Clarification

At this location we don't use GTAW process, but we mostly weld cold rolled steel.

What do you weld at your location?

Tig is oh, so precise, clean, and accurate. You do not add the filler metal until the parent metal is already melting. You can start and stop on a dime. The welds are works of art, suitable for display with no further finishing.

Mig is like spray painting. It's quick, fast and easy. It's also messy, not as accurate as tig. With mig you can get spatter, not with tig. With tig you can change filler metals easily and quickly. With mig, you have to change the whole spool and re-feed the gun.

For certain pipe welds, tig is required for the root pass because it is so precise. A pipe purged and tig welded will have a beautiful smooth weld on the inside if it is done right.

Also using TIG, the skillset required is higher.

Itr depends on your finished product.

Whether it's Sanitary, structural or a combination.

Your requirements would dictate your process.

I found tig very easy to learn. I already knew how to stick weld, and had done very little torch work.

The boss bought a tig machine, the salesman showed me how to use it, and I was off running.

The best thing about tig is you can just sit there with the torch lit and look at things. When you are ready, you see the filler rod nearby, you pedal up the heat and start melting things.

Even when you are just using an on/off switch, you can back off from the metal and nothing melts.

I was actually able to tig lead sheet for an x-ray machine. I sheared thin strips for filler metal. Didn't do but one job, so no lead poisioning.

I had a fabrication business where the sanitary standards were very high. (food and pharm). Including sanitary piping

When interviewing welders, I had alot that had great mig experience, and most said they could adjust to tig easliy. That was false.

I only knew enough to stand with them, but not weld with them.

The ones that where efficent where the ones that presented themself with low expectation, such as:

Its been a while,

I can garantee, I hope I can pass.

The guys that said this, where very satifactory.

Other than the guys that said thing such as:

No Problem,

I can weld 22 ga SS.

These guys where irrogant asses, that after one was complian that my welders were $#it, (I had just purchased (2) new Miller water cooled 250 DX with pulse.) I took the stick from his hand and laid a prefect bead, than told him, I'm not a welder.

btw, a good welder for the most part doesn't need pulse.

I have to admit some people can hit the ground running, good for you.

Me on the other hand, too much going against me, one being bad eyesight.

In TIG you can weld thin jobs using thin filler wire and you can keep different grades of filler wires even in small pieces, however in MIG welding filler wire spools have to be kept costing heavy inventary. For small jobs of different grades, it will be hectic to change filler wire spool but it is easy in TIG.

tig welding uses inert gas to replace oxygen. the carbon rod only heats the metal to welding temperatures. the filler rod has no flux and has the same properties as the joint to be welded. that results in a weld that is normally stronger than the mating parts..

Carbon rod?.... You mean tungsten, hence Tungsten Inert Gas..TIG........ Let's not get into the HAZ.....or maybe we should.

you are correct. my mistake.