Welding Equipment – A Guide To Choosing Which Is Right For You
Oxy-Acetylene Welding Equipment
Welding
with the use of gas dates back to the middle of 1800's where the
mixture of oxygen and hydrogen were used in the making of jewelery.
Today
we use a different mixture of oxygen and acetylene which together can
produce a flame temperature in excess of 6000 deg f. This type of
equipment is not only used for welding, but also to heat materials for
bending and straightening, brazing and cutting.
An oxy-acetylene
outfit is usually portable, versatile, and less expensive than a
electric welding set up, and by using the correct tips, rods and
fluxes, almost any metal can be welded, heated or cut. This equipment
is ideally suited to the welding of thin sheets, tubes and pipes but
not economical for thick section welds.
Arc Welders
Arc
welding or stick welding requires a higher skill level and mastery of
certain techniques. Best for welding on thicker, rougher metals using a
flux coated stick electrode fusing the work pieces together.
To
avoid porosity and attain the ideal weld travel speed, it is important
to remove excessive scale, rust, moisture, paint, oil and grease from
the surface of joints. A variety of electrodes are available for the
different types of metal that is to be welded, cast iron, stainless
steel etc.
The electrodes need to be replaced as the heat builds
up and the stick melts down causing a molten weld puddle on the work
piece fusing the work pieces together. The weld must be cleaned when
completed due to the flux electrode forming a slag blanket over the
weld bead. Using an arc welder is a relatively slow process and is
ideal for the more experienced user.
MIG Welding
MIG
welding is generally a lot easier than gas or arc welding. A spool of
weld wire is constantly driven by a feeding system through the MIG gun
as the trigger is pulled, so unlike arc welding there is no need to
constantly replace electrodes.
A small amount of practice is
required to set up the wire feed speed and also the power. The wire
speed needs to be adjusted to suite each power setting, but with a
little practice the correct settings are easily achieved.
MIG
process (GMAW) requires the use of a shielding gas which reduces
spatter and produces very clean welds with no slag blanket. Flux cored
MIG welding (FCAW) uses a weld wire with a centre core of flux which
eliminates the need for gas shielding and offers easier, portable
welding outdoors and on dirtier metals. Both processes of welding are
very fast and allows you to weld the thinnest and thickest of metals.
The first thing to decide when buying a MIG welder is what you are
going to weld, and how often. If you are planning to weld thicker
metals, then a welder with higher amps is required, but for thinner
metals like car bodywork, any welder with a minimum setting of more
than 30 amps would be unusable. Welding for long periods can cause the
unit to overheat, so a welder with a fan (turbo welders) would be a big
consideration for heavier or industrial use.