[TRACKRANGER]

Hi John

Nice resourceful repair.

Re: TIG snobs, I've got Stick, MIG and TIG. I use whichever does the job best. I'm certainly not locked in to any of them. Incidentally, one of the MIG's is dedicated to aluminum. And I don't have a problem using it if it's better and faster than the TIG.

Horses for courses.

Anyway, thanks for the great post with pic's to tell the story

Trev

[AKweldshop]

Hi John

Nice resourceful repair.

Re: TIG snobs, I've got Stick, MIG and TIG. I use whichever does the job best. I'm certainly not locked in to any of them. Incidentally, one of the MIG's is dedicated to aluminum. And I don't have a problem using it if it's better and faster than the TIG.

Horses for courses.

Anyway, thanks for the great post with pic's to tell the story

Trev

Thanks.

Thrifty people, you Alaskans, John. I think y'all got just about all the miles you could out of that old tractor rim.

I didn't really read the preceding posts as "TIG bashing", but rather a distaste for process snobs of any ilk. I'll be learning how to TIG very shortly, so if I start turning into a TIG snob, somebody slap my paws. Actually, my favorite process (so far) is stick, but I'm better at MIG because that's what I've done more of recently. Sorta out of practice on stick.

Nice job on that rim, John. Beautiful work.

ldb

Thanks.

[fredygump]

That must make me dumber because I seldom ever do. Don't really know why though, I'm half decent at it. Might have to make it a point to use it more.

Len

Ok,
Iv'e got to rant here.

I'm always seeing threads, (here and other places) where the people who use tig are always saying how much better they are then everyone else.
They say mig is quantity over quality.

Mig is for dummy's who think they know how to weld.
Be a real welder, buy a tig.

I call them tig snobs.
They take 3 hours to do a weld, and brag about their stack of dimes.

They are always bragging, "Whenever I am worried about needing a good strong weld, I tig it, so I can see it go in.


What about us repair men, fabricators?

I Think way to many ppl get swindled into a tig when they should really have a mig.



I just had to get that off my chest.

Bash away.

~John

I figured I should comment...

I think MIG has got to be the most useful and practical process by far. But I don't think it is very much fun to practice.

I'm finishing up a welding class, and after doing Stick, MIG, and TIG, I find that TIG is kind of addicting. I admit I did as little MIG as possible, because I just wanted to do more TIG. I did way more TIG than anybody else in the class...I did weird things like I turned a piece of 3/8" steel plate into a 1" oval bar...by running beads around and around. And on aluminum, I took some square tube and did the same, making bead after bead, layer after layer. And when I was practicing on some stainless, just running beads, I joked with classmates about how I was just trying to making all the pretty colors... It was a joke, but there is some truth to it. There definitely is an aesthetic appeal to TIG that MIG doesn't have.

But I figure MIG is for when you just need to get something done. I should have done more of it in school, because it's usefulness and capabilities are obvious to me. After struggling for hours to get parts fitted up just right, there's nothing better than to just "zap" it with the mig gun. Because then you're done.