On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:20:21 -0700, "Hawke"
wrote:




You'd be wrong then because MIG is as good a process as any of the others.
It's the easiest to do but it does have a downside and you found out what
that is. One can make welds that look great but in reality they are nothing
but glued together metal. If I recall they call them cold welds. Penetration
is vital to a proper weld. A MIG welder will do whatever you want just about
but you have to set the machine properly or your welds are no good. The
guidelines on the machines are a good starting place but every welder that I
know of that uses MIG always does some test welds on metal like he's going
to weld. Once you test your machine settings on similar metal of the same
gauge as your project you will be fine. Someone once said that a chimp could
MIG weld. But the caveat was that a human had to set the machine up for it
first. MIG is all about getting the right settings on your welder. Once you
have them right the welding is a breeze.

Hawke

Good point! When in doubt I always do some practice welds with
similar (scrap) metal in similar configuration to see what settings
are gonna work. It doesn't take long to discover what works with
the "usual stuff": flats, angle, channel and tube of thickness from
1/8" to 1/4" with some round bars now and then.