Hey guys, I don't usually post opinion threads, but it's too cold to work in the shop for a while so...... Assuming the weldor knows what he's doing and using good equipment (220), would you trust MIG welding a REALLY stressed (ladderbar brackets) bracket on a rearend or hold out for TIG. Larry T
We all have our preferences, but OA, Stick, MIG, TIG as far as reliability goes is the choice of a skilled technician. Saying only one is best is because of limited knowledge.
If the weldor knows his stuff then either will perform in the proposed assembly. Tig can produce very tidy welds, but they still don't use it to assembly warships... .
There are probably more threads on this subject than any other. Same question is asked on a weekly basis. A little search and you will find all the answers, and some of them may be correct.
As said before both welding processes are exelent if done properly. The only thing to watch out for is distortion. I personally like to tig weld as much as possible. Neater job,less heat input and most of all way less grinding!! Just my 2 cents! Grant www.schwartzwelding.com
The skill lyes in the hands of the person doing the repair, not the equipment that is being used. Why not gas weld it?
I think tig and mig would both work as long as the welder knows what he/she is doing, tig is just cleaner looking that mig. If you really wanna get a good burn, stick weld it.
How much heat will it take to distort 1/4" thick steel ? Mig is fine, you can make very good looking welds if you have settings right and minor patience . I have even used stick welders on frames and axles of big 4x4 , strength is more important than looks , who's gonna see it under there ? your muffler guy ?
We MIG weld components for crane booms responsible for supporting tons and tons of weight Each process has its applications, but in the right hands, TIG, MIG, and stick are all just as fine as the next. In my opinion, here are the differences TIG, beautiful welds requiring little to no post weld clean up. Plenty of pre-weld prep required. MIG, beautiful welds requiring de-spat after weld if not not well versed in dialing that thing in, minimal pre-weld prep required, great for filling big gaps. Stick, beautiful welds in the hands of a craftsman, caterpillars in the hands of most. Plenty of pre-weld prep required and post-weld cleaning Proud owner of a Miller 250 MIG, Miller 350P MIG, and recently added, Miller Syncro 250 DX TIG runner. Let me add that the 350P when cranked up and set on pulse, is like welding with the tailpipe of the space shuttle, holy shit!
exactly right and yet for some reason people always comment on the new posts which keep bumping it to the top and only take up bandwith....wait, shit i just bumped this thread!!!! DAMNIT!!
I have read most of the welding threads and posted on some of them. They are mostly about sheetmetal, which is a little different than structural. Anyway, thanks for all the replies. The shop is warmed up now, I'll go do something constructive. And I'll probably go with TIG on the ladderbar mounts and housing ends, MIG on the rest of it. Thanks again, Larry T
spend some time on a couple serious offroad sites and check out some of the mig welds being laid down by some experts they will blow your mind both procedures are only as good as the weld prep , fit and the skill of the welder using the torch/gun
I don't care how many weld threads are started. I seem to learn something from them all. Keep em coming guys...
mikeyfrombc, That's kind of interesting, cuz the guy I'm getting to do my structural welding (used to do my own but the older and blinder I get and the less welding I do, the less I trust my welding even though I've never had any catasthrophic failures) builds Rock Crawlers and ,yep, he MIGs everything. Kind of the reason I started the thread. Larry T
I would love to see those off road site welds cut open. What you have there is someone trying to make a MIG weld look like a TIG weld. Its done by repeatedly doing a single spot weld, then doing another. Sure it looks pretty, but I would seriously question their integrity. I can tell you this much, if we sent components to our crane customer with welds that looked like that, they would immediately be sent out for destructive testing, at our cost. They make us test if we substitute a vertical down for a position weld I have attached a screen cap from the above pictures illustrating what is known as a cold weld. This thing has virtually no real heat affected zone and as such, it is an inferior weld that will fail eventually. Pretty welds are not necessarily good welds
I can gas weld, old stick weld, and TIG aluminum but I still don't understand how MIG works. Friend has let me use his MIG and it just doesn't feel right.
fearnoevo, I kind of wonder about that myself. Mark had a "factory built" rock crawler frame in his shop that was welded that way. The "puddles" just overlapped about 1/2 way or a little less. I told him the welds were a little weird, and he looked at me kinda funny and said they flunked tech at the races they were running at. Larry T
That technique is fine for sheet metal and trying to fill gaps, but when welding structural stuff, you better have the heat cranked and you better be pouring the filler to it. For your ladder bars, if you want to MIG them and are unsure of your capabilities, then grab a couple pieces of stock, run the beads the way you think you should and cut them apart, through the welds, so you can actually see how much penetration you are getting. Adjust your settings accordingly and do it.
You can get direct info. from the manfacture on what to look for in welds. It's funny I started stick welding and would trust it for anything framewise, then when I bought my first mig I liked it so much that I never used the stick, then one day I was out at the farm welding really heavy stuff in the field with the stick and my welds sucked! I had to relearn stick all over again, but another guy I know can weld as pretty with a stick as any welds I ever seen. I asked him how he does it and he srugged and said back when he was in high school he won all the welding events in 4-h. I guess just a natural born stick welder.
Tigger, Stronger, concentrated heat in area, and not hot molten ball falling in your boots or through your pants... i dont miss that, not that mig is bad at all
I use a MIG to tack things together, (where I need to use my other hand) , then I come back and TIG weld everything together. It really helps to have a MIG when making headers, tacking all the cut pieces together. I use a Millermatic 250 and then a Synchrowave 250DX.
When you TIG and come tio the piece of snot MIG are you able to get it to flow into the pool and blend in with the TIG?
Blending MIG tacks into a TIG weld is doable if you grind the tacks down to a minimum first, otherwise they leave a lump and are discernable in the finished weld. 'Hot-stitching' with a MIG which leaves the nice looking blips is a well respected weld method. That doesn't mean that it is suitable for all occasions! Structural steel methods are best applied to heavier structure. Lighter/thinner materials require different techniques. For best results you need to apply the correct technique for the material you are working with. Dan Stevens dba, Steelsmith
those are not spot welds those are a continues welds , and weld expert or not it,s pretty hard to say that,s a cold weld from looking at the image . the last shop i worked at we did crane repair and tower crane repair and one of the guys there could lay down tig like welds with 3/32" fluxcore , they where also mag partical and sonic tested with no issues
you weld T100 plate with MIG ??? interesting i worked with it for 18yrs and we never welded T100 with anything other then 7018 or 3/32" fluxcore , anytime we used MIG the welds always cracked
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