Why Does MIG Welding Get A Bad Rap?

I have a nice Lincoln 110 mig and it works great, you just need good prep work. I have welded my fair share of frames and trailers without an issue.
It's all in the set-up and prep. Hurry and you get crap, take your time, get good results.

 

I have both,i use mig for the sheetmetal stuff and tig for the framework,brackets etc.Argon is pretty expensive in here,thats one reason for using mig for the sheetmetal work.

 

here you go

 

well said. ive seen every process of welding look crappy,mig tig and stick. i grew up working in a fabrication shop. we mig tig and stick as needed. tons welding of equipment of all flavors. 80% mig welding. truck equipment, race cars, heavy equipment all welded with mig. couldnt imagine building a triaxle dump body and tig welding it together or welding a new cutting edge on a bucket. like said anyone can buy any equipment,but a drunken monkey can turn on the gas and pull the trigger and lay down metal. every other process requires many hours of practice to be halfway good and years to perfect, for years when i wanted to learn how to weld something i would stay all night and burn tig wire just to figure it out.

 

I've got a Lincoln 110 welder converted it to gas and could not be happier with it.

I can neither confirm or deny that I'm an Average Moron..... But I can weld.

 

How the hell did we ever get by without the "internet experts" telling us the correct/acceptable way to do things? A lot of us should have been dead a long time ago, by their reckoning.

 

Personally , IF I were to hire out fab work I'd wan't it TIG welded, if appropriate for the part. If for nothing else just because it looks so good. Of course that's with the understanding that it will cost more. Do you offer TIG as well?

It's the same with body work. I'm not ashamed to use a little plastic filler. Or if the customer wants I can lead it.....for a substantial jump in the labor rate. Metal finish.....no problem..........as long as you have the wallet for it Most people settle for a little filler once the're educated a little.

Now if they want me to use a mig to weld sheet metal that's not going to happen. They truly do suck for patch panels.

 

I did the heavy frame welding on the truck in my avatar 14 years ago with an arc welder, we just had our front engine dragster chassis welded with TIG. It's all about correct process for the application.

 

MIG isn't supposed to look like TIG. That's one reason us MIG guys are getting a bad rap, or at least should be. The "stack of dimes" look in MIG achieved by pulse welding can mean a cold weld and poor penetration.

 

i've been building cars for over 40 years, one thing i've never done was weld, i alway had to find someone to do it for me,
this father's day my kid's got me one of the $100.00 HFT units and just this past sunday i squeezed the trigger for the first time,
is spattered, smoked and smelled bad and besides being the crappiest weld i've even seen, the two pieces of sheet metal stuck together,

i stood there pounded my chest and said "look what i have created" "i created weld!" i wish i would have doen that 39 years ago.

hell with more preactice i might even be able to tack my patch panels in place!

 

Because it's easy and we tend to think that if something is simple then it can't be as good as something that is more complex.

 

Over the last 50 years or so I have learned how to weld with gas, stick, MIG and TIG and there is a place for all of them. Most of the time I use my trusty Lincoln MIG machine because it is quick and cheap.

As far as welding up rear axle housings goes, I have seen a lot of gears blown up at races and never was it because of a bad weld.

 

TIG is prettier if done by someone who knows what they're doing.

But it's much easier to get to the point that you can produce structurally sound MIG welds.

Problem is, a lot of guys who glue metal together with one aren't even quite that good.

In my limited experience 75% of getting a good weld is (a) having properly prepared, cleaned, beveled, etc. surfaces (b) having a comfortable position to work in (c) having enough work light that you can see what you're doing and (d) thinking through the workholding and your own position so you can get where you need to go without moving around a bunch.

I remember looking at a bare C6 Z06 frame (made by Pratt & Miller, IIRC) thinking "Man, this is beautiful, because it's industrial and not artistic." It's a MIGged collection of aluminum stampings and extrusions.

 

Owning a welder does'nt make you a welder

 

On the other hand, I once had a 9in Ford rearend that ate bearings and it proved to be a housing warped by some overenthusiastic welding on a spring pad.

 

Weldor

 

If I owned a welder I wouldn't need to be a welder. I would just tell him to get after it and go back in the house.

 

Cause It takes practice and book learning to get good at it and alot of folks are building stuff before they put in the hours and study to get good at it. It's a chicken and egg thing...

 

1st. Good MIG welds DO NOT come apart. Your doing it wrong.
Also, I Hope you ain't lookin ta' get into racing...Your gonna have a bad time.

 

I finished a car for a guy last summer...well, the sheet metal and painting half, anyway. There's a build thread floating around here somewhere... He was there to help do some of the work, but that turned into a joke pretty quickly

The very first day he comes over to help out he starts telling me how to weld.

He took a night class at a community collage a few years ago.
He could not weld worth a shit. Easily one of the worst welders I've ever seen. Barely understood the concept of joining two pieces of metal together....but he had a 110mig, a $250.00 helmet and some Mechanix gloves so he knew the score

I learned to weld in '63 and I'm still a crappy welder...and still learning.

All the common forms of welding are still valid in the proper setting. Even brazing and soldering.

The people who bad mouth any form of welding are just compensating for their own ignorance.

 

" Now if they want me to use a mig to weld sheet metal that's not going to happen. They truly do suck for patch panels. "

Not for me.


Mig welded.....

 

More mig......





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nk4JFKj9hM

 

Thats not necessarily true...it depends on the power of the machine, the heat being used, the skill of the weldor, the thickness of the metal, how the joint is set up and how the weldor works the bead.
Not every MIG "stack of dimes" look even comes from pulse welding for that matter.

BUT...I will give you that an inexperienced weldor CAN often lay a reasonable looking weld using the pulse method and the penetration just won't be there.
You're dead on right with that!

A good MIG weld doesn't need to be anything like a TIG weld at all, and a smaller machine is better used without pulsing in my opinion...but just seeing a MIG weld have its own version of a stack of dimes look doesn't necessarily mean that its not a good weld!

But again...it isn't a sign that it IS either! LoL

 

i learned gas welding from a certified welder about 30yrs older than me---as stated in previous threads he did the final welding on all my cages and chassis components---i got a mig about 10yrs ago and i really enjoy it but had a hard time till i got an autodarkening helmet--with it i weld patch panels, floorboards, and chassis---actually i have a 110 and a big 220 miller---trailers, race cars, cages, lawnmower parts, etc

 

Look at it like this ,
Take a group of guys comprised 50/50 of pros and shmoes.
Test their welds and you'll have close to 50% failure rate. It must be the process being used right.
Do it again with 1/3 pro 1/3 shmoes and 1/3 good hobbiest and you'll have a different result. Again its the process right?
OK now with the availability of a mig welder to any shmoes who can get to the store the mix of pros to shmoes moved to 10/90. The crop of welds will be closer to 90% failure rate. There again it must be the process right.

If you comprise your group of 100% pros, your failure rate will be closer to 1%. Well now its not a fair study because the group is ringers and eliminated a fair test.

I know of one individual who is an excellent welder and bad raps mig for his reason. He comes up with all sorts of technical reasoning and analitical BS. But his motive is this " its to fast and the longer it takes the more money I make." There's got to be plenty more like that too.

 

oh now you've done it! :d

 

I do not know how to weld, one of my great failings as a human being. As such, I have nothing worth contributing to this thread but just wanted to say I enjoyed reading it!

 

Agree. It's the on-off pulse method that a guy like me shouldn't be doing but seems to have become popular. Now I can lay down a bead that has the look and is continuous...but looks shouldn't come first (unless it's for the beautiful weld thread only )

 

I will add one fact that I haven't seen mentioned: Ya Gotta Wanna..If someone doesn't really like to weld then they will never be really good at it...

 

My son welds for a company that makes bridges,which they are shipped nationwide. There is a machine that welds part of the structure then they go and flux core what the machine could not get. Food for thought.