Unpopular opinion: Stick welding isn't always the answer

Had a chat with a younger guy on a job site in Gary last week. He asked why I was running MIG on a 3/8 plate job and said his old foreman always swore stick was the only way for structural. I told him my foreman taught me the same thing 20 years ago, but he was wrong about a lot of stuff. Look, stick has its place, but if you're laying down long horizontal beads on clean steel, MIG is faster and leaves less cleanup. Why are we still acting like it's weak?

2 comments

2 Comments

hannahw3024d ago

Wait, his foreman taught him that 20 years ago? So this guy was still running around in like 2004 acting like MIG was some newfangled gimmick? That's wild. I've seen dudes like that, they treat stick like it's a religion and anything else is heresy. They'll spend an extra hour chipping slag and grinding down birdshit looking beads just to say they "did it right." Meanwhile I can run a spool gun on that same 3/8 plate and be done before they've even got their third rod in the stinger.

the_riley24d ago

Holy crap, 2004? That's wild, I didn't realize people were still that stubborn about MIG that late.