How much harder than MiG is TiG?

[Plus4E]

My MiG welding is pretty good, once I get my eye in (didn't do any welding for nearly a year whilst the garage was being built and when I did it took me a few runs to bring it all back ), but I'm thinking about investing in TiG for ally and stainless, as well as more delicate mild jobs.

MiG is pretty easy to pick up, have a go, ask questions, get shown a bit and then perfect in your own time. TiG I suspect is a little harder, yes?

There seems to be some reasonably priced kit (I always assumed it was silly money) by know brands (eg Clarke, although I've found their kit to generally be a bit hit and miss). Are the cheaper (ie 2-300 quid) kits a waste of time?

[Tom_w]

More to it. The guys who are good at it get paid a good wage......

It depends on what you are welding, material thickness, joint prep, material quality.....

Even MIG or MAG is more complex one you are welding thicker and more complex joints and structures.

[CBomb]

I tried my hand at arc, mig and tig welding.

Tig was much closer to arc than mig tbh. I must had done a few meters of tig practice and managed about 3" of good quality welding

If you've got the time to practice then go for it, but if you want to be pulling off good tig welds from the off I wouldn't invest htat kind of money

[59bhp]

not really anything alike unfortunately however there is no reason why you can't learn the same way you did mig. Read, ask, instruction and practice.

I first learnt how to gas weld which uses very similar techniques and as such wasn't to difficult to pick up, controlling the weld pool, heat control, feed speed etc is essentially the same but with mig most of the that is done for you as long as the prep is correct.

I advise you get someone who knows what they are doing to show you what's what and then have a play. Word to the wise though make sure the machine you buy is capable of doing aluminium as a lot of the cheaper ones aren't

tig I find is good for thinner plate and mig and mag is good for agricultural stuff (thk plate) however you can use any of them for anything if you want to.

[CBomb]

Lol, gas welding. That was it. Not arc welding!

[dow]

Actually, mig isn't great for agricultural stuff. There aren't a lot of farmers who use anything else other than arc welders. They regard the extra prep work needed for decent welding with a mig as a bit la-di-dah when they can turn up the power on an arc welder and blast through a bit of rust and what not. My dad is constantly mocking me for spending so long before I even connect the welder, but with the right prep a mig weld will be better than i can do with the sticks, and I can keep layering it up, but for quick and dirty welding you can't beat the sticks for being a farmers friend

Mig is more suited for fabrication with nice new steel though

[munkul]

TIG isnt too hard to get the hang of (although I'd done a bit of soldering and gas welding before I learned) BUT...

...you HAVE to spend a lot of money on gear. Buying a cheap TIG set will make you cry, both whilst using it cos it wont produce as good a quality welds, and then around 1 year later when the unit dies (maybe just out of warrenty) and you have to buy an entire new unit.

This only applies to the modern inverter welders - they really arent that reliable. Even the high quality ones (Millers, Kempii) we have had fail. But the difference is that the nice ones are a JOY to use, instead of being a pain in the arse.

You could buy a big old transformer welder - like a miller syncrowave. They arent as handy as the inverter ones and have older tech, but hare regarded as being more reliable - or easier to fix, at least

[diamondsink]

I basic tig welder will set you back about a grand. Dont even bother with the under £500 sets. We have £2k+ welders at work and the difference is outstanding. The more money you spend the easier it is to get great welds. We have a EWM picomig 180 and i reakon somebody thats never welded could pick it up and lay a nice weld. All the settings are automatic, just select the job thickness. Pulse welders are excellent.

[Steve_20085]

I basic tig welder will set you back about a grand. Dont even bother with the under £500 sets.

agree with you on that, you do get what you pay for. I bought a cheap ish tig to use for myself and it was pants compared to the ones I learnt with. (£1k+) although saying that I've got fairly good with the cheaper one, benefit being when you then move on to a better one they just get easier to use.

[Robbhp]

As 59bhp said very similar too gas wealding just a bit faster.

[59bhp]

Actually, mig isn't great for agricultural stuff................

lol well i actually referring too large, big, chunky stuff when i said agricultural

[59bhp]

TIG isnt too hard to get the hang of (although I'd done a bit of soldering and gas welding before I learned) BUT...

...you HAVE to spend a lot of money on gear. Buying a cheap TIG set will make you cry, both whilst using it cos it wont produce as good a quality welds, and then around 1 year later when the unit dies (maybe just out of warrenty) and you have to buy an entire new unit.

This only applies to the modern inverter welders - they really arent that reliable. Even the high quality ones (Millers, Kempii) we have had fail. But the difference is that the nice ones are a JOY to use, instead of being a pain in the arse.

You could buy a big old transformer welder - like a miller syncrowave. They arent as handy as the inverter ones and have older tech, but hare regarded as being more reliable - or easier to fix, at least

ah lol havent had the pleasure of cheaper ones as ive always used the work ones,

but then it shut down and i stole it ............cebora tigstar, only thing its dc only so no aluminium welding

[shogun]

Stainless is rather easy. Aluminum is 5 times trickier to Tig.
I bought a 1500£ AC-machine and some extras for another 500£
Like earlier posted, learn from pro and practice a lot.
You will get there, no doubt mate

[Drifter]

If I can manage to TIG my manifold you'll be able to do it I learnt from watching a coded welded at work, once you see the them it's easy enough to get started, just takes time to make it look neat

[Plus4E]

Cool - thanks for all the thoughts on it. I thought a £200 TIG set up was too good to be true! Might try and find someone to give me a go on some decent kit and see if I have any instant success

Any offers?