Theoretical question: Could you cut with a MIG?

[Bob S2]

THEORETICAL QUESTION!!!!
Hi,
Couldn't sleep last night, thought of something. If I can easily burn through 1/8 steel with my little 110volt mig, can you cut with it? I'm thinking of being able to cut sheet stock for a shelf. I can have it cut to size, but here's what I'm thinking. TIG welders have a tungstein tip which don't burn up, right? If you could get a tungstein tip and shut off the weld spool, could you cut thin steel with a little mig unit?
--Bob

[Franz]

You could probably do it, but the grinding time would far outweigh any savings over having it cut to size, and it would probably be **** on the machine.

[Charles Sand]

The first time i tried welding with my welder, I tried flux core wire (no gas) on 16 ga. exhaust tubing. The welding chart recommended #2 heat setting, but even on #1 setting, the **** thing burned thru the pipe like a freakin' plasma cutter.

[davesisk]

You could probably do this (although I doubt you could fit a tungsten electrode to the MIG gun), but I agree with Franz that you'd probably spend all day grinding. I'd suggest grabbing a $20 air nibbler from Harbor Freight (assuming you have a compressor already available). It'll make a nice, neat cut through sheet metal up to about 18 guage or so. If you need to cut thicker material, see if you have a local welding supply that will rent you a plasma cutter.

HTH,
Dave

[hals7x]

While we are some what on the topic of nibblers...

I have been looking for a tool to cut 16 ga. sheet metal to use while makeing some armor. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46061 I found that. Any of you know what kind of quility of cut I would be getting. Thanks.

Lee

[Franz]

Well, you could always bore a tip out to accept a tungsten, and gently crimp the tungsten into the tip, but it wouldn't cut for crap.

Nibblers are only good for cutting non straight lines, and if you get a nibbler, make sure you can get replacement punches and anvils cause you'll need them.
You can also buy air and electric shears, and they are better for straight lines on light sheet metal.
Best move is to use plasma.

Shears and nibblers that Harbor Flotsum sell ain't worth having unless you just need a "tool" to hang on the pegboard wall, the cutting ends SUCK even though the motor ends aren't too bad.
Those things are lucky to cut car body metal, and won't cut that for long.

[Roger]

Such a simple idea has been tried more than once but not practical.
Trying to use your constant voltage MIG welder with tunsten would be difficult to maintain arc and would be real hard on your welder. If tungsten touched work Amps go too high as welder tried to maintain constant voltage during short circuit over heating welder. If you held long arc, voltage wouldn't go high enough to maintain arc.

[davesisk]

Originally posted by hals7x
While we are some what on the topic of nibblers...

I have been looking for a tool to cut 16 ga. sheet metal to use while makeing some armor. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=46061 I found that. Any of you know what kind of quility of cut I would be getting. Thanks.

Lee

I have one of these, and it works reasonably well. The specs are wrong...it requires 3.5 CFM @ 90 PSI rather than 17.5 CFM @ 90 PSI. It has a difficult time with 16 guage sheetmetal, but it works fine with 20 guage (and likely pretty well with 18 guage). You can get replacement cutting tips and anvils, but you have to call HF's tech support line to order them (they're not listed in the catalog), and it takes a few weeks to get them.

I'd agree with Franz on types of cutting...if you need to cut straight lines, go with shears; if you need to cut non-straight lines, go with a nibbler. There's a hand-operated nibbler that's really cheap (like in throw-away price) if it's a "one-time use" kind of need, and you don't mind a little hand exercises...

You could also put a cutting wheel on an angle grinder, and cut it that way. That's probably the cheapest alternative. If you plan on cutting a lot of sheetmetal, go ahead and buy a plasma cutter!

HTH,
Dave

[turbo2ltr]

Not to hijack this thread, but the last thing dave said propted me to ask: Can you put an abrasive wheel on a table saw and use it to "rip" sheetmetal? Like in inverted chop saw. I don't own a table saw, but figured I'd ask...

-Mike

[Aaron]

I suppose that depends on what kind of tablesaw, how thick is the sheetmetal, and how much you mind the noise and debris.

Personally, I have a nice tablesaw, which cost more than a plasma cutter, so I would likely murder anyone attempting to cut sheetmetal on it. But I will admit to cutting light metals (think alum) on my mitersaw using an old trim blade.

I'm afraid that a tablesaw cheap enough to justify the potential damage is unlikely to carry the gonads required to cut steel. I wouldn't want a blade to stall or bind while doing that.

[morpheus]

Originally posted by turbo2ltr
Not to hijack this thread, but the last thing dave said propted me to ask: Can you put an abrasive wheel on a table saw and use it to "rip" sheetmetal? Like in inverted chop saw. I don't own a table saw, but figured I'd ask...
-Mike

Before I had any other metal cutting tools I used to cut steel with my radial arm saw and have a friend who still cuts steel with his 10" table saw all the time. It's LOUD and slow depending on the thickness of the steel but doable.

I ripped a 4x8 sheet of almost 1/8" steel for a workbench top surface over some MDF a while back, I used an abrasive blade in my circular saw and a 2x4 clamped down as a cutting guide.

- jack