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MIG vs TIG vs Stick — Which Does Your Repair Need?

MIG, TIG, and stick welding explained in plain English — what each one's good at, where each falls down, and which process your repair or fabrication job actually needs.

MIG vs TIG vs stick — which does your repair need?

You don't need to pick the welding process — that's my job — but it helps to know what they are, because it explains why some jobs are quick and cheap and others aren't, and why "can you weld aluminum on-site" is a real question and not a dumb one.

Here's the plain-English version of the three you'll hear about: stick (SMAW), MIG (GMAW), and TIG (GTAW) — plus flux-core, which is MIG's outdoor cousin.

Stick (SMAW) — the field workhorse

Stick welding uses a coated rod ("electrode") that melts to both fill the joint and create its own shielding gas as the coating burns. No external gas bottle needed.

What it's good at:

• Outdoors, wind, and dirty steel. The shielding is built into the rod, so a breeze doesn't blow it away. This is why field welders run stick.
• Thick steel and structural work — beams, columns, heavy brackets, frames.
• Position welding — overhead, vertical, underneath a trailer.
• Rusty, painted, less-than-perfect surfaces — stick is more forgiving than the others (still better to clean it, but it tolerates more).

Where it falls down:

• Slower than MIG, more cleanup (slag has to be chipped off).
• Not for thin sheet metal — it'll blow through.
• Not for aluminum or stainless where finish matters.

Most field repairs are stick or flux-core. If you've got a cracked frame in a yard, a broken bracket on a jobsite, or structural steel that needs a weld outdoors — that's stick territory.

Flux-core (FCAW) — MIG's outdoor cousin

Flux-core uses a wire feed like MIG, but the wire has flux inside it that makes its own shielding — so, like stick, it works outdoors and on dirty steel. It's faster than stick, handles thick material well, and it's a go-to for outdoor structural and equipment repair. Think of it as "stick's toughness, MIG's speed."

MIG (GMAW) — fast, clean, production

MIG feeds a solid wire continuously and uses a bottle of shielding gas. It's fast, it lays clean welds, and it's easy to run consistently — which is why shops use it for production and fabrication.

What it's good at:

• Speed and volume — long welds, lots of parts, fab work.
• Mild steel, thin to medium thickness — railings, brackets, sheet metal, light to mid-weight fab.
• Clean welds with little cleanup — no slag to chip.

Where it falls down:

• The shielding gas blows away in wind — so MIG is a shop/indoor process unless you can block the breeze. (That's where flux-core comes in for outdoor wire welding.)
• Doesn't love rust, paint, or dirty steel — needs a cleaner surface than stick.
• Not the right tool for aluminum precision work or thin stainless that has to look right (though spool-gun MIG does aluminum in production settings).

Fabrication and shop repair on mild steel is usually MIG. New railings, brackets, racks, light structural fab — MIG, often indoors or somewhere out of the wind.

TIG (GTAW) — precision, aluminum, stainless, finish

TIG uses a non-consumable tungsten electrode and a separate filler rod you feed by hand, with shielding gas. It's slow, it takes real skill, and it produces the cleanest, most controlled welds — and it's the right (often only) way to do certain metals.

What it's good at:

• Aluminum — boat hulls, trailers, tanks, ladders, equipment parts. Aluminum pulls heat away fast and doesn't change color before it melts; TIG gives the control to do it right.
• Stainless steel — railings, tanks, food-grade work, anything where the weld has to stay corrosion-resistant and look clean.
• Thin material and precision — sheet metal, tubing, cosmetic welds where the bead has to look right, not just hold.

Where it falls down:

• Slow and expensive — more time, more skill, so it costs more.
• Fussy about cleanliness — aluminum especially has to be clean, dry, and ideally not freezing cold, or the weld's no good.
• Overkill for a heavy steel bracket — you wouldn't TIG a frame rail.

If your part is aluminum or stainless, it's TIG. That's why those jobs cost about 35% more than mild steel — the filler costs more, it takes gas, the prep is fussier, and it takes more time and skill. And it's why "can you weld aluminum on-site" depends on whether the conditions on your site are clean and dry enough — sometimes yes, sometimes it comes to the shop.

So which does your job need?

• Broken steel bracket, cracked frame, structural weld, outdoors or dirty → stick or flux-core. Fast, tough, field-friendly.
• New railing, rack, light fab, mild steel, somewhere out of the wind → MIG. Clean and quick.
• Aluminum anything, stainless anything, thin precision, cosmetic finish → TIG. The careful, costlier option, and the only right one for those metals.
• Cast iron → a different beast again — nickel rod, preheat, slow cooling. Some cast iron is repairable, some isn't.

You don't have to figure this out. Tell me what broke or what you want built, send photos, and I'll bring the right process. But now you know why the aluminum boat repair isn't priced like the steel bracket repair.

Got a job? Send photos.

Tell me what the metal is and what's wrong with it, send a few photos, and I'll quote it — and bring the right rig for the job.

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