On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 13:08:23 GMT, "R. Zimmerman"
wrote:

Don,
I find it odd that stick is used so much in the field in your area. I
always thought that out in Western Canada we were in the backwater. It is a
rare portable rigged truck locally that does not have a suitcase wire feeder
running flux core wire.
These feeders can be dropped through an 18 inch manhole. I will grant
you that short six inch welds may be done more quickly since it does take
time to move a 75 pound feeder and wire. As soon as you have a few feet of
weld in a ten foot radius wire feed starts to pay.
Even in the bush logging and road building equipment is repaired and
hardsurfaced with wire feed.
When you say hundreds of pounds of rod a day are sold I wonder how much
wire is being sold. One man can burn up a forty pound roll of wire in a day
if he is high balling. I have to admit that there are people who use
mechanical typewriters. After all you never know when the power will go
out.

There's a lot of differences in area's and type of welding being
done. I can't think of a single person with a suitcase feeder in this
area. But then nearly every welder in this area is a pipe line welder.
No companies around here would let you use wire on a pipe line weld.
It's not proven to them while stick is. In fact there's a lot of
places that won't let you in the gate if you don't have a Lincoln
SAE200 or equivalent Lincoln welder on the truck.

Now a few of these welders do have a MIG in the shop. Mostly used on
thinner stock. But even then it's not trusted for heavy work by most
of them.

I've not got a suitcase primarily because I don't do much field work.
I concentrate on shop welding with only a old Bobcat on the back of my
truck. It doesn't get used more than 6-8 times a year and much of that
is to dirty for MIG. It's just not economical for me to rig it for
MIG.

In the shop is a different story but I still use stick a lot. Most
of my work is repair. A great deal of those repairs are small short
welds in awkward places. It's just not worth the time to drag out the
MIG for many of them. I do use MIG when I can though. I've got a
Miller Dimension 400 with a S-64 wire feeder and a Cobramatic wire
feeder which I use for the heavier work and a Millermatic 135 which
gets a lot of use on lighter work.

I was in my welding suppliers store yesterday. It tells the story
pretty well. There's a huge display of stick rods but just one short
little section of wire.

Wayne Cook
Shamrock, TX
http://members.dslextreme.com/users/waynecook/index.htm