identifying welds

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lets say your roaming around a store or anywhere else you might go and see a weld.what are the key factors in determining if it is stick mig tig or  gas welded.im fairly new to the welding world and would like to be able to determine different welds.thanks
Reply:The easiest way is to determine which process is which process was most economical to use....what gets the job done for the least amount of dollars on what material?  Some processes will be harder to determine if the weld is under paint.That said most things you'll see that are steel have been mig welded, and some aluminum too, because in a lot of situations you can get a robot to do it and produce them FAST.  No labor = even better, cheaper.Tig is more suited to thinner and exotic materials (AL, Titanium, magnesium, etc) but isn't used much in production if it can be avoided.  Tig is harder to master and more expensive to get set up with (either in a human-run or automated process).Stick was used a lot more before the dawn of automation, depending on age many things made before ~1960 would have been stick welded.  Same goes for gas welding.  Anymore, stick is used for many things that cannot be assembled or repaired anywhere but outside (think bridge pillars and heavy equipment)This is of course a huge oversimplification, best bet would be to take a few courses at your local community college and you'll understand better as you get more familiar with the processes.