[alfa] re: Welders

["Kenn Ferro, S.O.C." <ferrovision@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

As an owner of both a tig and mig welders. I thought would throw in my 
2 cents. I have used to have a deep and unreasonable prejudice towards 
mig welders (both the machines and the people who use them.) "Glue guns 
for metal" said I. Until, I got to use a miller mig welder and saw some 
pretty amazing welds done by other people. There is a reason they are 
soooo popular they can do nice work very quickly and they are a hell of 
a lot cheaper than a Tig machine. Tig welds are very pretty, but take 
more time to do. In addition, they tend to make stronger welds by dint 
of their penetrating power into the metal. Mig welding sheet metal is 
fine with a 110v unit but a 220v unit will do a better job . You don't 
need top of of the line but if you want to make stronger weldments on 
thicker metal, the extra capacity is worth the extra cost. Also just 
because you have the right wire and gas to weld aluminum does not mean 
that you can successfully weld aluminum. Counter- intuitively, aluminum 
takes more power to weld not less. The heat is dissipated more rapidly 
in aluminum so that if you don't hit with a lot of heat right away,  a 
much larger area will heat up over time and you will melt a big hole in 
your aluminum. Preheating the metal helps as well. The first thing I 
welded in aluminum looked like I had done with it napalm. Thats the 
point I got some training on how to do it right.
Cheers,
Kenn
On Nov 11, 2004, at 12:28, alfa-digest wrote:


> Now, I am sure that all manner of expert welders with years of 
> experience
> are going to tell me I am an idiot, but here goes:
>
> I have a Campbell and Hausfeld welder I got off e-bay 3 years ago.  I 
> use it
> pretty regularly, on both sheet metal and brackets, tubing,  etc.  It 
> is a
> 110V one, and I have had pretty good luck welding just about 
> everything on
> my car.  I use C25 (Argon/CO2), and would never go back to flux core 
> MIG
> except under duress-smoky, dirty, ugly welds.  It was not expensive, 
> and has
> been very reliable.
> Welding is great because it opens whole new avenues for problem 
> solving, and
> fabricating.  I would like to weld aluminum (and I know that with a 
> bottle
> of argon and aluminum wire I could with my mig gun), but TIG seems 
> like the
> most elegant way to do that-and finding an affordable TIG setup has 
> been
> difficult.  The Miller Econotig looks like the best deal so far.
> - -Al
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided