On Sun, 8 Mar 1998, Will O'Brien wrote:
> I was at sears the other day and I noticed their little welding section.
> It made me start thinking about buying a welder. There are two there that
> seemed interesting, but I don't know alot about welding to make an informed
> decision before purchasing. MY choice would be between an arc or a mig
> welder. Since the cost of the arc welder is literally half of the mig
> welder, I was wondering what the real differences are between the arc and
> the mig. Got some advice for a guy with a sears card and a spitfire to
> weld?
I, too, am on the lookout for a welder... but I'm after a set of
oxy-acetylene tanks... I've found some "nearby" (ie not half a continent
away) that I hope to be acquiring soon.
The arc (stick) welder will be cheaper to buy but will not be able to make
strong welds as quicky.
A MiG welder is more expensive. Most everyone I've talked to locally
suggested a flux-core wire-feed Mig welder to start with.
Crash test in electric welding:
-Welding melts the surrounding metal and uses a filler (rod) to bridge the
two pieces
-Some sort of gas shielding is necessary to stop the molecules doing
something silly and rusting before your eyes
-Stick welders have flux-coated wire. As the filler rod melts it
vaporizes the flux and the weld is surrounded by an inert gas; thus no
oxygen can get at the weld (no rusting). There is lots of smoke,
flashing, and general excitement. You need to wear long sleeves to stop
skin burns.
-MIG welders push wire through the whole works (from a spool in the
machine) and create an arc using the wire (similar to stick welders)-
cheap ones have a flux core in the wire that works similarly to
stick-welders and better ones have a gas bottle (I think it's argon and
xenon mix) that gets hooked into the system and covers the weld with inert
gas (MIG = Metal In Gas welding)
TIG welders are similar to MIG but use a non-consumable electrode and
seperate filler rod, much like fire-welding.
Your best bet is to spend a few hours at the library (or talking with a
local welding guru) then you can get specific questions answered.
-Malcolm
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