Welding Equipment - A Guide To Choosing Which Is Right For You

Oxy-Acetylene Welding Equipment

Welding with the use of gas dates back to the middle of 1800's where the mixture of oxygen and hydrogen were used in the making of jewelery.

Today we use a different mixture of oxygen and acetylene which together can produce a flame temperature in excess of 6000 deg f. This type of equipment is not only used for welding, but also to heat materials for bending and straightening, brazing and cutting.

An oxy-acetylene outfit is usually portable, versatile, and less expensive than a electric welding set up, and by using the correct tips, rods and fluxes, almost any metal can be welded, heated or cut. This equipment is ideally suited to the welding of thin sheets, tubes and pipes but not economical for thick section welds.

Arc Welders

Arc welding or stick Ppr pipe welding machine requires a higher skill level and mastery of certain techniques. Best for welding on thicker, rougher metals using a flux coated stick electrode fusing the work pieces together.

To avoid porosity and attain the ideal weld travel speed, it is important to remove excessive scale, rust, moisture, paint, oil and grease from the surface of joints. A variety of electrodes are available for the different types of metal that is to be welded, cast iron, stainless steel etc.

The electrodes need to be replaced as the heat builds up and the stick melts down causing a molten weld puddle on the work piece fusing the work pieces together. The weld must be cleaned when completed due to the flux electrode forming a slag blanket over the weld bead. Using an arc welder is a relatively slow process and is ideal for the more experienced user.

MIG Welding

MIG welding is generally a lot easier than gas or arc welding. A spool of weld wire is constantly driven by a feeding system through the MIG gun as the trigger is pulled, so unlike arc welding there is no need to constantly replace electrodes.