[sphanna]

I was looking today to learn about MIG and TIG, etc. I found a forum that was very helpful. Here is one of the posts that helped me understand a little. Thought you might be interested.


ChrisJohnsSculpture
Member

Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Warwickshire UK
Posts: 53

In tems of practical uses and benefits the three main arc welding processes can be summarised thus (these are general descriptions and there are of course exceptions) :

MIG : fast, economical (overall) and consistent. Reasonably easy to learn. Excellent for general steel fabrication and repetitive production. OK for aluminium and stainless. Generally works best on medium thickness metals.

TIG: Precise and controllable, for high performance applications this is usually the preferred process for almost all materials, especially exotics and very thin sections , extremely versatile. Drawbacks are that it tends to be slow, relatively expensive and requires a relatively high skill level.

Stick/MMA : relatively cheap equipment and consumables. Preferred for heavy section materials, tolerant of adverse conditions, portable. Not so good for thin sections and exotic materials. Moderate to high skill required. Well suited to heavy duty structural fabrication and maintenance.