Archive for the ‘Mig Welding’ Category
Thursday, February 2nd, 2012
MIG welding is most often used to join steel or stainless steel together. But with the properly equipped MIG, aluminum can be easily welded as well. Many MIGs use a device known as a spool gun to weld aluminum. It is a small, pistol shaped device that holds its own small spool of wire. The spool is approximately 4 inches in diameter and for aluminum use, the spool weighs in at about a pound. Welding aluminum requires the same DC+ polarity as other solid wire fillers. However, 100% pure argon is normally used. At times Helium can be added to improve the penetration. However for thin material, pure Argon is preferred. Aluminum MIG welding takes place in the spray transfer mode, which happens at a lower threshold than in Steel. Spray transfer is different from short circuit MIG. Trying to weld aluminum in short circuit mode, can make a terrible, wadded up mess. Spray transfer is smooth, quite, and the molten ball of aluminum pinches off before a “short” is ever created. It is a very hot process and fairly rapid and requires a much higher wire speed rate. One of the most overlooked details is that usually, the next size up contact needs to be used with aluminum wire. The greater swelling that aluminum exhibits, will cause the wire to seize up in the tip, if room for heat expansion is not left. There are other methods of welding aluminum with a MIG, including simply using the standard gun with a Teflon liner installed. In this type of setup, the cable has to be kept very straight and free from kinks or tight loops to feed properly. Of course a larger tip should be used as well. Also a similar device to the spool gun is used called a push-pull gun, which uses the cabinet to hold and push the wire, while a drive roller in the gun’s body “pulls” the wire to keep the wire from bird’s nesting inside the liner.
Tags: Arc Welder, MIG Welder, plasma cutter, TIG Welder, Welders, welding aluminum, welding equipments for lease, welding equipments for sale
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Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Metal Inert Gas Welding also known as MIG welding is a welding technique used predominantly in the welding industry wherein a consumable electrode made of wire and gas are fed consistently via the welding gun for creating welds. Welding as such is the process where in two or more metal pieces are joined together with the help of a molten solution which solidifies upon cooling to essentially form the bond between them.
MIG welder is a very efficient tool for welding metals. It is quite simple to understand, install and operate with ease. However, practice always makes a man perfect which is essentially true in the case welding process. Welding as such is an art which can be mastered only via practical experience. If you wish to pursue welding as a long time hobby, you better start with MIG welding and practice for several hours on a regular basis. MIG welding is used in wide range of applications as MIG welders are quite cheaper when compared to TIG welding equipments. Here are some 7 basic tips for amateurs to avoid mistakes while using MIG welder.
- Preparing the welding surface properly is mandatory.
- Make sure to make use of protective welding accessories while operating.
- The metal spool should have a clear feed through your welding gun.
- Try skip welding to minimize the possibility of metal shock being wrapped due to heat stress.
- You ought to be very careful of residual heat.
- Stability is of at most importance to create quality welds and to provide proper protection. Make sure that you are comfortably positioned before starting out with the welding procedure.
- Always check out for earth clamp for the MIG welder to operate at its optimum performance.
More tips about MIG welding could be found across several welding forums.
Tags: Arc Welder, MIG Welder, plasma cutter, TIG Welder, Welders, welding equipments for lease, Welding forum, welding machine
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Friday, November 18th, 2011
Mig welding is a semi-automatic arc welding process which is most often used with steel. In this process an unremitting consumable wire electrode and a defending gas are fed through a welding gun. At the last part of the gun, there is a contact edging tip which passes electrical energy to the wire. The wire and the shielding gas are set in motion to generate the weld when the machinist lowers the trigger of the gun.
Pros:
1) With a little practice almost all can execute this type of welding.
2) Materials which are thinner can be easily welded.
3) Operating costs is much lower comparatively to other types of welding.
4) Since it can weld even a smallest material the wastage of materials is very fewer
5) Uninterrupted welds
Cons:
1)Since there is a possibility of undue melt-through the outcome will end up in partial joint penetration or fusion.
2)MIG welds are well-known to leave deposits that are greatly rusty.
3)It lets out heavy smoke
4)It will not weld through any dirty materials.
5)Complex equipment.
Tags: Arc Welder, MIG Welder, MIG welding, plasma cutter, TIG Welder, Welders, welding guns
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Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
There are predominantly four different transfer types of MIG welding.
- Short Circuit transfer
- Globular Transfer
- Spray Transfer
- Pulsed Spray Transfer
Short Circuit Transfer:
In Short Circuit Transfer the welding wire touches the metal. Electricity courses through the gun and creates a short circuit. The welding wire is melted and it drips on to the metal surface creating a puddle that creates the joint between the work pieces. Carbon dioxide shielding gas is used in this type of MIG transfer with a combination of low voltage. Minimum amount of shielding gas is required and this makes this transfer type an inexpensive process.
Globular Transfer:
Globular transfer happens with a combination of high voltage and argon shielding gas. In this type of MIG transfer, the wire melts down, gets collected at the tip of the gun and drips onto the joint only a few times per second. The main disadvantage is that this type leads to spatter.
Spray Transfer:
In this type of MIG transfer, the wire melts into very fine droplets and rather gets sprayed on to the joints like mists. It makes a hissing sound unlike crackle or popping sound of the Short Circuit and Globular transfer types respectively. It is resourceful for creating clean arc between the gun and the materials to be welded. It is achieved with a combination of high voltage and argon shielding gas or gas mixture that contains 15% of Carbon dioxide. The shielding gas is quite expensive as it involves high argon content.
Pulsed Spray transfer:
This process requires high end MIG welder. The welder pulses the voltage instead of giving steady flow of voltage. The result is a transfer type that alternates between spray and globular types. It doesn’t require high voltage supply to weld products. This creates more efficient welds and incorporated greater flexibility with positions. The MIG welder is quite expensive to give such a functionality and performance.
Tags: MIG Welder, MIG welding, Transfer types of mig welding, welding
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Monday, August 22nd, 2011
In general MIG is considered a Constant Voltage (CV) process. While welding voltage does not vary, but wire speed determines the amps. As the feed rate of the wire changes, so do the amps. Many models of welders use an inch per minute scale, and others use an amp scale. Either is correct, though wire speed is the most commonly used scale. Many small and older welders don’t have a digital readout to provide an exact reading and may only carry a 0-10 scale to allow easier adjustment, without having to think about either. Generally with these settings, the weldor operates usually by sight and ear. Small inexpensive and larger transformer based welders may have taps ( a switch with preset detent) that limits the adjustments of voltage to a specific setting. The cheapest MIG welders also use taps for wire speed adjustment. Though simple to use this can be frustrating by preventing the best setting for the weld.
Many box and large chain stores offer small transformer MIG‘s that are rather inexpensive, and typically yield less than professional quality welds, especially in the hands of inexperienced users. Most of these units offered for sale use taps on at least the voltage. It’s another reason why MIG has been accused of making less than adequate welds. Not having enough adjustment can make achieving the best weld quite difficult. Quite a few customers buy them not fully realizing the expense involved in providing rolls of wire, consumables, and shielding gas. Often they turn to using Flux Core wire, which pound for pound ends up costing as much or more than solid wire with shielding gas. Everlast has produced a remarkably competitive line of MIG welders that effectively deal with many of the issues surrounding achieving quality welds with MIG. Each MIG is inverter based, which allows the MIG process to be more portable than ever. The inverter design also features a step-less design for voltage and wire speed (amp) adjustment by always allowing the setting to match the material. The design also uses digital readouts for volt and wire speed, allowin precise, repeatable settings. Additionally, each unit features inductance control (arc force) which allows the user to fine tune the arc characteristics. The heavy-duty wire drive system also feeds the wire into one of the highest quality MIG guns available on the market.
Tags: gas metal arc welding, GMAW, MIG welders, MIG welding
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Friday, August 19th, 2011
As already mentioned, MIG welding uses a gas or blend of gases in lieu of a flux. Usually the primary component of the gas is Argon, though CO2 is usually present for most steel applications. A triple blend of Argon, Helium and O2 may be used for Stainless Steels. While welding aluminum, pure Argon is generally used.
GMAW
MIG is generally considered the easiest form of welding. Simply load the wire pull the trigger on the MIG gun, and weld. As long as the gun kept at a constant distance from the metal is steadily moved forward, the wire is fed automatically into the molten weld pool. How much more simple could it be? However, the confusion and misunderstanding comes in with the fact that though it is easily picked up, it is rather difficult to master. Many uniformed welders have discounted MIG welding for making weak or brittle welds. By and large, this is a rather false accusation. MIG definitely is a more rapid welding process, and does open itself up to having flaws, and voids in the weld because of it. However correctly done, MIG is just as strong as other welding processes. Though it doesn’t have the reputation of yielding pure welds like TIG welding, it can be used in almost all welding situations. The problem is that it takes correct technique and thorough metal prep to yield the best welds. Often, People who try MIG often get frustrated by the lack of fusion that can be experienced with MIG early on in the learning process and turn to the SMAW process achieve better results without as much practice. However, with correct metal prep, and technique that results from practice, a properly welded MIG weld will hold up just as well.
Tags: gas metal arc welding, GMAW, MIG welders, MIG welding
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Thursday, August 18th, 2011
One of the most widely misunderstood forms of welding is GMAW. Gas Metal Arc Welding is more commonly known as MIG. MIG is an older term used to refer to Metal Inert Gas(MIG) welding. Originally it was created to refer generically to a gas shielded form of welding with a semi- automatically fed solid filler wire wrapped on a roll. But as the “correct” police came about in an effort to clarify the science of welding, the MIG acronym was retired from official use to reflect a more accurate definition. Although the term is still widely accepted, the term “MIG” did not allow for the fact that Carbon Dioxide, and to a lesser extent Oxygen is almost always used as a mixed component of the shielding gas, making it partially “active”, rather than “inert”. This led to the splinter definition of MAG: Metal Active Gas. So the GMAW banner accurately describes both types of operation.
GMAW
To make matters worse, many people often confuse MIG with other forms of wire welding such as Flux Core which though may use the same or similar equipment, is an entirely different process. Flux core uses a hollow wire loaded with a flux that is used in place of the shielding gas that rises to the top of the weld pool and protects the metal while it is cooling. The gas is not used. Another form of wire welding that leads to further confusion is the dual-shield form of wire welding, which uses both a gas and a special flux cored wire to shield the weld.
Tags: gas metal arc welding, GMAW, MIG welding, Shield Metal Arc Welding
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Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
The welding gun is single most important component when it comes to welding. Without which welding becomes absolutely impossible irrespective of what kind of welding technique you pursue. Hence much care should be directed towards the welding gun when it comes to maintenance. The wire feeds through to reach the contact tip or nozzle which allows the welding arc to weld the pieces together. It is very important that the wire feeds through smoothly and comfortably. Any obstruction will cause the arc to behave inconsistently and erratically which in the end results in poor welding and wastes materials used for welding. It is necessary to have a constant arc voltage to reduce spatter.
The erratic nature is usually a result of wear and tear or dirt issues involved with the welding gun. Thus the welding gun should be thoroughly checked and maintained regularly. If the factory is located in a dusty area such as in rural ones, there are more chances of dust entering into the workshop and accumulating here and there disrupting our work by covering the equipments with dust. For this reason alone, it is important that the workshop is built with concrete floor. The drive rollers of the wire feed mechanism often gets covered with dust and spatter particles which are mostly metallic by nature. These residues work its way down the gun cable and into the liner. And over a period of time the internal resistance increases by which the wire will fail to feed the welding gun. It is important that you regularly maintain your equipments to avoid all these issues.
Tags: MIG welders, MIG welding, welder, welding accessories
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Friday, March 4th, 2011
MIG welding is also known as metal oxide inert gas welding. It can be a semi automatic or an automatic arc welding process. There are many units available by many manufacturers today that cater to MIG welding. You should be sure as to where you choose your equipment that you want to buy from however. Normal parameters that you should look for your set up are if it is portable.
It should be able to fit in your workshop. Also the roll capacity of your equipment is important. For most operations, a 12lb machine should be good enough to keep you running back for more wire. Also if the unit has a flux core with optional drive rolls then it should be a good bargain for you.
Normally these machines also come with a spool gun that is attachable. This will help to weld materials like aluminum. Also if you are going out to buy such a machine, make sure that you look out for the arc force control feature. There are affordable pulse MIG welding machines available today. These will help in precision and also not burn a hole in your pocket at the same time. Invest reasonably and you can easily find a machine that will most benefit your wielding project.
Tags: MIG, MIG Welder, MIG welders, MIG welding, TIG welding, Welding Equipments
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Friday, February 25th, 2011
MIG welding stands for Metal Inert Gas Welding. It is the most common form of industrial welding. It is also known as MAG welding which stands for Metal Active Gas Welding and Gas Metal Arc Welding (GMAW welding). When it comes to welding or joining of two or more pieces of metals, MIG welding is preferred and used. However it can be quite hazardous. Yes, it is one among the easiest welding processes to learn. However it requires serious expertise, proper training, and hard work to overcome the diverse range of industrial hurdles whose hazardous factor varies in degrees.
Most hazards are caused due to fire. Thus it is the serious cause of danger associated with MIG Welding. The light and sparks can cause damage to the eyes. In some scenarios, the damage is even permanent as the worker is even capable of losing his eye sight. So, we should always be aware and precautious when it comes to welding. We should wear protective clothes that don’t expose our bodily parts to these sparks created during the welding process. See to that you wear welding helmet before you start the process. This is mainly for protecting your eye sight from lights and sparks caused by the welding tool. Wear proper veils to protect yourself from breathing the harmful gas generated while performing the welding. The workshop should have proper ventilation and see to that, that there is always a fire extinguisher and a bucket of sand nearby while performing the task. These precautionary accessories are quite cheap as well.
Tags: MIG, MIG Welder, MIG welders, mig weldings
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