At 01:00 PM 12/29/2004 -0800, Mike Rambour wrote:
> First, let me say I don't weld often enough so I am a lousy welder and
> I know that and I know it is because I don't practice enough.
Me too!
> I went to a welding shop yesterday and looked at a TIG (yikes, $1,600)
...and you really want one with a water cooled torch (YIKES!!!!)
> and he let me do some coupon welding, it was great, I almost bought it
> but when I told him I would get rid of my MIG to offset the cost he said
> if it was him, he would keep the MIG along with the TIG.
Yep, you want oxy/acet, Mig, and Tig.
> I am willing to spend the money on the TIG because my reasoning is that
> I seem to be able to weld better with it and I don't weld often enough to
> keep the practice up but his comment about the MIG made me wonder if I am
> wasting my money. Is my reasoning about a TIG being better for someone
> who does not weld often enough to stay good at it, correct ?
I think it's tougher to GET good rather than STAY good. My instructor said
practice, practice, practice.
I also thought that if I had the right equipment my welding would
improve. Now that I have all of 'em,
I know it's the weldor(operator), not the welder(equipment), that makes the
weld.
> Looking for opinions, if you have a welder, which one and do you want
> the other ? if you were looking for one, why one over the other ?
> (assuming costs were the same which in this case they are not).
>
> I do have a fairly large restoration project coming up this spring
> which will require lots of rusty panel replacement on a car, my MIG can
> do it but maybe TIG is better.
I spent way too many hours than I care to admit TIG welding on rusty sheet
metal. Doesn't work. Even when I thought it was
clean, the rust had penetrated below the surface that looked clean to
me. Every time you hit an impurity it pops and blows the
shielding gas away.
What I love about the MIG is out of position welding. My current project
is a Lotus Cortina. There are places where you can't get
two hands, a torch, and welding rod. You can, however, put the MIG into
those places. I bought a Lincoln SP135+ specifically for
this project and it allows you to weld in places where other processes are
impossible.
Steve Shipley
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