# Brazing or welding



## bigsal51 (Jul 24, 2009)

I was looking at the gas welding or brazing and it looks clean and easy. So would you gas weld you smoker or arc. Pros and cons.


----------



## davenh (Jul 24, 2009)

I'm not sure, but I think it's alot cheaper to arc weld.


----------



## mikey (Jul 24, 2009)

Save the gas welding for exhaust systems. MIG welding is much faster but doesn't have the penetration that stick does, unless you leave a small gap. Gas welding will heat up your metal almost to the point of warpage. There's much more shrinkage in gas welding due to the high heat and when the metal cools. GMAW, or MIG would be the better choices.


----------



## travcoman45 (Jul 24, 2009)

Arc Weldin, quicker, cheaper an can do heavy stuff.  Gas ain't as strong with lots more headaches.  Just my two coppers worth.


----------



## forluvofsmoke (Jul 24, 2009)

As above ^^^^^^^^, also, brasing will not form an alloy with heavier gauge metals. I've done exhaust repairs with a torch, but used metal wire instead of brass rod.

Yeah, stick is harder to learn, gasless flux-cored is easy but not as good.

Eric


----------



## thundernoggin (Jul 24, 2009)

It depends on your welding skill and exactly what you are sticking together.  Brazing is more time consuming and not as strong.  I like the speed of MIG when there is a lot of welding involved. Stick might be a better choice if you are working with really heavy stock.  TIG just makes me angry.


----------



## moltenone (Jul 24, 2009)

obviously you don't weld,which in itself is not a crime,if it were i would have been jailed year's ago,if your wanting to build your own smoker,please take a welding class or two and learn the basic's of this fine trade before you decide to invest in a piece of equipment you will never use or utilize once you find out it's not that easy,seriously,take a class you'll be glad you did,and you will be proud of your build.


Mark


----------



## bigsal51 (Jul 24, 2009)

I did most of my welding in college but did arc and mig. I was just asking opinions


----------



## moltenone (Jul 24, 2009)

then mig should be your obvious choice bigsal.

Mark


----------



## smokeamotive (Jul 25, 2009)

I'm right there with you on that Thunder.


----------



## meat hunter (Jul 25, 2009)

As a welder for the past 15 plus years, I will tell you that they all have their places in the welding world. MIG is by far the fastest and its very clean. A decent mig welder will do fine up 3/8 and can easily handle 14-16 guage if you know what your doing. Tig is great for light stuff as is does not warp the metal like mig and stick. Although there is a learning curve on that one. Stick is the ole stand by. Great penetration but lots of cleanup. Are you planning on welding up a smoker? If so, mig is the way to go. No flux core, use a good shielding gas.


----------



## j0k3r-x (Jul 25, 2009)

ARC would be my choice.. but MIG will work fine also. In your case I would go with MIG since you probably will have better luck with that if you are just starting to weld. Make sure that you get a good MIG, at the very least 140 amps or more would be even better! TIG is not even an option for this application. Stick/ARC is the cheapest way to go but a little harder to learn, once you get the feel for it though it really is nice. Stick is great for thick stuff but not so great for thin metals. MIG will do both pretty good so I would say go with the MIG. I wouldn't really mess with the argon bottle right off and I would stay with flux core, if you are welding outdoors the argon tends to blow with the wind and is just another thing you will have to mess with. Flux core MIG works real good and makes a nice looking weld, just gotta chip off a little bit of slag thats all. Oxy acetylene is not really an option for this application either, would be great for cutting with a cutting tip. You can get a lot of good training videos from YouTube for all types of welding if you can't find a class or don't want to spend the $$$ on a teacher.


----------



## ghost308 (Jul 25, 2009)

You guys forgot the best and cheapest way, have someone do it for you and pay it off in BBQ and ABT's you'll both be very happy  :)


----------

