A wire feed welder is a popular machine designed to attach steel objects to other steel objects. Welding is used in many manufacturing processes as well as for making repairs and even for industrial art. A wire feed welder, also know as a MIG welder, is one of the most common and also most easy to learn types of welding.
At a fundamental level, all welding is similar: two pieces of similar metal are permanently and strongly joined by melting a third piece of metal so that it joins the two original pieces. Welding was originally done with a gas torch and is sometimes still done this way. Now, modern welding typically uses high voltage electricity which is arced to create enough heat to melt metal.
Wire feed welders are most often used to weld steel objects. In many ways, they are like the grown up version of a hot glue gun: the glue gun wills in a stick of solid glue, melts it, and deposits it in a controlled fashion to attach one object to another. Similarly, a wire feed arc welder has a roll of thin steel wire inside. This wire is fed out into the torch of the welder. When engaged, the electricity is arced to instantly melt the wire and the wire is advanced forward in order to deposit a bead of melted steel which strongly attached two steel objects together. Though you may not know it, you probably use dozens of things that were MIG welded every day including car parts, steel chairs and parts of kitchen appliances.
Learning to use a MIG welder is not incredibly difficult but you should have good training because it can be dangerous if you don’t understand the risks. First, the light given off by the welder is incredibly bright and can damage your eyes if you look at it. In order to see what you are doing and control the welding process, you use a welding helmet which has a dark filter to make it safe to look at the electrical arc. Good helmets are normally easy to see through and automatically darken when they sense the welding arc. It’s also important to wear heavy leather projective gloves and a similar jacket as well. Welding will generate thousands of sparks, all of which are white hot metal which can easily burn through normal clothing and then burn your skin as well.