Tig and Mig Welding-The basics and uses in today's car culture. #blogpost

In modern day car culture everybody has their dreams of owning a project car. Whether it’s an Ls swapped Fb Rx7, or a twin turbo Bentley. You will definitely come to a point were you have to join two pieces metal together. Welding has great roots in modern day society.

Tig and Mig Welding-The basics and uses in today's car culture. #blogpost

In modern day car culture everybody has their dreams of owning a project car. Whether it’s an Ls swapped Fb Rx7, or a twin turbo Bentley. You will definitely come to a point were you have to join two pieces metal together. Welding has great roots in modern day society. It is the thing that built our skyscrapers, our trains, our massive cargo ships and of course our cars. So what do you do? You know nothing about “welding”, and have no clue were to start. Of course you could pay somebody, but what is the fun in that? Lets get going shall we?

A fine example of Tig welding. Tig is the abbreviation for tungsten inert gas, which is a commom yet difficult form of welding.
A fine example of Tig welding. Tig is the abbreviation for tungsten inert…

Lets start with Mig. Now what is Mig you may ask? Well, Mig is the abbreviation for metal inert gas, which is a form of welding that requires lot’s of electricity and a constant flowing steel wire. Mig is a very common and quite easy form of welding once you get the hang of it. This form of welding is what’s primarily used to make roll cages for example due to its fantastic results with steel piping. It is very versatile and can be used to join two pieces of steel together almost seamlessly, and only steel. One drawback of Mig welding is the issue with welding aluminum, you can’t do it. At least I don’t know of one which can. Must have aluminum wire hmm…Anyway!

Here we see a common middle aged white male Mig welding a roll cage for a mental race car. Whisper, we dont want to startle him.
Here we see a common middle aged white male Mig welding a roll cage for a…

On to Tig. Now Tig is the abbreviation for tungsten inert gas welding. It is much more advanced due to its ability to work with no constant flow of steel wire, and also the ability to weld aluminum with different forms of tungsten tips. I’ll talk about that later. Tig is a very complicated thing to explain, you will just get the basics. This form of welding is MORE versatile than Mig, and also much harder to learn. Tig requires very good hand eye coordination and a steady foot to operate gas flow. For some jobs Tig requires filler rods which have the same purpose as the steel wire in a Mig welder, just to add material and also strength. Tig is commonly used to weld custom exhausts.

Here is a rather cheesy but useful diagram of a Tig welding
Here is a rather cheesy but useful diagram of a Tig welding

Now you know the basic differences, and hopefully how they kind of work. Both have their pro’s and con’s. With Mig you can only weld steel, Tig you can weld multiple kinds of metal. Mig is easier, Tig is much harder. Both require a clean surface and good ground to work properly. Tig is better for very small precise work, yet with Mig you can weld a whole building together. As you have seen before Tig is very pretty in the hands of a professional #weldporn yet with Mig you can practically drop a bead of birdpoop and it will still hold steel together “sort of”. Both of them can do basically everything you will ever need when it comes to building a project car. You can drop ten grand on any kind of welder or get one used for a few hundred dollars/euros and teach yourself in that creepy shed of yours out back.

AC stands for alternating current in the electrical world. As you can see Mig and Tig welds can look quite similar.
AC stands for alternating current in the electrical world. As you can see…

Safety should always be considered when welding. A proper mask for the kind of welding you are doing and clothes. Welding produces light that is much brighter than the sun. You can burn your eyes with Tig and Mig very easily if you are not paying attention. Trust me, it flipping hurts.

Each Tig and Mig welder has an amp adjustment. This is an arch/amp chart. What this shows is the brightness generated with the amount of amps being used. Not all welding masks can handle max amps, so it is a good idea to look at this and make sure you are not going to bake your brains out with a mask that can't handle what you are doing.
Each Tig and Mig welder has an amp adjustment. This is an arch/amp chart…

Alright, so concluding I touched on the basic pros and cons of Tig and also Mig welding. The basics on how they work. What they can be used for, and also safety. I have about 4 years of Mig and Tig welding under my belt, trust me I could of made this post much more complicated. If you are just starting out, I would suggest Mig. If you are a brave individual, do some more reading and buy a Tig welder, they are better machines and can handle a wider array of work, for a bigger price. Who needs money anyway when you can have a Lamborghini V10 swapped drift Miata?

Tig and Mig Welding-The basics and uses in today's car culture. #blogpost

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Comments

Klykan1

So many errors in this blog! Haha, lucky people understand though.

09/24/2017 - 20:43 |
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Mr.PurpleV12

In reply to by Klykan1

My grammer is pretty bad.

But hey if Jack Orr likes it haha

09/24/2017 - 20:44 |
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Anonymous

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09/25/2017 - 01:14 |
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Mr.PurpleV12

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

[DELETED]

09/25/2017 - 01:42 |
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Anonymous

[DELETED]

09/25/2017 - 02:03 |
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Anonymous

i have worked as a welder for 4 years as well now, i must say tig is my favorite, but no weldingporn sadly only construction welding and that sort of stuff :)

09/25/2017 - 19:11 |
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Anonymous

There’s a lot of misconstrued information here. I’d say in total, the information isn’t exactly wrong, but the lack of welding experience with the different welding processes shows. For one, almost any metal can be welded with any process. There are even aluminum stick rods. Some of the exotic alloys may be for TIG only, but that’s about it.

One particular part I want to reference is that the pedal used for tig welding has nothing to do with gas flow, other than it activates the solenoid in the machine to allow gas to flow. The pedal controls your amperage after setting the range on the machine.

While mig is “easier” to do, it’s also easier to make a bad weld. A mig weld can look beautiful, and have zero fusion with the base metal. Its difficult to see how much penetration you are getting when you are a beginner.

One thing I want to put out there is anyone considering learning to weld because they are a car enthusiast, should become proficient at it before attempting to do any work on their vehicle that could be a safety issue if the weld failed. Want to try to weld your own exhaust? Go for it. Need to patch a hole in a body panel? Try it out. Want to weld your own motor mounts or suspension components? Leave that to someone who is proficient at welding, or wait until.you become proficient.

I’ve been a welder fabricator over 10 years, and will be happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

09/26/2017 - 12:38 |
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Anonymous

[DELETED]

09/26/2017 - 14:39 |
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Anonymous

What a waste of time, there’s almost nothing in this article that even slightly resembles accurate information. Stop trying to be something you’re not, you’re most definitely not a welder, keep laying down your “bird poop” welds and see how far you get. And leave the writing about welding to someone who knows something about it.

09/26/2017 - 15:53 |
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Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

So true

09/26/2017 - 16:04 |
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Anonymous

Probably the worst article I have read about welding. I would be happy to help or even write your next article

09/26/2017 - 17:35 |
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