The Home Machinist!

I'm a TIG guy, so unfortunately I can't shed any light on that.

Although I have a MIG welder, it sleeps in the corner for years and years at a time.

I have always considered the average MIG welder to only be a quick method to almost stick two things together...

Automated or production MIG welding is another story.

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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!

So it makes sense that you would have seen as obvious that TIG has a real advantage here. In the nuclear industry, TIG was frequently the method of choice for the root pass. A bit slower, and more complicated to automate but the time saved in going back to grind out and re-weld flaws was worth the time and expense. Our most common weld was the a two sided double J-Groove with a similar lip arrangement. The root pass was made fusing the lip and the Groove might be partially filled, then the back side double J groove was cut and dye penetrant checked for flaws and then partially welded. The grooves were progressively filled using automated MIG alternating between sides to reduce weld distortion and allow progressive dye penetrant checking. Once filled and machined smooth, the welds were x-rayed. Actually the weld prep was dye penetrant checked before any welding was done. It was a pretty fussy business, but you know how upset the public can get when a nuclear reactor fails......

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I never met anybody that I couldn't learn something from.

Funny what some people get whipped up about...

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Glenn

Operating machines is perfectly safe......until you forget how dangerous it really is!