Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys. I've been stick welding for a while now, and have got over 100 hours of tig seat time under my belt, and was wondering about Mig/Fluxcore. Is it worth taking a class at the college on it? Is it that much differant than stick/tig? The other thing, are those itty bitty mig welders any good? All the ones I've ever seen used are the good, expensive lincolns.

Do you have access to a gmaw machine? if you do i would just play around on it a bit and then see if you think you need to take a class. If you've stick welded before mig comes easy, at least for me it did. hardest part is fine tuning your machine for every application.

and by "itty bitty" im assuming you are talking about a 110v? they are good to an extent but don't think you're gonna weld anything more than 1/4" But it would be great to learn and practice all the techniques on

I found a nice 220 unit by Solar that had been very good! Paid 500 bones.

Kerndawg, I've been MIG welding for about 15 years I guess. I was gas and stick before that. MIG to some is just laying down a bunch of filler and calling it a weld. I learned over the years that the process is a little more precise than that and the more you learn about how to use it correctly, the more versatile it becomes. The newer machines have excellent quality and can weld much thinner metal now. I would even go as far as to say that they are encroaching on TIG territory.

As for the little machines.. I started with a 175 and did a lot of welding with it. I recently bought a Miller 212 and there's a huge difference in just that small increase. I probably should have jumped up to a 252 but I really don't use it a lot now that I have a bigger TIG welder. The smaller 110v machines are great for things like auto body repair, etc. but don't expect to be welding up any car frames.

The point and weld aspect of the MIG welder is probably it's biggest asset. It's quick, fairly easy and if done properly produces a pretty strong weld.

Just my opinion..

Thanks for your replies guys. I remembered a couple days ago that my brother has a mig welder, not sure what size, but seein as how I let him borrow my car for a month, for free, I think he owes me, so I'mma get a hold of him and borrow that thing and mess around with it. I'm pretty sure hes got flux core cause I never seen any gas cylinders around his shop. Is flux core radically differant than mig? Seems like fluxcore is kinda like stick and mig is kinda like tig.

I guess my other question was, is it all that difficult for someone with stick/tig experience to lay down a quality weld with the process, having no experience using mig/fcaw?

I am personally not a flux core fan....that being said, yes, you can do a "quality" weld with it. ( quality meaning that the weld will not break) It is dirty and covered with slag like a stick weld. The puddle will follow you with a mig. You don't have to work it like a stick. Not sure if torch angle is an issue with flux like it is with solid wire/gas shielded. I have only done enough flux core to know that I don't like it for my own applications. "I" don't think they look as nice. But , hey, that is me.

It is not radically different. . It takes some time getting use to running flux core. In my business, that is about all I use for steel repair. I mainly do heavy equipment repair. Excavators, dozers, loaders. It all depends on the situation. It is good to know the basics of flux core though. To answer the question of torch angle, yes it is just as important as all the others. With not seeing any gas bottles around, he might be using an innershield (self-shielded) wire. They also make an outershield (dual-shield) wire that requires a gas shielding. Once you run some passes and get the feel for it, you will catch on quick. One bit of advice, drag or pull the puddle rather than push it. And you really don't need to weave or (work) it like solid wire. Hope that helps.