Mig or tig welder? what do you think would sute me best?

sycarms · **Posted:** Tue Nov 24, 2009 11:42 am

Chuck: I've been that route, I bought a mig from HF thinking I would save money since the hobart cost 1200.00 vs. the chicago electric for 375.00. I purchased the extended warranty for 3 yrs for 20.00. What a deal!. Well the first welder I had trouble right off the bat so I returned it for another, this one lasted 2 months before it messed up. Well it was after the 30 day return policy so I returned it on warranty and got another one. This lasted for 9 months than started giving me problems so I returned it on warranty and was told I already uaed my warranty. So I now have a welder for 400.00 that does not work. It seems HF's warranty is a one shot deal. You have 30 days to bring it back for peplacement than the warranty starts. This is on the bigger items, than lets say you purchase the product and it fails under warranty and they replace it. The replacement is not under any kind of warranty, only the origional purchase if it should fail after 30 days.

ChuckC · **Posted:** Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:46 am

Well, so far for me, I've been lucky - it's working so far. But, it's realy just an upgraded, simple DC welder that works on steel. It wasn't until recently they started advertising "for steel only". I can see why. It has worked so far, but my next purchase will be a Miller auto-MIG, which looks like they run somewhere around $750-$800.

Nothing else, I have learned a lot. TIG's not THAT bad; it's a little like oxy-acetylene welding, only with electricity and you've got to get close.

Another positive - Um,...I'm getting good with a grinder????!!!

AggressiveMachines · **Posted:** Thu Dec 24, 2009 12:28 am

Buggy83 wrote:

TIG, MIG, or Stick no weld is stronger when using same filler material (rod or wire) and the weld is properly made.

For example

Stick 7018 (rod)=70,000psi strength
MIG ER70S-6 (wire)=70,000psi strength
TIG ER70S-6 (wire)=70,000psi strength

Now that being said some may prefer a TIG machine just because you can switch materials easily and cheaper. If you have an actual TIG machine you can weld aluminum, or Chrome-Moly without have to buy an entire roll of wire(MIG) you can just pickup a few pieces of the required wire.

TIG for the most part is always performed with argon gas.

Anybody here should be using a C25 (75%Argon/25%CO2) for MIG welding. Straight CO2 will work for some it is better for heavier dirty steel. It spatters more and the weld does not looks as nice. Different materials require different gases for MIG

Aluminum = 100% Argon (not a choice here)

Carbon Steel = 75/25 (also referred to C25) C10 also works. Best appearance for steel.

Dirty steel (by dirty I mean a little rusty like old farm equipment)
100% CO2 works fine here. Also the cheapest.

Stainless Steel uses what is called a tri-mix which most of the time is mostly helium and a little CO2 or O2 and some argon. Praxair refers to it as A1025 not sure about other weld supply stores.

A lot of people don't know that if you have a DC stick welder and you need to TIG weld carbon or stainless all you need is the TIG rig and a bottle. Hook up you + to the ground and the - to the stinger. Turn the gas on and you are up and welding. Downside to this is you can't weld alumimum and you don't have heat control and your foot or fingertips.

There are many different types of filler materials for stick, TIG, and MIG. If you are not sure what to use just ask I can most likely tell you. As long as you know what your material is.

Also for MIG the wire size for home use and most fab shops is .035" if you are always on material lighter that 1/8" you can use .024". This is for carbon and stainless steels. Aluminum wire is usually .045"-.0625" for light to medium work.

TIG wire also comes in various sizes 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8 being the most common.

Stick rods most will want to uses 1/16 and 3/32 depending on the material and the thickness.

Hope this helps. Any questions ask away.

But Argon gas for all with a TIG

Buggy83 · **Joined:** Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:42 pm **Posts:** 49

Yes 99.9% of the time you will use argon for TIG, some special applications will need a little hydrogen or helium in the mix.

bluephython · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 5:08 pm

A mig will work just fine. It's super easy to use specialy for repairs. A tig sometimes can be combersome on the hard to reach areas of a assembled machine. A tig also requires two hands for that reason alone a mig is better to own for repairs.

Papa Rich · **Posted:** Wed Oct 26, 2011 8:46 pm

The up side to mig is that it is one of the easier welders to us and get a decent looking weld.

rodrigo_atl · **Joined:** Tue Oct 23, 2012 4:01 pm **Posts:** 25

Ever since i learned to tig i use it as much as i can. It looks great and its strong as hell. Mig is good for hard to reach areas or when you have too big of a gap to fill.

Papa Rich · **Posted:** Mon Nov 05, 2012 1:38 am

I have since bought a tig machine as well. It is nice for a lot of things but don't plan on getting rid of my mig machine. They both have their places.

BigSarge · **Posted:** Mon Feb 25, 2013 5:39 pm

Well the HF 90 mig is on sale currently for 99 bucks.

Showed them the online coupon at the register on my phone and they accepted it. So I got it. Ive never welded and only plan on welding broken buggy pieces lol So I figured I would learn on this and still have a little cash in my pocket. I will get some quality wire as suggested above and see if it works on my daughters toys first....lol

Miamieddie · **Posted:** Mon Feb 25, 2013 6:06 pm

Its funny how this question popped up. Cause im getting ready to buy me a arc/mig converter on the first of march for $200 at horbor freights...they also have good deals on mig/tig converters...Eddie.

Mig or tig welder? what do you think would sute me best?

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