Just watching on cable about the refit of a ocean cruise ship. They were welding everything with stick, even what looked like 3/8" and less plate. Why not MIG? Tradition? Cheaper? ???
I would think it would be easier and cleaner, especially in the tight quarters they were in when welding in the interior of the ship. Wouldn't have to bust slag on the finished welds either.
When they weld the hull plates of a ship, what size rod do they use? Again why not MIG?
I also noticed they loved to use acetylene torches to cut holes in the plates on the side of the ship to add balconies. I know plasma cutters have more and more difficulty with thicker steel, but from a safety perspective I'd think getting a nice, clean cut with minimum heating of adjacent surfaces would be better. They did show starting a fire on board due to some spatter or hot pieces setting some filters on fire.
Just some questions that came to mind. Throughout the management was whining about how slow things were going and I know from my experience if I wanted to weld alot of dirty, corroded decently thick steel I'd fire up a MIG. Just would need a excellent duty cycle power supply.
Thoughts?