Tool Reviews

Why the liner matters A MIG torch liner guides the wire from the feeder drive rolls through the cable and into the contact tip. If it is dirty, kinked, worn…

Why use a push-pull gun for aluminum Aluminum MIG welding is difficult to feed through a long torch liner. The wire is soft, so ordinary drive rolls can crush it,…

Birdnesting happens when MIG wire stops moving through the gun and piles up at the drive rolls, usually because the wire has met too much resistance downstream. The feed motor…

A MIG welder’s duty cycle is the share of a 10-minute period it can weld at a stated output without overheating. A rating of 40% at 200 amps means four…

Overhead MIG is hard on two fronts: gravity pulls the molten pool away from the joint, and the short arc makes small errors show up as spatter or a sagging…

Stainless steel is easy to burn through and easy to contaminate, so a MIG setup that works on mild steel may give poor results. The main adjustments are choosing a…

Start with the joint, not the spool Solid MIG wire and flux-core wire can both make sound repairs, but they suit different conditions. The practical choice comes down to the…

Burn-through happens when the weld pool melts through the sheet before you can move on. On thin steel, the fix is usually a combination of lower heat input, shorter welds,…

Why outdoor MIG welds get porous Porosity is a set of holes or bubbles trapped in solidifying weld metal. Outdoors, the usual culprit is shielding gas being blown away before…

MIG welding pliers are small tools, but they affect how reliably a gun runs. The right pair trims wire cleanly, removes spatter from the nozzle, cuts the electrode, and grips…