Can you skip MIG, sure. You will need the use of both hands. I worked with a one handed guy who was a mig/fluxcore guy, I picked up my tig cheap, its 3phase and those normally are much cheaper. a roto-phase converter is all you need to run it at home but I have 3 phase at place. Whats faster ? Depends on what your doing but: Start to finish with a dressed weld and metal finished panel I would put my money on the tig. If the race ends when the just the weld or tack is finished that would be the mig.
I'll echo what Fordcragar has said. I too have all the options and they all have their place. Though 95% if the time I grab my Tig. When I took welding in school they taught us ot Gas weld prior to teaching us to Tig - I think there's some wisdom in that.
They taught me gas welding first in welding school as well. I feel it helped a lot in the learning process of tig. If you have access to a gas welding setup, i'd learn that first and your tig learning experience will be a lot more enjoyable.
Here's a thought,,,,buy a good tig machine & then cruse e-bay for a used CV-(constant voltage)wire feeder for your tig machine ,and you will be able to TIG,MIG,& stick weld W/ one machine, then buy a set of torches and lookout.......A good used tig welder on craiglist have been going from 300-1000 bucks here in metro detriot, and a wire feeder on e-bay is another 3-600, and you can do flux core with that as well as mig.....was my plan before I won a Miller mig welder in a contest... Shawn
I like them both, the mig is just easier to deal with. say you are welding in a suspension part that is still on a car use the mig, If its on a table and you can get to it easy its much better and looks better to use the tig....My 2 cents
Personally, I bought a MIG first, but that was pure economics. I wanted a tig, but my wallet led me to the mig. About 6 months ago, I found and bought a old miller tig... I havent fired my mig up since.
Thats a good idea. look what I found here. (not mine nor do I know anything about it) Pow-con with all the gear, stick, mig, fluxcore, tig (dc only scratch), and plasma, all you need is 220 source, bottle of gas, & air compressor http://akroncanton.craigslist.org/tls/1479006341.html
I agree, If you have a mig and a gas welder, you can build a car from the frame up, to get both will still be cheaper than a tig, and more versatile, because all of the different things you can do with a gas setup. To me it boils down to budget, what you are trying to accomplish, and having a good time doing it.
Thanx for all the input! If the economics pan out come tax time, i will be looking at the tig. I'm certain to be welding aluminum at times, cage, suspension, Dash and interior prettywork, then the friends will knock on the door too, lol. In highschool they started us on gas weld then stick, which i've picked back up using my Lincoln (bigredtombstone). My concern was that i couldn't use the tig for cage work. Any thing heavier and i've got the stick. new question, though. They say Tig doesn't like dirty work- only new steel.. will wirewheeling my old falcon get the steel clean enough for tig, or is there more to it.
There is a purpose for everything, Mig. Tig, Stick, and O/A. Mig is fast but does not (usually) produce as clean, as strong, or as workable beads. O/A can be very useful but requires more heat buildup, hence more warpage. Stick welding is great on farm equipment (dirty, rusty) or for very heavy cross sections, but to me, out of place for hot rods. For building custom cars, you can't go wrong with TIG. Structrual (chassis) construction, body work, alloy steels, aluminum, stainless. Beautiful, strong welds, minimum heat affected zone. Make the effort to learn, buy the best equipment you can, you will never regret it.
If you have rust and try to use a tig, you will have a blobby mess. The two welding processes really are different and each have their place. If welding perches, shock mounts, brake line anchors on an axle tube - everything clean and the mig will be done with a few quick squirts of wire. For heavier work - with enough current - you can spray arc weld with a mig and have unbelievably smooth welds with full penetration not achieveable with a tig. If you have lighter work and clean metal, the tig can produce the best looking and strongest weld with the least distortion. It has been years since I have gas welded - but puddle control is similar to tig in that regard. The inverter tig welders are smaller and more efficient - my tig is a large 400A 480V 3-phase unit found cheap on Craigslist- water cooled torch and was less than a grand.
I have both. Tig gets used 95%, Mig 5%. If I was a farmer welding rusty stuff in a hurry MIG, if I was building a car I wanted to feel proud of and show all my buddies, TIG.
tig and mig are different, like comparing apples and oranges. Comments that tig is better than mig are by somebody that don't use mig.
if you have a mig and a tig and you chose to use the mig, you are either lazy or you don't care what your weld looks like. the whole "you need a mig to do thick metal work" thing is a bunch of bull. if you prepare your work right you can weld any thickness of metal. i have welded 3/4" steal plate with a tig, you just have to "v" the metal and fill it up. -danny
I have never had a problem welding with my TIG on the frame and body of my 1937 pick up as long as I take the time to clean up the metal. Cleanliness is the key no the age of the material.
Spoken by a person that either don't weld, or needs some experience. Either way, don't know shit about welding..................
If you aren't good at it, can't do mig that you are proud of, get some practice, don't blame the method, blame yourself.
YOU obviously don't know what the fuck you are talking about, and OBVIOUSLY haven't seen his build threads or you would know he is an EXTREMELY proficient welder. I'm so sick of you throwing your "holier than thou" BULLSHIT into every thread. You obviously think that you know everything, and anyone that disagrees doesn't know what they're talking about. Save it. Take your superior welding skills and you $300 show quality paint jobs and shove it. I hope you get to read this before it gets deleted.
mig is alot more forgiving, i learned gas first,then mig ,15 years later i learned tig.i like them all , most of the time i run my mig..
No , Heli-arc was derived from the use of helium as an inert gas. = TIG or Tungsten Inert Gas. on another note I agree 100% to much BS with this member, everytime, every single fncking time
"Heli-Arc", or however it was spelled, was a trade name copyrite-ed by E.S.A.B., and came into common use by pipe fitters who learned on the job rather than in a classroom, and therefore never knew that it is formally called "TIG".
Every method has an advantage. I have used ARC for everything from welding frames to sheetmetal work (turns out like crap everytime using it on sheetmetal). Everyone has a ARC welder but not many have a wire feed or a TIG. I bit the bullet and finally bought myself my own welder, a Thermal Arc 95s. It can do ARC or TIG which pretty much covers about 90 percent of my needs although I might get a big ARC machine for welding some thick stuff (I got farm machinery after all). For 388 bucks new and made in the US I'd say the Thermal Arc TIG/ARC was a pretty good deal. The one thing I really like MIG for is doing tacks. Seems it is easier than the other two methods. Might get an El cheapo Harbor Freight wirefeed for just that purpose.
If you're only doing hot roddy type stuff with entirely clean metal, TIG is the way to go. If you want a general purpose welder for things like replacing a muffler or building a trailer out scraps, wire feed weld is the way to go. Notice I didn't necessarily say MIG, although you should be setup to run it with gas, or with flux core and alternate depending on the task. Good luck
Thanks for the perspective from everyone. I've been shopping the craigslist for my first MIG welder- I took a community college class in stick welding some time ago, and have used it a few times, but I'm definitely a novice- newbie here. My intent is to do sheetmetal on my '65 C-10 and some work on my ever-accumulating Jap-Brit trash motorcycle collection. -Screws
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