I'd say this is good enough to at least get you started stick welding. Even though it's on the low end of power and duty cycle, stick is the welding process that is capable of doing the thickest material with the least power. It's messy though...don't expect nice MIG or TIG looking beads, but you can likely get good (but still ugly) welds with some practice. There shouldn't be any damage from hooking the leads up wrong since it's AC. When you're trying to strike an arc, think of it as striking a match...that's the best analogy I've ever heard, and it's pretty accurate. The duty cycle is really low, so expect to spend lots of time standing there waiting for the machine to cool. Also, make sure you wear safety glasses underneath the auto-darkening hood...here's why: it'll become a habit to raise the hood immediately after you finish a bead...with stick you generally will grab your chipping hammer and chip the slag off so you can run another bead. If you don't have safety glasses on underneath the welding hood, you can get a piece of hot slag in your eye while chipping after you've raised the hood and forgotten to put the safety glasses on. In fact, you don't even have to be chipping it off with the chipping hammer...hot slag will sometimes pop off as it cools. You absolutely do not want to get a piece of hot slag in an eye...develop the habit of wearing those safety glasses all the time from the start! Make sure you wear thick welding gloves as well...welded steel stays hot for a long time. Keep good ventilation since this is a smoke wrench, and beware that you are dealing with high-amperage electricity on a torch that is hot everytime you turn the machine on. (It takes less than 1 amp under the right conditions to cause cardiac arrest...namely, passing through the chest from one hand to the other while there's reduced skin resistance...think perspiration!)
And be sure to show us pictures of your yard-art when you're done! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Good luck,
Dave
