Why Does MIG Welding Get A Bad Rap?

Wow this is news to me. I work on airplanes for a living and quite often (QUITE OFTEN) we have our in house machine and welding shop build replacement parts from scratch and all of these guys doing the fabricating will only TIG weld when absolutely called for . Each one one of these guys is a shit hot welder. One of my close friends has worked at our outfit for 30 years and doesn't use TIG if it aint called for. He's says if you know wtf you're doing MIG is more than adequate.

 

This all got me thinking about when I was a kid learning to weld. My Dad had a small construction company in Massachusettsand one of his pieces of maintenance equipment was a 300 amp Hobart welder powered by a Mercury flat head V8. I learned how to weld on that machine at the age of about 12. A bit of history for the Worcester , Mass area guys. That welder/generator was used in Worcester, Mass. back in the early fifties to power several homes for days after a tornado destroyed a good part of the city. I think I wore it out because it stopped welding well and was retired. I pulled the flat head off and put it in my 40 Ford Coupe after the Olds 324 in it bought the farm.

I know ....who cares !!

Oh welding ....nothing wrong with MIG.

 

Listen up! This is your answer above. I am a retired certified welder (40 years) welding everything from building frames, steam pipes and stainless steel sanitary pipe was my speciality. Building cars my entire life and would never use a mig on anything structural. It has some good uses but I have seen fractures that would keep me from using it on anything safety related. "Blue One" gives a perfect explanation, period.

 

I think all welding forms have their own purpose. It all comes down to the skill level of the person using it. a master weldor can make a MIG just as strong as a TIG and just as pretty.

 

cool where in Worcester?

 

I'm impressed! I've seen a few people do that quality of work with a MIG but damn few! Myself, once I started hammer welding with O/A I never went back.

 

Mig ain't that bad. Every NASCAR chassis is mig welded. The only TIG is on the suspension components, like the truck arms and A arms and the like. I know this cause I cut the cage out of a COT chassis and all of it was mig welded. So it's in the hands of the welder himself as to the integrity of a weld, good or bad.

 

With me it's more a case of amateur vs. Pro. I lay out what I'm fabricating, tack weld it with my little Eastwood MIG, then have a fellow club member/friend pull up in my driveway with his truck mounted monster welder he uses to repair construction equipment on site and finish it up right. Works every time.

 

MIG is completely adequate for 99.99999999999% of the jobs we do as hot rodders (with the exception of exotics like titanium and alloys), but, TIG is another modern buzzword that the uneducated masses have fallen in love with. There are very very very few cars that will ever push the envelope of even a decent quality MIG weld on a well designed chassis, but, everyone wants to think that they are special, and that their car for some reason needs that extra Nth of a degree despite the fact they are just going to tip toe around town in it. It's the same deal as mandrel bends. How many motors in the world actually need a mandrel bent exhaust to eek out that extra HP? Very few, but hey, all those Corvette headed SBC's and Mustang SBF's just have to have mandrel bent exhaust to jump from 285 to 287 HP.... We're all incredibly special, just like everyone else. I reiterate, buzzwords.

 

I love my mig welder, probably the best tool I have ever bought. I could gas weld and stick weld, but after buying the mig my welding took a big step forward. Mine is a 130 Amp 240 volt machine. Occasionally when welding thicker stuff I will preheat with the gas torch and I have been really impressed with the soundness of the welds.
I only work with steel, and find the mig does well for 99.99 per cent of what I want to do.

Mart.

 

This has nothing to do with buzzwords. Heliarc (Tig) has been around a whole lot longer than Mig. I guess as John Wayne said " A man should do what he thinks best" Just wont get me riding in it

 

I'm not a fancy weldor but can probably do a better job with my old Forney stick welder than I can with my Lincoln 185 for the most part. I think my eyes are more used to following the arc from the stick welder and haven't got attuned to the mig yet.

As several said, it isn't the machine you use but the hand and eye that is doing the welding. It doesn't matter what machine you have or what the reputation of the machine is because if you have no welding skill the machine isn't going to compensate for it.
My son welds for a living so as long as I can tack things together He can do the finish welding. If he can't handle it, one of my friends from childhood is a certified welder who can weld anything that can be welded and most likely has a machine that can do it in his shop. For the guy who says a tig won't do light weight stuff my buddy quite often custom makes stainless steel micro filters for juice and wine applications and welds the stainless screen by hand with one of his tigs. From there he might be out in a field stick welding a piece of heavy duty farm equipment back together with his truck mounted stick welder or fabricating something with one of his mig welders.

 

"Tools, do not a craftsman , make" ....comes to mind with this thread...just substitute welder , for tools ....I have welded on stock cars , race bikes , land speed record holders, street rods, farm equipment, bridges, industrial robots, automotive prototypes, & tooling, using MIG ,TIG O/A Gas welding,and stick....with all different brands of welders...and 110V MIG machines have saved my bacon a couple of times....but you HAVE TO DO THE GROUNDWORK TO MAKE IT SAFE....I once welded (repaired a botched job)of someone adding an extra foot to a snowplow wear edge ...5/8 thick with a 110V miller cricket , and .023 wire...and the help of an O/A Torch....never broke , they finally replaced it after another 2 seasons...but the joint was clean, beveled, and heated before I even thought about turning on the welder, and I had a helper, keep heat on the backside while I welded a multiple pass weld on it.....I think the bad rap comes from ignorance on both sides of the fence....operators, that shouldn't be welding on stuff of importance, and arm chair fabricator/welders, that really do not understand the different processes, and there applications....just my 2C...Shawn

 

I'm aware that TIG has been around forever, but, the modern buzzword thing is still relevant. Look in any modern car mag, and you'll see TIG, and mandrel endlessly. The same goes for billet. As if nothing had been made from a chunk of metal before, but, then "billet" came along.

 

You are probably a hell of a nice guy, but why so damn stubborn? Do you know that Nascar cars weigh 3500 pounds!! They go 200 MPH on tires skinnier than my grandmothers daily driver, all this for for 500 sometimes 600 miles racing door to door and bumper to bumper. Then unfortunately sometimes they even smash straight on into a concrete barrier, and the driver gets out, shakes himself off and waves to the crowd? The ONLY thing hurt is his pride and chance at the countdown- ALL MIG WELDED!!!

 

I think the mig welder is one one the best additions to the home shop in 30 years. tig welder are very good tool and make pretty welds. but look at the great hot rods built back in the day with oxy and stick welding. mig welding make nice metal body repairs for the home builder. I think a lot of migs bad rap are from using underpowerd 110 machines for chassis work. nhra say a mild steel roll cage be mig welded with at least a 130 amp machine and thats good enough for me. Dont get me wrong I realy would love to get a good tig machine some day but there will always be a place in my garage for my trusty Miller.

 

Most anti-MIG comments I hear are not from TIG guys, but rather stick welders.

I don't know..perhaps stick welding is stronger. But I do know MIG welding almost always looks better and seems more than strong enough. I've never had a MIG weld break.

Best of all, you get the old timers who love to disparage MIG welders because after all they learned on stick. My FIL is an example - he tells me every time he sees my MIG what shitty welds they create, and how he spent decades welding with stick. Then, the day came when we were at his house and he actually had to weld something. He wheeled out his ancient POS Lincoln 'buzz box' welder and struck an arc. When the smoke cleared I could hardly believe my eyes....it was some of the shittiest looking, weakest welds I had ever seen!

 

Personally I would not want to be in a race car that was coming apart in a major crash if it had been welded by fire and steel shot directly from the hands of God.

Summary: I don't want to be in a race car that is going to come apart, no matter what method of welding was used.

 

LOL!!!!! Quote of the Day!!

 

The biggest advantage for tig is that heat is applied first then filler as needed. A mig is instant heat and filler thus in some cases creating a cold non penatrating weld. So in the wrong hands can look pretty with very little penatration. To any welder who has burned thru rolls of wire know mig can do as much as tig on a lower budget. Little things like metal prep,proper temp settings, even pre heating in some situations, the operator is the keep to a successful weld mig or tig. Tig is much cleaner, nospatter etc. I learn to weld with stick at age 13 so learning mig later on was like running an electric caulk gun. All the fundamentals of prep, temp, and penatration were already a learned skill .

 

I can, and regularly do MIG weld the mythical "stack of dimes" and not by pulse, or stitch welding. You can make beautiful strong welds with a MIG, IF you know what you are doing. I disagree that the weld should not look the same. My wire welding looks like Tig welding because the puddle control and movement is the same, regardless of the process.

But this is pretty pointless. It's just a big dick pissing contest at this point and the OP is not going to learn a factual thing. At least not about welding.

 

Interesting thread......Got guys saying MIG is used on aircraft and race cars....And guys saying MIG should never be used on critical items....

 

I think mig get a bad rap because the ole saying "if it were easy it wouldn't be as cool" any yaahoo with a mig welder, some enthusiasm and a 3 min how to video thinks they are Brain Bass... but I may be tig snob....

 

That's Me, a stubborn hell of a nice guy Please read "BLUE ONE" post one more time. Say good night Gracie

 

Mig welding didn't have a bad rap till the internet came along.

 

Thats an BIG A-MEN brother man.

 

"You stack of dimes" phrase using fellas need to realize or state the dimes per inch. That is a horrible analogy without it.
Big big difference between 20 or 12 dimes an inch or 4 dimes an inch.

 

I need to practice hammer welding. Even going back and hammer welding after it's been welded with a Mig. The oxy/Acetylene heat makes it easier to work the area. Or tacking the panel with a Mig every inch, then O/A the rest, hammer welding as I go. I need practice and find a tool to hold the torch as I hammer and dolly.

 

Everyone is a expert behind these screens (just joking) I don't even pretend to be a good welder but I've mig welded my race cars for 30 years chrome moly, mild steel ,crashed um fixed um the welds have never failed you just have to live right. I love the HAMB

 

Anyone who has ever mig welded anything together and then tried to break it apart later finds the parent metal will shear before the weld gives out. Even if you temporarily spot weld something it takes a hell of a lot of effort to break loose that itty bitty weld.

But as was mentioned earlier, this argument is unwinnable for either side.

Don