Hot take on stick welding vs mig for heavy plate work

I had to pick between stick welding and mig for a big pressure vessel job last month in Gary, Indiana. I went with stick because of the wind factor outside, but the welds took way longer to clean up. Has anyone else dealt with this trade off on outdoor boiler work?

3 comments

3 Comments

rileygarcia1mo agoMost Upvoted

Yeah but stick burns way hotter on thick plate, you're getting better penetration that MIG just can't match indoors or out.

nathan1001mo ago

Yeah I used to swear by MIG for everything but after a couple windy days on a bridge job last year I totally switched my thinking on stick. That cleanup time is annoying but at least you know the weld itself is solid and not getting any porosity from the wind messing with your gas coverage.

smith.nancy1mo ago

A buddy of mine named Mike had a similar situation on a bridge retrofit outside Cincinnati last fall. He was running MIG on some handrails and a gust kicked up and ruined three passes in a row, all porous and garbage. He grabbed his old stick rig out of the truck and never went back to wire for the rest of that job. Even with the slag chipping and brush work, he said the confidence in the weld was worth the extra 10 minutes per joint, totally agree with @nathan100 on that one.