Posted by NCWayne on January 28, 2010 at 23:41:57 from (173.188.168.35):
I'm asking this in regard to a post OLD made below about repairing a break in a loader arm. In the post OLD stated, 'Well V it out is the right thing to do but using a mig is the wrong way in my book......I also use either 7014 or 7018 rod when doing the repair and I make sure I run it on the hot side.'
I've seen basically the same thought expressed on here many times over the years so my question is this. What is the basis for thinking that stick welding is any better than wire fed welding? Most major mfgs have gone exclusively to some form of wire fed welding (gas shielded,flux cored,subarc, etc) for all of their welds, and have been using the process for many years with no problems. I'll guarantee any of you if you have a machine or implement on your place less than 40 years old it was built using mainly (if not completely) a wire fed process.
Granted both processes have advantages. If the weld needs to be done outside and the wind is bad then gas shielded isn't the way to go, but that doesn't rule out flux cored. The biggest advantage of stick welding is that the power source is all you need and all you have to drag around is the cables, where as with wife fed you need to lug the feeder around also. One big advantage of gas shield is that you can mke multiple passes without chiping flux but that advantage goes away with flux cored wire or when using subarc just as it does when using a stick. Along the same lines when you buy 50 lbs of stick rod your getting say 45 lbs of rod and 5 lbs of coating but when you buy 44 lb of solid MIG wire your getting 44 lbs of wire. Basically it's alot more economical to use gas MIG than anything else, unless you run a special shield gas instead of the standard 75/25.
Moving on, and concerning the strength of the weld, the strength of the electrode alloy is the same for a 7018 stick rod as it is for a ER7018 wire electrode (whether it's bare, coated, flux cored, or any combination thereof). As far as the actual penetration of the weld they are going to be the same if of done right. That said when you MIG if you want more penetration or higher welding speeds you can often do that by using a higher voltage and/or wire speed, or also by using a different shielding gas, etc, etc, where as with a stick machine you just turn up the amperage a little. Too when using either process using a larger electrode and the proper settings gives more penetration and faster welding times, and if the weld requires it then that's what you need to do because it's either that or multiple smaller passes for the same strength. Too with either process if you get things too far out of spec on the amp/volt settings, if you weld too fast, if you weld to slow, if you don't hold the correct arc length, etc,etc then you get a poor quality weld.
Given all of that can anyone tell me why MIG welding is viewed as inferior to stick welding....when in fact both processes would provide the same quality weld, in any given situation, when properly performed...and in fact have done so for alot of years on millions of pieces of equipment???
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