Thinking about purchasing a mig welder

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Remember, you cant just weld aluminium with a wire feed. You will need a spool gun, plus welding aluminium works welders much harder than steel. You would be pushing the limits with that 180. You may want to look at something a little more powerful.

Depending on the length of the cable, they sell special liner made for aluminum. You need to use thicker filler rod of course, but it's cheaper than a $150 spool gun. They had one set up at my school and it worked fine day in and day out.

[troskinatior]

Ok this is going to sound dumb whats wire feed and a spool gun?
Isnt wire feed where the wire is pushed out of the nozel?

[Red coupe]

Ok this is going to sound dumb whats wire feed and a spool gun?
Isnt wire feed where the wire is pushed out of the nozel?

yes, wire feed has a spool of wire in the machine that is fed to the gun. This wire creates the arc, and melts to act as the filler.

All welding needs to be shielded from atmosphere/oxygen.
Tig and mig use an innert gas to displace any contaminants from the weld area
Oxy-fuel uses the flame which will consume any oxygen before it can contaminate the weld
SMAW (stick welding) as well as flux core burn flux to create shielding gasses, this flux also typically forms "slag" where it solidifies and forms a crust over the weld that encases it while it cools.

Mig and flux core are kinda the same. Flux core can be done with a mig machine, but since the "ig" in mig and tig stands for inert gas flux core probably TECHNICALLY would not be considered mig. It uses the same machine, and still has a spool of wire, but instead of having gas feed out of the nozzle the wire that is fed out of the gun is basically a tube filled with flux.

Stick welding is typically used for heavy duty applications, stuff like making bridges. You can weld thinner metals, but especially as you start getting past like 1/8 thick it begins to be much more difficult. Works well, but makes a lot of smoke and fumes. The weld also needs to be cleaned of slag afterward and there is typically spatter around the weld where small molten flex of metal fly out and solidify on the surrounding area. The electrode also burns and is reasonably short meaning you have to stop and start more often then most types of welding.

Flux core can do thinner stuff, is easier and you don't have to stop to replace electrodes as the spool feeds out of the gun. Like mig welding it does not require as much skill/fineness as many other types since you "just" hold the gun to the material and pull the trigger. You need to adjust the feed, as well as the heat so getting the right settings is SLIGHTLY more complicated (IMO) but there are charts and its really not THAT hard. Like I said good for outdoors/breezy areas but I would avoid it otherwise.

MIG is much the same as flux core, but it uses a shielding gas that comes out of the tip of the gun. MIG can weld very well, and is likely the most versatile.

TIG is my favorite. It is much like oxy-fuel welding in operation but it uses electricity instead of file, and most often you have a foot pedal to control heat. Most people associate the need for tig with aluminum welding, but it is not the only method for welding aluminum. Tig really stands out as it is very precise and cable of welding some of the thinnest materials (the "cool guy" tig welding trick is to cut a soda can in half and weld it back together.... I am not that cool). To me tig has two main drawbacks. First, it requires both hands to be actively used... One hand holds what most often looks like a piece of a metal coat hanger (the filler rod) and the torch (gun looking thing) in the other. So one hand controls placement of heat and the other periodically adds drops of filler metal. It also requires you to operate a pedal. The pedal has a switch when you first push it that turns on the voltage and starts the gas flowing. After that more pedal means more voltage/heat. Very nice set up to use at a bench... Very hard setup to use on a chassis table while standing between tubing and bending over to reach your work. We end up getting two people on tasks like that. One does torch and filler, and yells out throttle position as a percent, the other operates pedal. ( "Full throttle to start... back off to 80%... little more... full throttle, 90%....")

Oxy-fuel is more typically ocy-acetylene, though acetylene is not the only fuel that can be used. This one is a lot of fun because its fire, and if you do it wrong the weld pool pops loudly while spraying molten metal at you.
It is a bit old school. It is actually THE MOST versatile, but its about as difficult as tig (or harder), you have to store some insanely combustible gas and it is very slow. Fun stuff though, you turn on the acetylene and light, then adjust oxygen to match. Two handed like tig, one applying heat the other adding filler.
You can also use the setup to cut and to heat which is awesome in that it will help you easily stress relieve your welds... If you think about it heating and cooling makes thing expand and contract, so when you weld things together the geometry is set hot, when it cools it wants to change shape but cant (yes it can, warping is a b****... always clamp s*** in place) so a lot of stress is induced in the material around the weld. Plus it requires no UV protection and is significantly less bright. Most arc/electric welding requires ~#10 shade, where oxy-acetylene is ~#5 (pretty sure its linear). This means goggles instead of full face mask, and enough clothing to keep sparks off you, instead of needing to block heavy UV rays too.


I think I wrote too much... didn't really mean to.

[troskinatior]

WOW, thanks alot bro that helped so much and all my questions are answered... I hope