A lot of people have the misconception that welding is this outrageous, risky and dangerous thing to do because it involves sparks flying around and metal being melted in front of your face. Maybe that was the case years and years ago but with today’s technological advancements there’s a whole lot of equipment like auto-darkening helmets and inverter machines which provide a safer working environment. To clear things up, let’s start with the rundown of the three welding process.
MIG (Metal Inert Gas) Welding
This type of welding is meant for indoor use because of the gas that is being plumbed from the welding gun itself in order to protect the weld from contamination, and if something like wind, is in the way of it, there’s no chance you will get any welding done. MIG type machines like the ones from, WIA welders Australia based stores, use steel wires to weld different types of ferrous metal. This is why CO2 is needed, in this case, because it best protects ferrous (metal that has iron in it) metal, unlike ARGON which is meant to be used on non-ferrous metal.
MMA (Manual Metal Arc) Welding
Also called ‘stick welding’, MMA uses metal rods (instead of wires) covered in flux, which, when exposed to the heat from the welder release the shielding gas around the weld, so it can protect it from moisture, oxygen and other gasses in the air. Stick welding is the best type of welding to start with, because of its ease of use. It is mostly used for minor home repairs and its only downside is that the metal rods last only up to a few seconds at a time making them the only consumable part. Something you should watch out for is the Duty Cycle (http://weldinganswers.com/understanding-duty-cycle/), which is imprinted on every rig and shows the time a welder can weld depending on the amperage.
TIG (Tungsten Inert Gas) Welding
ARGON is the usual suspect to protect from contamination when it comes to TIG as it is meant to weld non-ferrous metal indoors. This makes it the slowest process, and also the hardest one to learn. Although the torch handle can heat up or even melt if you are not cautious, this type of welding is the most precise as it provides full control. The user has to manually feed the weld with metal, which makes it best for fine quality welding. If you want to change currents for different applications, both Lincoln electric and WIA welders Australia made tools have a good array of TIG oriented welding machines that can do both AC and DC welding without a fuss.