VS.

 

[david500]

Site welding or something I would take ARC everytime, it dosent matter if the steel is a bit dirty as it ends up on the top of the bead anyway,You have total control over Amps,theres no gas to worry about,Only real drawbacks of ARC is that you cant make continous welds with out stoping to change the stick,And very thin stuff is difficult if not impossible.

MIG is only really suitable for Workshop or indoor use, Big Bottles,Not enough cable ect..And Gas blows away, theres ways around that but generally a hassle. High cost compared to stick. More to go wrong.
Upside, welds are superb,huge adaptability,Can weld in any positions vertical,overhead ect..spot weld,continous welds for 10ft+ are easy, far nicer to use in My opinon,Spatter on a well set up machine is minimal.

I would not use a stick unless it was outside or on site

 

[Engineer]

If you have never driven a car before, then the first time you try might be pretty difficult (especially without anyone to show you how), but when you come to terms with it will find that in most ways its an awful lot better than a push bike.

 

[Drains]

If you have never driven a car before, then the first time you try might be pretty difficult (especially without anyone to show you how), but when you come to terms with it will find that in most ways its an awful lot better than a push bike.

It's quicker and drier and more comfortable than a push bike. But it's big and heavy and needs fuel and maintenance and insurance and road tax and expensive bills and you need a license to drive it and it can't go down muddy 2 ft wide tracks and you can't drive it down steps or stick it in the shed or... etc etc.

Which is a reasonable comparison between Mig and Stick, really.

Oilcooled, sounds to me like you're just not accustomed to Mig. If you're getting spatter everywhere, you've not got it set up right. You get used to the torch (use the other hand to support it - mig is largely a two handed process unlike stick, especially with the bigger torches). If you can't see what you're doing, well you need to work out how to position yourself and the job so you can.

Everything has its place. Mig is good for banging out the weld, thick and thin, inside. But you need a big lump of kit, bottles, no wind etc, and the knowledge to set up the machine.

And as you know, you can weld almost anything, almost anywhere with a 3Kg Inverter over your shoulder, a box of rods and a chipping hammer, and the skill to run a bead.

Ps, I'm not saying that mig is all knowledge and arc all skill, far from it.

 

[Hitch]

I wonder how it does compare, cost wise to MIG.

15kg of mig wire, £20, Cylinder of gas, lasts what 2-3 reels? Costing about £50-60?

45kg of mig weld costs £120....

Box or rods, £9-10?

45kg of rods costs £90 (rods not weld metal)
Weld metal, comparable to the mig at £120 i reckon.

Factor in to that the time, which i believe is the dearest part of welding, no doubt about it, mig is quicker.

Depending on whats doing and where it is, i often take a mig on site. It might take a few mins longer to setup, but saves loads of time.


As for weight of the torch, cant say ive noticed one that is particully heavy, even the 500a tough guns arn't heavy

 

[scarecrow]

I also found mig a bit of a struggle in the beginning for all the reasons you just stated.
couldn't see what I was doing and found the torch cumbersome getting your settings right is the vital part the. way that I did it was welding with one hand and adjusting the wire speed with the other until it sounded right that gave me a ballpark figure for each power setting
but I wouldn't be without it now and use it for 90% of my welding except for some very heavy stuff or critical repair but that's the operators skill level not a machine

the funny thing was when I went back to welding with the ark I found it a bit of a struggle to adjust to the travel speed

 

[oilcooled :)]

i was just wondering, machine was pretty well set up and i just found it hard and awkward, but i was fit to produce fine welds despite the fact i could see a thing, but i was welding a web in the center of a 4FT roller aprox a foot in diameter and it is a strech, then when the shaft is in that needs to be welded to the web and my arm does be wedged between the shaft and wall off the roller, just an awkward place