To TIG or not to TIG ??

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Which is more advantagous ( sp ) .. I will for the most part only be doing spot welds andusually indoors .. So would it be better for me to TIG instead of MIG ??Pros ? Cons? Hows, whens, wheres ??Randy
Reply:If you knew how to weld, you wouldn't be asking this question.  Given that, you'll likely have more luck learning the GMAW process (MIG).  It's also cheaper to acquire and setup.A serious discussion of which process to use will require more details with regard to materials and application.
Reply:Randy, discard that last post as it was quite rude and unnecessary.  There is no dumb question, and even a good welder could understandably be asking this question.  As far as Im concerned this halbritt fella is just put out cause he wants to build up his member status from new member by posting hate posts at other memebers.  If he really knew what he was doing like he claims to he would be more willing to explain this to you, or without disrespecting you explain what info he needs to help you more with this.  If members arent willing to help other members out witout being quite rude they should just dissassociate themselves with this forum, as this forum is all about experienced welders, hobbiests and professionals alike giving assistance to those who know less about certain topics.  Its not about who is better than who.  To give my input on your question, what are you planning on building?  what material, what thickness.   Be aware that tig has its advantages, but its more in the realm of welding hard to weld things,  whether that be because of thickness or whether that be do to type of metal.  Mig is good for speed.  However, its a lot faster and easier to switch from one type of metal to another.  Also, changing thickness, therefore the heat input  with tig is a lot easier than with mig.   If your planning to build small little things where the spot welds should be small and to the point, tig is good.  Mig might be more difficult to keep a neat little weld on.  Tig you must add filler metal, and hold the torch, and use a foot pedal.  Mig, you only hold a gun that has a filler metal wire feed.     This results in a more simple time juggling parts together while tacking with mig as opposed to tig.  Mig will be cheaper to afford than tig, but it all depends on your application.  This helps?CHRIS
Reply:Thanks Chris .. no worries .. I have been posting and reading posts for many years on a variety of subjects and have learned there will always be those posts from people like you say , that have little to do but look down their noses at others .. His rudeness is meaningless to me , as I do not know him .. nor would I care to at this point ... I have used that HF MIG with flux wire .. but sent it back to HF for a full credit .. and am thinking about gettting a Hobart Handler 135 .. but thoughtI would pose the question about TIG vs MIG ..   Its prolly been asked before ... Not by Halbritt I'm sure .. I think I read something about different electrodes for different jobs... The only thing that makes me think about it .. is I have a lot of aluminum plate ... but I hear there are alot of variables ... such as surface cleanliness, thickness, preheating .. wire compostion depending on the grade of aluminum you are welding ..  aluminum conduction heat VERY rapidly away from the weld puddle .. ( after all it is used in electronics for heat sinks ) ..  But then ... what do I know ...  well nothing about welding so I hear I think I'll stick with MIG / FCAW ... Thanks for the inputs .. BTW ... something funny happen to this poor ole man that cant weld .. As you know .. I have only been welding for about... oh a month .. and I posted pictures..  ( would love to see some of halbritts ) and a friend machinist mentioned that he used to weld alot .. hes retired now ..   so I sent him to my pictures .. and hes giving some very nice constructive criticism ..  ( ever hear of it halbritt ? ) and then I mentioned that when I get my regulator ..  I will try it with the C25 mixture... and hes like HUH?? you mean those were FLUX WIRE WELDS?!?!?    LMAO ...  OMG .. he thought I was using C25 and having trouble ...  I guess that had to be some form of a compliment . LMAO .. Anyways ..  take care..  be good ... and keep the arc stable .. ( oops .. I dont know about that stuff I forgot )
Reply:The tone of my response wasn't intended to be disrepectful or rude.  Simply that I was making the assumption that the person asking the question had little or no experience welding and had no equipment to start with.  If that's true, then I believe MIG would be cheaper to acquire and easier to learn.  With that said, the choice of process could be dependent on the application.In the future, I'll try to be more diplomatic in my choice of language.  Certainly, "If you knew how to weld..." could be interpreted as being rude.  Apologies.
Reply:Thank you ..  Accepted .. And I did have a MIG .. but it had problems .. SO it got sent back .. and I thought I would ask the question before buying another .. I dont mind it being more difficult or more expensive if its a better choice in the end .. Just that its only for home hobbiestuse and nothing really too thick .. even with that I could alwaysdo a multipass well ..  I even did that once and then cut theweld down the middle .. and had one very small void .. Otherwise was a solid weld ... its a lot of work though .. I'm still amazed at how much strength even a small tack weld has ... Its all fun for me here anyways.. But right now I need to get thru this major tooth extractionand start feeling better before I even WANT to weld anymore .. LOL Thanks everyone ..
Reply:Lan,Ive heard them HF machines aint worth the postage to mail em.  But, I will say a good lincoln or miller wirefeed, even a small one from lowes or home depot will do you a good service.  I really like Miller's little Econotig.  Ive used the bigger machines.  I think the biggest "tig" machine Ive used was a miller 350 tig with water cooler and the works.  It was a frustrating machine because too many operators getting their grubbies on it and changing settings and breaking stuff.   The production manager brought in an econotig  I think more for ****s and giggles than anything.  He was a business major, knew nothing about welding.  Kinda got thrown into the job do to a need.  I got right onto the economachine and for what it was capable of I was impressed.  I ran it for stainless and alum.  All thin gauge as this was a sheet metal shop, but I was still nonetheless impressed with it for being the size it was.  Its rather portable too,  makes it handy.  And since its a CC machine it can double as a stick welder if you need.  Its kinda small,  its got like a 20-165amps ac tig, 30-160 amps dc tig, 20-165 amps ac stick and 25-130amps dc stick.  Current list is around $1600 so its not cheap, but it will do all metals.  So it kinda depends on your needs and desires.  Considering you first bought a HF, I would guess your a tad more money considerate than this machine requires, but if Tig is something youd like, I think there handy little machines.   There not top on the list of power machines, but there fun and they do a good job.  Anyway,   good luck in whatever you choose.  Bummer about the tooth.  Them damn things can hurt.  Well till next time.CHRIS
Reply:A picture is worth a thousand words, so here's some photos of the last thing I built:http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=2885From what I've read and my own experience, the HF welders don't really work well for anything.  That's putting it about as diplomatically as I can.You can use MIG or TIG to weld aluminum plate.  One can get a spoolgun for the 135A welders, but I don't think that class of welders will put out enough heat to weld aluminum plate.  As you mentioned, aluminum has very high thermal conductivity.  Spray-arc with 100% argon is the preferred method.  I think that's probably impossible to achieve with a 135A welder and .030 wire.  One of the 220VAC 185A welders might do it if you weren't all that concerned about structural soundness.  However, one of those and a spoolgun is going to run over a thousand dollars, which starts to get close to the cost of decent TIG machines.  TIG will definitely do aluminum as long as the machine will do AC.  You'll still need a lot of current though, I believe the rule of thumb is one amp per .001".  In either case, I don't really see a cheap way to get started welding aluminum.If you're doing mostly mild steel, it might be better to just get a decent MIG welder and make friends with someone that can weld aluminum.  If your experience is limited to FCAW you'll be surprised how much easier it is to get a pretty weld with gas.  You'll be able to see the puddle much better.  At that point, the only challenge becomes getting a pretty weld that has good penetration.
Reply:Originally Posted by halbrittA picture is worth a thousand words, so here's some photos of the last thing I built:http://www.weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=2885From what I've read and my own experience, the HF welders don't really work well for anything.  That's putting it about as diplomatically as I can.You can use MIG or TIG to weld aluminum plate.  One can get a spoolgun for the 135A welders, but I don't think that class of welders will put out enough heat to weld aluminum plate.  As you mentioned, aluminum has very high thermal conductivity.  Spray-arc with 100% argon is the preferred method.  I think that's probably impossible to achieve with a 135A welder and .030 wire.  One of the 220VAC 185A welders might do it if you weren't all that concerned about structural soundness.  However, one of those and a spoolgun is going to run over a thousand dollars, which starts to get close to the cost of decent TIG machines.  TIG will definitely do aluminum as long as the machine will do AC.  You'll still need a lot of current though, I believe the rule of thumb is one amp per .001".  In either case, I don't really see a cheap way to get started welding aluminum.If you're doing mostly mild steel, it might be better to just get a decent MIG welder and make friends with someone that can weld aluminum.  If your experience is limited to FCAW you'll be surprised how much easier it is to get a pretty weld with gas.  You'll be able to see the puddle much better.  At that point, the only challenge becomes getting a pretty weld that has good penetration.