On 25 Oct 1995, A. B. Bonds wrote:
MACEDONIA wrote:
> >My second question is, what is the best welding equipment to buy to do my own
> >panel replacements (ie, gas, arc, MIG)? Although most people I talk to say
>that
> >MIG is the only way to go, the reference books that I have suggest using gas.
> >Any opinions? Since this equipment is so expensive, I don't want to buy the
> >wrong thing.
> >
> Gas is more flexible, but requires true artistry. A chimpanzee can
> learn to do reasonable MIG in about an hour. Since the latter is
> about my level of coordination, I vote for MIG (I have a Presto-Weld
> from Union Carbide).
> A. B. Bonds
A chimpanzee, huh. Well, a Gibbons can learn to do it in about 2 hours.
I have gas welded sheet metal, and mig welded it. Maybe there's a way of
gas welding that does not distort the metal, but I have never learned it.
Also, gas is incredibly slow, compared with mig. The only Mig drawback I
know of is that the bead is generally large and very, very hard. So when
you butt weld a panel that will show, you have a lot of grinding to do
afterwards. Have to be careful with that, or the heat from the grinding
will distort the metal. If you can put the bead on the back, where it
doesn't show, then that's the way to go. Once I got the mig welder, I
only used the gas to cut with.
Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
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