Welder

Well, roughly people associate arc welder with stick welder (it uses flux-coated rod).
This is the cheapest kind of welder. It's ok for general purpose works. Beads tend to be messy and it
produces lots of smokes.
MIG welder is wire-feed welder, it uses gas (rather than solid flux). The electrode is in the form of wire spool of different thickness.
This is a better welder than first one. It still produce fume though. Sizes may vary, but they have a portable one (Costco Wholesale used to sell one for around $150 for basic unit).
I think now the cost is around $300 for the basic setup (maybe without the gas).
Then there is TIG welder. This is one awesome welder. Like MIG it uses gas but the electrode is made from Tungsten metal.
This machine is way too expensive for my pocket (we have one in our machine shop about as big as a refrigerator).
Both MIG & TIG are good machines. For my own use I get MIG. It's reasonably priced and good for aluminum and steel.
I may be missing something here and there but those are the general ideas. Someone else may fill me up with more info.
I hope this helps.

Dody

ARC, MIG, TIG and any other forms of welding have thier good and bad points but like Dody said the ARC welding can produce some ugly beads unless your use to the proper procedure where as a MIG welder will allow you to produce decent beads the first time and then with some practice you will get some "show room" quality beads. And thats the key practice, practice, practice. I would suggest that you pick up a copy of the Weldors Handbook (sp?) from Lincoln Electric, I picked up the revised copy from Home Depot just the other day. It will give you great details of different welding machines and how-to's. Before you purchase a welder take a look at it and any other refference materials you can get a hold of, then talk to any local welding shops you have. This will allow you to get the one thats right for you.

rlm93yj

/wwwthreads_images/icons/tongue.gif An arc welder is the classic arrangement like they welded ships together with in the shipyards in WWII....used stick electrode with a flux coating which burns and makes a bubble of gas to keep the weld away from the air while you are welding. Arc welders will weld through just about anything if pretty doesn't matter. Outdoors, they are better in bad weather, especially wind. MIG is Metal-Inert-Gas....uses bare wire with a flow of inert gas squirted from the nozzle to shield the weld from the air. A little more finicky when it comes to dirt, crud and batcrap on the metal. Won't weld outdoors in wind because the inert gas shield keeps getting blown away. MIGs have more range available with the same size wire....you can go from tissue paper thickness to heavy by adjusting the current and wire speed, which is a HUGE advantage. MIGs are limited in where you can reach since the welding gun must get wire "pushed" to it from the spool. They have hand-held spools as well, but Oh, the weight to hold up hour after hour! For real critical stuff I like to use my MIG because the wire is tiny and I can get it in the crack, or hole, or gap and really concentrate the weld where it's gotta be. For pipeline, outside in the mud, upside down, with water trickling out, give me my Lincoln 300 DC stick machine with the six-cylinder Continental engine, a Jackson twist-tight holder that is cut off short, and a slide-front helmet./wwwthreads_images/icons/crazy.gif

CJDave