VIDEO: Living With a Gas Shielded vs Self Shielded Welder

The purpose of this video is to help you decide whether to go for a gas shielded welder or a non-gas shielded

So one that requires the use of self-shielding MIG welding wire. So I'm going to lay down a couple of beads and you're going to see what the difference is

Not just in the quality of the bead itself, and I will show you that, but also just in the experience

Especially how the the non-gas shielded welder develops more smoke and things like that

But on the other hand, it's also simpler to use and adjust

So I'll start with a non-gas shielded weld and you can decide for yourself what you think of it

So you can see that there was some smoke being given off. Not a whole lot, but that was the shielding gas in action

This is a pretty good weld, a fairly decent weld with the self-shielding wire

You can see the residue from the smoke around it. And a little bit rougher, not quite as nice looking as the one you're going to see with the gas shielded, but still quite serviceable

And that's basically what life with a non-gas shielded welder looks like

Now we'll go gas shielded. So I'll just switch on the welder here and turn on the gas

So a lot less smoke, almost none at all. And a neater looking bead

Has a little bit of charring around the outside just from the heat, but still kind of a nicer looking weld

In this case it's a little bit higher than this one. That just has to do with the difference in the power setting of the welder

But there you have it. A good example of non-gas shielded and gas shielded in action

Now there are two things I want to leave you with in this video. Regardless of the kind of welder you use, this is what you're going after

This is a weld bead that I put on some steel and then I cut it and sanded it

So you can see that there's no difference between the weld bead and the parent material

It is fused. It's basically one. This is what they mean when they talk about good penetration of the bead

There's no joint line there. It's just a solid, continuous piece of steel

So that's what you want. And just one final thing too. As I mentioned, the kicking horse is a great little welder

It's one of the best small ones that take 120 volts. No gas shielding

That welder happened to come with this welding wire. Which is for gasless use. It says right on it

In practice though, the name brand wire is often better quality. And in this case, that's true

The weld bead that I just laid down there, I was using some Lincoln electric self-shielding wire

So compared with the kind of bead that the kicking horse wire lays down, the Lincoln stuff is much better

So remember that wire quality can have an effect in your welding results as well

I'm not saying that all non-common brand names are not going to work well for you

But you just need to keep it in mind. And if in doubt, go for the brand name ones

Lincoln is one. You certainly won't go wrong with that and with their welding wire

Even if you're using some other kind of equipment