Which do you prefer, MIG welding, or Arc/Stick welding?

Ill start. I'm young (19) and I am very good with a MIG welder, however I prefer Arc.

 

I have both an arc and a mig. I grew up and learned with arc. I much prefer it more than mig for big jobs, and thicker metals. The mig is fine for thinner metal, body panels and such. I have yet to weld aluminum so another good thing for mig.

 

It is totally dependent on the situation.

 

I've done MIG and Stick, I like stick a little more than MIG, but as 70blue said, it's dependent on the situation.

 

Mig all the way .....

 

Stick for pipe/structural. MIG for general use. TIG for stainless/aluminum. I'll also go TIG for high pressure piping, hot taps, etc.

 

stick for stuff i want to burn in good.......mig for lighter stuff......aluminum spool gun on my mig welder for aluminum

 

For stupid little projects MIG is king.

When I really want to keep something together for a long time I reach for the stick welder.

If I'm doing a silly project like making a tray to hook on the edge of the man-lift basket in order to hold a paint tray MIG is easier because I can hold the steel with one hand and weld with the other. No worries about trying to strike an arc. Just pull the trigger and go.

Of course if I have to weld anything outside the shop I go for stick because the wind will blow away MIG shielding gasses.

Personally I've never had a chance to play around with a TIG, but I'd like to learn it eventually.

 

I use duct tape; sometimes bailing wire; maybe a little epoxy.

I do wish I knew how to weld, though.

 

it doesnt matter to me. i can do both reasonably well. it is just as everyone says though. for my body panels i used the mig, for my roll bar 6011. that thing is never going to break around my welds.

 

Technically Stick, MIG and TIG are all forms of arc welding, as they all use an arc to heat and transfer the metal.

Stick is good for heavier things, and if you don't particularly care about what the weld looks like

MIG is great for smaller things, and makes a very strong, very nice looking weld. Larger MIGs (180 amps + ) can approach stick welders in thickness of metal they can weld, but a decent 180 amp or more MIG can easily cost 3, 4 or even 5 times as much as a decent stick welder.

 

I have done it all....stick, MIG, TIG, braze, flame welding etc...on everything from mild steel to stainless to aluminum.
Outdoors, stick all the way. Like posted above, wind outside plays heck with the shielding gas...even a fan indoors plays heck with it on a MIG or TIG.

I welded with a pulsed arc mig back in the early 80s and welded .020 aluminum with it! Nice machine when set up right.

I'm looking for a stick machine for home use as I have welding jobs come up every so often but welding for a living? Not any more!

 

we just bought us a new miller 252 mig bout 4 months ago , that son of a gun is soooooo nice........ the ol lincoln got wore out lol

 

TIG, then stick, then MIG. I've been doing mostly MIG lately, light steel production work. 99.9% of what I do for myself is stick, though, and let me tell you I can lay down a bead with that that will make you cry over your TIG welds. I have used all three methods to do SubSafe work in shipyards, and while the MIG and pulsed MIG makes for fewer inclusions, you can see the better penetration of the stick welds when they use ultrasound testing.
I have also run sub-arc machines, they are pretty cool for heavy production work. You can lay in a 1" fillet weld in one pass.
I really like running TIG, though, since it's so clean and the results are so nice. I did TIG bench work for a little over a year straight, all stainless, mostly just fusion welds.
I have welded soda cans together (on the edge, not the base), but I used to work with this guy who welded aluminum foil. I just could not believe it even when I saw it. A lot of that sort of control comes from the machine, it was this huge old genuine Heli-Arc machine that wouldn't fit in the back of my truck. My Dynasty would never be able to touch that sort of precision.

 

Let's talk about talent for a minute. I was younger and thought I was a pretty good welder. I do computer work and was at a Exxon in Louisanna. They invited me out to the plant/field to see first hand what the software I was writing was managing.

There was some pipeline work being done by TIG and I asked if I could have a shot at it. They said sure but they would like me to do a piece and then apply their NDE processes (Ultrasound and X-Ray) to see how I had done.

Long story short, I did what I thought was a top-notch job but the inspectors tore it to shreads. I mean I was really humbled with just how bad my work really was. Now the guys that really had the talent were extremely kind in furthering my education; showing me what was wrong with my technique and such, but I had a LOT to learn and far more metal to burn before I was ever going to get close.