Welding Tips and Tricks

I have kind of a noob question. If I get a TIG welder and learn to use it well, will there be any reason for me to keep my old MIG?

I have a Lincoln MIG. I am sorely tempted to try an AlphaTIG 200X. I'm wondering whether I would have any use for the MIG once I figure TIG out.

The only obvious up side would be having a reliable American machine around in case the Chinese TIG craps out.

I find the mag a much better option when patching up rusty cars.

Plenty of reason to have both in my opinion. I really like tig welding but default to mig whenever more speed is needed.

I stick weld too when called for. I prefer to have options to best fit the situation.

And as was noted above - mig is very nice for auto-body sheet metal.

Mig is great for general fab work. It's fast, clean and easy. If you try to do this work with tig you will triple your welding time. Having capability for mig, stick and tig is the ideal situation. Definitely keep it.


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There goes my plan to declutter the garage.

Thanks.

Add framework to your mig base or build a cart to mount your new inverter above your mig.


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What mig do you have?
Give us a pic.


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I have a Lincoln PowerMIG 180C. It's on a double cart with a plasma cutter.

By a strange turn of events, I ended up with two new double carts for the price of one. I was hoping to Craigslist one of them, but maybe I'll need it.

Chips O'Toole wrote:There goes my plan to declutter the garage.

Thanks.

You like welding and think you'll end up with less machines? Bahahaha!

It made me happy to pretend.

Well,

The AHP TIGs and Sticks well, which may be all you really want for personal projects. I mean, I only have a TIG/Stick machine on hand, but I do sometimes think about getting a MIG unit.

The Lincoln 180C is a compact MIG unit, and has that nice cast aluminum drive.

I have a minimalist attitude and some floor space constraints, so I'll suggest that you keep the 180C, except that you just box it up for a while, and shuck the extraneous cart too.

Then if you soon find that you want to squirt some MIG beads, break it out at that time.

But that may not happen.

TIG is a cool process. There's no smoke, spatter, or noise, at least on DC there isn't.

So, get the AHP and see how it goes. I mean, it's a great time for TIG units, as an AC/DC TIG unit with the features and performance of the AHP, just 5 or 10 years ago, were costing at least three times the $750 delivered price of the AHP today.

I asked myself the same question when I bought my TIG but then convinced myself that the TIG simply couldn't effectively replace the MIG completely.
Add to that the fact that 2nd hand 10 year old MIG machines don't sell so well around here because nobody will buy without seeing it working so the Ebay chinese machines win there.

.. and I'm an old sentimental who gets attached to things that have served me well

Get MIG, TIG, Stick, and Oxy-acet. They are all useful.

Chips O'Toole wrote:I have kind of a noob question. If I get a TIG welder and learn to use it well, will there be any reason for me to keep my old MIG?

MIG has its place. Some things you may be called on to do will take minutes with MIG or hours with TIG.
Never discard a useful tool in the foolish notion that you have a better tool, when it's merely a different tool for a different purpose.

Steve S

I'll spare you alot of reading. Get both. Tig is precision for artists,mig is for speed and you can teach a monkey how to mig weld.

Can never have too many clamps, or welders.

I would have a mig and a tig as a minimum. Most of those TIG power sources do stick quite well so that's 99% of situations covered with the 2 machines.

I think it depends on what you weld. If you're usually welding on a workbench with clamps and fresh metal, you don't necessarily need to keep the MIG. Beyond being faster, the main advantage of MIG for me is simplicity. When I have to tack something in when badly out of position in the car, like rollcage stuff or brackets, or when there's no reasonable way to clamp something so I have to hold it with one hand, especially when for various reasons fitup isn't good enough or the metal is too thin to tack without filler... being able to melt and deliver weld metal with one hand is huge. I also agree with the others saying that it's nicer to zip sheet metal together with it too, especially when not pristine.

Keep em both.

I have a Stick and TIG that's good enough for me but when your building larger stuff in aluminum or steel, the MIG can save you hours of welding.

TIG is great and I use it the most but welding an 8 foot seam takes a long time where MIG could do it much faster.

Depends.

The old stick welders I grew up with were 'orrible. But the first time I lit up with the stick function on my Metalmaster 215 inverter (Tig, Stick, Plasma) it was a real eye-opener. It stick welds so smoothly, minimum fuss or fireworks.

I always see Mig as a 'productivity' process but I can't justify owning/renting another gas cylinder. Some time ago I had a trailer repair that would have taken forever with my Tig, plus it was outdoors. I groaned and set about it with the stick function...and two minutes after starting up I was loving it and really enjoying myself. Good result, too, neat bead with slag that just lifted off.

If the 'productivity' side of things is something that only comes up now and then and you don't need to weld super thin stuff, you might get away with Tig and Stick?


Kym

MosquitoMoto wrote:
If the 'productivity' side of things is something that only comes up now and then and you don't need to weld super thin stuff, you might get away with Tig and Stick?


Kym

Yup, agree with that. Speed is rarely an issue for me and I would rather KNOW 100% that its good quality work than work fast and guess.

MosquitoMoto wrote:Depends.

If the 'productivity' side of things is something that only comes up now and then and you don't need to weld super thin stuff, you might get away with Tig and Stick?


Kym

Basically what I was trying to say but you did so much more eloquently. Why not do the better processes if you aren't in a production line?

I recently did some work with an old Miller rectifier (no idea what the model number was but it was pretty old). All in all, it worked pretty well and I did stick and tig. My major complaint was that the amperage numbers were hard to read and I had a little trouble dialing in when I was doing my root passes.

Anyways, I remember Jody doing a video with that Lincoln rectifier that Home Depot sells (little red one), and while it was loud, he laid down some pretty good beads. I think a new one goes for about 500 dollars.

There's heaps of advantages to each welding process: Stick you can do outside with the wind howling, on rusty metal, and in a single pass on some pretty heavy metal. Try that with a TIG! MIG is absolutely faster, more "flexible" (as has been mentioned) and will tolerate "less clean" metal than TIG. TIG is very precise and has its advantages too. Each process has a sweet spot. Use the best process for the right application.

Smaller dedicated MIG boxes are very handy to have. Yes, you need a different gas cylinder, but with a spool gun added, you can also MIG aluminum as needed. I just welded up a table base and used both MIG and TIG on it. MIG for speed in cold rolled tubing, and TIG to weld 1/8" to 1/2" peieces. The accuracy of the heat control with TIG allows that much more successfully than with MIG (for a hack like me).

TIG is also only the process you can fuse with for food type stuff.

Can't do that with a MIG or stick, I happen to be in the food industry as well so the TIG comes in handy there as well.

Olivero wrote:TIG is also only the process you can fuse with for food type stuff.

Can't do that with a MIG or stick, I happen to be in the food industry as well so the TIG comes in handy there as well.

Wait. I can't weld a valve on a beer brewing kettle with MIG?

Nah he means fuse with out filler metal. This is a process used in food grade (and other things) to make a tiny weld that doesn't need reinforcement. You can certainly weld in fitting with stick mig or oxy if you have the right filler metals.