Some MIG welding tips from an instructor do's and don'ts

[SPA]

Debunking YouTube cold welding videos and some proper technique tips.

[6]

Funny. I had not seen anyone try and pass that off before.... But having done a lot of stitch welding I thought to myself, that looks sped up, till he shows that it's basically.. sped up.

And that is one very opinionated welding instructor. I use all three of the mig welding styles he went over, I also Tig, and I feel there is valid uses for all of them. So fuck his judgemental ass...

That said, thay man probably has forgotten more about welding than I will ever know, so who am I to argue.

[Peteroo]

i find machining and welding videos mesmerizing and i was wondering about this, especially when they show it with TIG. You see them dip the electrode in one frame and go back to it....hang on wait a second. classic bullshit editing!

[mikoxi]

Welding has been VERY, VERY, VERY good to me. I spent many years in welding manufacturing on the engineering side. I have a degree in welding. I have been certified in MIG and stick. One of my hobbies is welding. 90% of all the welding that I do at home is TIG. All I want to do is add a little perspective to the conversation. MIG welding is designed to go fast, if you have been told that MIG welds should have a nice pattern about them then whoever is telling you that does not understand the welding process.

When you get the machine dialed into the base material thickness and the heat and wire speed are correct and the angle of the torch correct you go. No patterns are necessary. The size of the weld in relation to the parent material is very important also. If you put in a weld too small for the required strength then it is a bad weld no matter what kind of pattern you use. We randomly tested to destruction and found that the best welds are straight welds with no patterns. The original idea of welding a pattern (roll of nickles} was to overcome the lack of the correct heat, wire speed, gas, etc.

For the weld. Slowing way down and spending more time in the area to build a puddle and then slowly working a pattern down the seam is inefficient and if the management of the company requires it then they are losing a lot of money. In my career, I was always working on the politics of this. Whenever I had to break in a new boss, I had to sit down with them and show them the test results and the welding speeds that were required to make money. As soon as I explained the bottom line to them then they understood why patterns are bad. On a side note. Somewhere in this article, the question of proper training was brought up. Here's a question for you what's a "keyway". If you know the answer then you have been well trained.