As technology evolves the different types of welding will also expand. I’m not sure how it’s going to change in the future but for now I’m just gonna stick with what I know. The most popular types of welding are, MIG welding, TIG welding, and stick welding. Each of them have there pros and cons.

MIG welding is probably the most common. Most Australian welding shops, such as the Arktek, use them and most hobbyist are likely to buy a MIG welder over the other two types and for good reason, it’s easy to use. All you have to do is pull the trigger, keep your nozzle a good distance away from the work piece and draw a straight line. Of course your going to have to play around with the settings depending on how thick the material your welding, but in general MIG is really easy to use.

MIG welding also has a higher deposition rate then the other two, which basically means your able to weld faster and get the most out of your filler metal.

The only real down side to MIG welding is when a gust of wind blows away your shielding gas and it’s not very portable… well actually my very first welding job my boss did drive around with a MIG welder in the back of his truck. For certain applications it probably was the best process to use, but I think having a stick welder would have been more appropriate to take on the road. Of the three types of welding, stick welding is the grandfather of them all. But don’t let it’s age fool you, even in an age where we have laser robot welders stick welding can still hold it’s own.

It’s survival most likely attributed to it’s simplicity and portability. You can weld almost anywhere, even underwater! You just need enough cable to get to where you want to weld. All you need is a welder generator, welding cable, stinger, ground cable and welding rod, that’s it.

It does require more skill then MIG welding especially when it comes to striking the arc. You also have to worry about slag inclusion which weakens the weld.

Personally I think it’s more fun to use because your most likely to stick weld in all different types of positions, which just adds to the challenge of welding. Now if welding in different positions isn’t for you but your still looking for a challenge you might want to give TIG welding a try.

It requires the most skill of the three types of welding. But if your really good at it then you can make it look like art.

It’s a much slower process but the welds by far are way more superior, you don’t have to worry about slag inclusions and your have greater control over the bead. It’s like comparing a car that drives in standard to an automatic (MIG welding being the automatic).

You can also weld a wide verity of metals and it’s great for welding light gauge material.

There really is no “best” type of welding. Some processes are even used to compliment each other like in some pipe shops they use TIG welding for the root pass and finish off the rest of the pipe in stick. In fabrication shops you’ll probably find a lot of MIG welders and TIG welders too. It all really comes down to what your going to use it for.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *