MIG welding TIPS and tricks - part 4

If you are looking at purchasing a MIG welder, and want to get the most you can out of it, there are a few things that you should take a look at before jumping in. If you’ll pay attention to these tips, you won’t regret your purchase later. Modern welding company manufacturers are moving towards inverter designs. Granted, there are a lot of transformer MIG welders still being produced, but all major manufacturers are rapidly moving towards inverters for good reasons. First is the flexibility of the platform. For relatively little additional cost without sacrificing performance or quality, these same units can be made into TIG and stick welders due to the flexibility of the design. If you are looking for a MIG, make sure it is an inverter, and make sure you get all the bonus processes you can afford. If an 240V inverter MIG only supports MIG welding and does not at least feature stick welding, you probably are over-paying for what you are getting. Also, make sure that your inverter MIG has some additional adjustments where you can fine tune your welder. With an inverter, it is given that both welding voltage and amperage will be adjustable, but there are additional features that can be incorporated into the design of the unit. These features, at a minimum should include both an inductance (arc force) and a burn back control. These features will allow you to fine tune the arc so that the best possible quality weld can be produced in any situation. Arc force allows you to adjust the amount of stickout the wire has while welding. This affects the puddle fluidity. Burn back allows the wire to “auto trim” after welding is stopped allowing you to restart without having to manually re-trim the wire.