Is it the man or the machine?

[Old Guy]

I have four 1/4" steel plates. Once welded, these will be used to hold you over a pit of 1800 degree LAVA.

I will give two of the plates to a man with a Harbor Freight welder who has 30 years experience in welding.
I will give the other two plates to a guy with very little experience but he gets a Miller 215.

Once they are both done welding you have to choose which plate will hold you over the lava.

Which plate will you choose?

Whats more important in welding, the man or the machine?
And for the math guys, what percentage would you say is man / machine?

[H80N]

I have four 1/4" steel plates. Once welded, these will be used to hold you over a pit of 1800 degree LAVA.

I will give two of the plates to a man with a Harbor Freight welder who has 30 years experience in welding.
I will give the other two plates to a guy with very little experience but he gets a Miller 215.

Once they are both done welding you have to choose which plate will hold you over the lava.

Which plate will you choose?

Whats more important in welding, the man or the machine?
And for the math guys, what percentage would you say is man / machine?

NEITHER ONE......

I would not be comfortable in either case

IMHO Man = 60% Machine = 40% But really depends on the man and machine... highly subjective

[OscarJr]

Unless your name is jigsaw, neither of those people would weld those for you given the possible consequences of someone possibly loosing their life. unless you hid the purpose from them. As an "old guy", I'm sure you want people to say that they would choose the weldor who has 30 years experience using the Harbor Freight welder, but to that I say, that not all experience is good experience. If he has been welding sheet metal HORRIBLY for the last 30 years, then I'd venture to say that he won't know how to work with 1/4" steel plate.

[Old Guy]

OK Oscar, forget about the AGE. Lets say the guy is almost as good as the third best weldor in the world.

[D Auger]

Pull the pin and buy a miller you get what you pay for !

[aametalmaster]

It really doesn't matter you will die anyway. Either from lack of oxygen or melting from the heat. But I would say man. I have welded on some pretty crummy machines over the last 40 years...Bob

[MAC702]

I'd rather be dumped into the lava than fry on the skillet above it.

[OscarJr]

OK Oscar, forget about the AGE. Lets say the guy is almost as good as the third best weldor in the world.

What is the criteria that determines the "third best weldor" in the world, and who decides those are the criteria by which to be judged?

[ryanjones2150]

I'll put one foot on one plate, one foot on the other....I ain't skeered....

[Synchroman]

I make it a point to stay away from both Lava and Harbor Freight welders. In answer to the question, I will say that experience will show through in most cases.

[xryan]

Yogi Berra said it best, "Welding is 90% mental, the other half is machine."

Friends don't let friends use Harbor Freight welders.

[ryanjones2150]

Unless they're using them to anchor a trot line.

[Broccoli1]

Always the operator.

a bad weldor will always be a bad weldor even if he has access to a quality machine. His experience or lack of will not allow him to even notice the welds are not good.

An experienced - this assumes a good weldor- will know, even with a machine of lessor quality.

[MAC702]

Good point, Ed! At least the good weldor with the really bad machine will say: "I wouldn't stand on that if I were you..."

[Helios]

Omma hazard a wild guess that the OP "Old Guy" is a welder who uses HFT garbich...