Gas Welding vs. MIG

[Guest]

I have several major rust repairs to do (inner fenders, floorboards, kicker panels, lower tailgate, door post, etc.).

I just purchased a Gas welding -(oxcy acetyline) outfit and was going to try and teach myself how to weld. My question is would I be able to Braze weld or use standard gas welding techniques to replace these parts or am I just wasting my time ?

Should I have bought a MIG unit??

: ?:?

Thansks..

 

[americanhorses]

Waste of time and gas,....great for cutting

 

[KST1]

MIG all the way.

In my experience (moderate), the simplicity and quality of MIG welding techniques are hard to beat. You'll be making purty welds in no time.

-D

 

[lars]

I've welded all sorts of complex sheet metal structures with an oxy-acetylene rig. No doubt that a MIG unit is faster and easier to use, but gas can be used to weld a phenomenal variety of parts. Besides mild steel, I've welded stainless steel, aluminum and titanium with a torch. Go look at WW II vintage aircraft. Major structural elements were welded with gas, and in fact the ubiquitous 4130 chrome moly steel was alloyed to be gas welded. Personally I like having both. I paid for a year of my college education by running a MIG welder, building fuel tanks and truck bodies. Never did learn to make a decent weld with a stick welder though

 

[Rustytruck]

I have both gas and arc and when I get redy to put in my pannels I will buy a mig and use it they are so much easier and with less warpage on sheet metal. It is truely the wat to go.

 

[NicksTrix]

imop: learning to gas weld and trying to do your own panel replacement is bad combination. i would think you'll end up making more of a mess than what you started with. a mig is a glue gun, as long as it's properly set up anyone could use it and get basic desired results.
there is far less heat involved mig welding panels in correctly than with a torch, you'll get less warpage wich will be a good thing. trying to stich weld with a torch, being inexperienced is a hard thing.
get a mig and you'll be much better off. don't jump right into trying to weld a cage up until you've good some seat time under your belt. it is your life we're talking about here.
learn to use the torch on other things you'll fab on the workbench. that way if they don't come out right, you can pitch it and try again. that's tough to do on the bronco itself.
do learn to weld and cut with a torch, you'll never know when you might need to do it sometime out in the field as a repair for yourself or someone else.
good luck and have fun!
nicks trix

 

[2badrotties]

Gas welding is a lot slower than a mig but you can do it. One tip I have for you and everyone else that is going to braze patches to your Bronco.... Sandblast it after you get it done to get rid of the flux that is left. If you don't , it will bubble in the future. It is nice to have both and I 'm sure there will times that you will be glad you have the torches. Now save a few bucks and buy a small mig welder.

 

[swmhuskie]

What about TIG?

 

[2badrotties]

There are only a few fortunate souls here that can afford their own tig welder. Lets see, do I want a new tig welder or new tires and wheels :-U ;D

 

[67ster]

I have found benefits in all different processes. As gas welding is a basis for for most welding , it is a good thing to learn . I started out in aircraft school welding sheet metal , pushing puddles we called it . we used a piece of 18Ga. mild steel and practiced puddling the metal to achieve a bead with no filler . Once we had that part of it down , we advanced to using a filler rod , it takes patience and co-ordination . A heli arc uses an electric arc for heat rather than a gas flame but the process is much the same . MIG or short arc is semi automatic and fast , clean and easily learned . When welding body panels to get a smooth finish I prefer gas or heliarc because you can planish or hammer weld the joints to take out the shrinkage . This is not done easily with MIG because the weld is brittle and will crack when you try to hammer it .

 

[Explore74]

don't forget that when you braze, and do it properly, you get a really brittle and HARD spot where it was done. If you are trying to weld in a new panel, and attempt to shrink your seam with a shrinking hammer and lead bag, you can crack the braze pretty easily, not to mention that it is hard as hell to sand and finish. I agree with the above postings, gas welding is probably the hardest way to do it if you are inexpeerienced. For about the same money as a quality rig, you can get a 110v Miller MIG welder, and it does great on body sheet metal, and best of all you can use it anywhere you have a household outlet.

 

[Madgyver]

I have a oxy-acetylene set-up (great for cutting and brazing) a 120v fluxcore mig and a Millermatic 175 unit (220V mig with gas).
I'll use the Millermatic all the way to patch panels from now on. I've done all methods and the best results was with the Millermatic mig welder. With the .024 steel wire and CO2 it will do weld thin sheetmetal with no warpage. This will be a problem with the oxy-acetylene, worst if you're just learning.

 

[67ster]

There is a MIG wire on the market that is more ductile than standard wires . It is called "Easy Grind" by ESAB . It can be hammer welded with out cracking .

 

[74bronc]

[quote author=swmhuskie link=board=5;threadid=14714;start=0#111017 date=1046391334]
What about TIG?
[/quote]

Awesome! I have a Lincoln Square-wave 175 and can now weld just about any metal known to man. Probably not the most practical for sheet metal repair, but it works great if you know what you are doing. I am still learning TIG. MIG is probably the best all around welder for an EB.

 

[jasondemitri]

i picked up a hobart handler 135 and love it. i have found myself breaking shit, just to weld it. ive stick welded, gas welded, and by far i like mig welding the best. mainly because i suck at welding, but ill get better
jason

 

[Sharkman]

I have recently been inroduced to argon. Oh man that stuff is great. My welding has improved 110%. All my welds are clean, no splatter.

 

[El Jefe]

what do i need to get as far as argon assisted welding goes. to use on a borrowed Campbell Hausfeld MIG welder? I am planning to get next notch nicer welder than the CH but would like to try with the gas first. IT already has a regulator....(also how much $$ am i looking to spend?)

 

[Broncobowsher]

I have taken a welding class that was about 70% arc (stick), 20% gas (mostly cutting), and 5% MIG. Why only 5% MIG? Because it only took a couple of inches of welding to lay a bead as good as I could do with a stick welder.

I just got a welder. Nice Millermatic 175 MIG welder. I just like the point and squirt of MIG welders. The gas shield is great for clean up. No chipping the slag off.

Gas takes a lot of practice, but can weld almost anything. TIG is basically an electric version of gas welding. I would like to have a TIG welder, but I often don’t have the 3 body parts needed to run the torch, filler, and the foot feed. I am often welding while wrapped around a part balancing on one foot. That makes the one hand point and squirt welder so nice.

As far as doing body panels, expect to warp them unless you practice. Use gas shielding and use the thinnest wire you can run in the welder.

Practice on something else first. Orders up some mandrel bent tubing, cut it into pieces and weld it together for a custom exhaust first. It is cheaper then body parts. If you screw it up, it’s easy to scrap and start over without losing the entire project.

If you can get a welding class at a community college, great take it. You can burn up enough material in that class practicing to pay for the class. And you will have somebody telling you what you are doing wrong, before you are set in your way of doing it that way.

As far as the gas welder goes, I hope you got a cutting tip. Then it’s worth it. Nothing heats metal so you can bend it like a torch….

 

[JonR]

You mentioned you have a DC welder. You can buy an inexpensive tig torch and tig weld with it. Steel is done on DC anyway. For sheetmetal an air cooled torch would be fine, do don't need the water cooler and water cooled torch unless you want higher amperage or higher duty cycles. I assume you can switch your polarity on your DC welder. I have a Miller Syncrowave 250, it does not replace the MIG welder but it is great. The main difference between the Syncrowave and any stick welder power supply is AC wave shaping ability and the high frequency output. Better TIG machines (or heliarc - same thing, ESAB calls their TIG welders Heliarc welders, kinda like kleenex and tissue paper) have a lot of fine tuning capability, your DC constant amperage power source for stick welding probably doesn't. Without HF to start the torch you will have to scratch the tip across your work and since you don't have a remote control you will have to be careful because the torch is always hot. Stop by your local welding shop and they can show you your options. Heck, if you have a nice CA power supply it may be more economical to buy a used HF starter and build your DC welder into a Tig outfit than buying a mig welder. But MIG is faster like many have said.

Are some of you wire feeding with argon only? I know 25% CO2 is common to help penetration but for sheetmetal I'm sure penetration is a mute point normally.

 

[semprbronc]

I too, am looking for a welder. Never done any of it, am ready to try and learn. I saw a MIG welder at Lowes for like 227.00 I think it was a Lincoln, real basic, entry level type thing. My question is this: I thought I read that it could be adapted to gas for MIG welding. What does that mean? Is flux core wire what is used instead of gas? Is the gas just neater(less flux)? Or do you need gas for MIG welding. If so, why sell a MIG welder without it? It should be apparent by now that I am getting in WAY over my head on this one...thanks.