A MIG welder is perhaps the most universal welder utilized in the automotive world today, commonly used for combining together thin gauge sheet metal or steel pipe. It is a kind of arc welder, meaning that it uses high voltage electricity to generate enough heat to make a weld. MIG stands for metal inert gas and is called so because of the gas shield that is emitted from the end of the welding nozzle once it is powered on. This gas shield is created from a cloud of metal inert gas that is released from a tank connected to the welder. The gas is pumped from the tank through the welding cable, and it comes out of the same nozzle that the welding wire is fed through creating an actual protective gas cloud to keep contaminants out of your welding surface area.
The MIG welder is also a type of wire-feed welder. This means that the metallic wire used to create the weld material is held on a spool inside the welder. This welder has multiple different heat settings which allow you to control the level of a weld’s depth and penetration. There is also a way to adjust the feed rate of your welding wire to help you control the level of weld material that is coming out of the end of the nozzle. A MIG welder can take time to fully master, but it is a relatively simple welder to work on as a beginner, and it is a highly versatile tool for working on automotive projects.
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