Originally Posted by BROM@ZOO
takes yrs of practise
IMO that’s very good advice; practice is the only way to get good at welding; it's something that can't just be read about and then go and do it perfectly straight off. Just keep practicing at it and you’ll be alright in the end
What sort of things are you actually aiming to be welding in the long run? If you going to be going for mainly thinner material your better of learning GMAW (Mig) welding, if your aiming to be welding thicker metal then go for SMAW (Arc). As you've got relatively low amperage I’m guessing it's going to be thinner metal?
Definitely start by welding thicker flat metal, don't actually try joining anything, just lay down a bead of weld on a piece of solid metal.
whats the diference between mig and arc and why is mig easier? are they both as strong?
The basic differences are: Arc welding is done by holding an electrode (rod) in a torch and will slowly get shorter as more of the rod is fused to the base material to create the weld pool. Arc welding requires no gas supply as MIG welding does (excluding flux cored MIG welding wire). Arc welds will require clean up after to remove the slag, normally done with a chipping hammer and a wire brush.
MIG welding (normally) requires an external gas supply - in a lot of cases MIG welding is actually MAG welding as cheaper gasses such as C02 are used either as a 100% or to dilute Argon. C02 is not totally inert. MIG welding works by feeding the "electrode" of a spool in the form of wire. Gas MIG welds should be clean and require no cleanup. Flux cored welds will need some wire brushing.
The question of strength is pretty much irrelevant as either way that the weld done; MIG or Arc it should be stronger than the base metal however there are some simple formulas for calculating the minimum yield strength if you really need to?
Me, personally I much prefer TIG welding over any other type of welding process available, it more or less exclusively what I do when it comes to welding. Mig and Arc are both extremely crude in comparison with no where near as much control as TIG. IMO TIG is unbeatable for versatility, precision and control, the only places is falls short is speed - it's comparatively a very slow process and also far more operator skill is required to work a TIG correctly.