Welding: Stick vs. Wirefeed

Do you prefer a stick or wirefeed welder?  I have a Hobart wirefeed that has always had issues with feeding the wire, so now I am thinking of switching to a stick welder.  Thoughts?

I use a Hobart mig and like Dakota Dave only use stick for heavy items or for running hard surfacing rod. I never had a mig for years just a stick welder. Mig sure is nice for most general purpose stuff and for thin stuff such as sheet metal.

Wire! Hardly ever use our old stick welder. We did have a bad spool of wire one time that won't feed right! Tried everything and finally put another in and it worked fine again.

Use both as cast and some SS is stick, wire on just about everything else.

I have both a Miller-Matic 210 240V wire feed and a Thermalarc stick welder; the biggest issue as to poor wire feed is rust or corrosion on the spool, the wire gets corrupted and it will slip in the rolls.  Sorry to say if it does get rusty about the best use for it is tie wire.

I use stick for heavy or field work as my welder is gas engined, the wire feed is well suited for very clean very new metal welds or very well prepped weld areas on older steel, it has to be very very clean and no rust on the weld zone.  I also prefer the wire welder on stainless but good old 7018 does work there too.  I did get smart and bought a remote spool aluminum gun with the wire welder package.

The only reason that i would go back to stick is if i couldn't get wire. I have used some very fine wire welders.  

7060 Mig welders will out power stick welders any day, with good wire welder you can do anything, Mig welders have alot longer duty cycle also. Any type of welder can make perfect welds, in any position, it just takes practice, and like 7060 said tig is nice, but is only good for thin material.

The mig welders do have longer duty cycles but you don't have to stop and put a rod in either. At welding school I would run rod after rod as fast as it took to chip and put your rod in. I would do that nonstop for 3 hours, usually burning 7 pounds of rods. If your set your machine right you just have to run your chipping hammer up the weld and the sl*g falls off. I welded V plates over and over.

Edited by 7060 - 06 Apr 2011 at 9:09pm

Wire welder is best all around tool in my opinion. 

I have a Miller 304 which is SMAW, MIG, TIG all within the same machine and also a Pow-Con 250A which is SMAW, MIG and scratch TIG machine. As both are inverter welders they give the same results as a DC machine in running most wires or stick.

On my tour of the John Deere Harvester works I noticed the preferred machine is Lincoln. Only saw a couple Miller machines.

with .035 flux core wire feed is the wire positive or negative?

I wouldn't go without both... but I've got lots of welders.  Faced with just having one, it'd probably be an AC/DC engine driven stick welder, on a trailer, with an old fridge full of every type of rod on earth... just for brute variability...

But I've got the FIRST generation Hobart Handler, feeding 0.035" flux core, with electrode negative, and does just fine, but don't run it with an extension cord, and keep the wire clean, right tip, and right liner... pretty picky.

I've been working with lots of different welders lately- been converting 3-phase industrial machines like the Miller CP-200, CP-300 and CP-250TS wirefeeders and the SRH-333 DC stick/TIG supply to run single phase... they're metal-burnin' hosses!

i have the same problem here in the east texas humidity with corrosion 0f the wire.i have a hobart w/w.i find if you keep a 50 watt bulb in the wire compartment,it will eliminate the rust.dont like the flux coated wire...

Flux-coated?

Do you mean flux-core 'gasless' wire?

All wire that I've used has some sort of a light protective film coating, just there to fend off initial surface corrosion so you don't have a spool of wire go bad before ever going off the shelf... but it's not 'flux'... just a really light oil that's designed not to foul the rollers or liner, and burn off prior to ever getting into the arc.

Yep, use wipers, and keep it in dry storage, don't have more on-hand than you need, and don't buy a huge spool for your feeder if you're gonna have most of it sitting in the feeder for months- buy what you'll use, and store it dry when you don't, make sure the rollers, liner, and tip are clean, make sure your tip, diffuser, and liner are all connected properly, that you've got good electrical connections, correct polarity for the method, and no parasitic losses (extension cords, etc) taking the welder's breath away, and you'll have good results with a wirefeed.  For production work, particularly lighter framing, they're worth their salt. 

But EVERY welding process has it's specific requirements.  Really, you're not asking about what WELDER is most appropriate... you're asking what WELDING PROCESS is most appropriate, and without knowing the variation of what metal-gluing challenges you face, the answer is moot.  There are some things best left to a gas torch (shrug).  Kinda like asking what type of nail is best, when you don't specify wether you're building birdhouses, henhouses, or a stone church.  Best to have a variety of tools at your disposal, to accomodate need.  I wouldn't expect someone in Florida to keep an 8' Meyer snowblade fitted up to a Sno-Cat... but in North Dakota, it'd be an every day thing.