OT welding comparison, gas and mig Options

[John Kelly]

I've done a quicky welding comparison between gas and mig for those interested:

http://allshops.org/cgi-bin/community/comm...d=9980156295554

John www.ghiaspecialties.com

[lapuwali]

It's something of a horses for courses issue. If you're doing structural welds that won't be seen (longs or footwells, for example), then MIG is easy and quick, and doesn't cause as much distortion. If you're doing welds on a visible body panel (a patch panel on a fender, for example), then gas will produce a softer weld bead that's much easier to work with hand tools. MIG weld beads tend to be hard and relatively brittle, and require grinding rather than hammering or filing to shape.

Gas setups have the advantage of being cheap and versatile. You can heat things for bending, or removing stubborn, rusty fasteners, with a gas torch, as well as weld with it. You can only weld with a MIG torch. The flip side is you can learn how to use a MIG torch to produce useful (if not pretty) welds in an afternoon, where gas welding takes much longer to master.