Welding

[Bedlam]

I got some at Lowes
but here is the HF - Harbor Freight Tools - Quality Tools at the Lowest Prices

 

[SuperDuty335]

If you are just starting out with stick, I recommend getting 1/8" 6013 rods and practice with those. The don't stick as badly as others and make it easy to manipulate the puddle, which in turn helps in learning the fundamentals. When you get fairly nice beads with 6013 go to a 6011 and master that... good luck. I have to make an initial pass with 6011 and dress it up with 6013's.

 

[greenmule]

Why don't you just weld the whole thing with 6013 instead of using 6011 than having to dress up with 6013?

 

[SuperDuty335]

Penetration. If I want to really get a deep root weld on thick steel I use 6011.

 

[greenmule]

Well,thats a good reason,but,if you are just making fillit welds[not full pen welds in a bevel,] you don't have to worry,that 6013 will give you all the strength a fillit weld will give you if you turn it up a little.Having a fillit penatrate in 1/2 inch will make it no stronger than 3/32 inch,very hard to make two pieces one with a fillit weld,[thats what full penatration welds are for].One way you can beef up a fillit a little is put enough in it as well,[up on sides,might need mulitple passes,one either over another or stacked on another,all tied into each other,etc]

Now if you are doing something more than that[welding pipe full pen],than you gotta get you a dc welder,E6010 is all the rod you need for 95 percent of things than.

 

[AKwelder]

A couple people in this thread have put down stick welding. I just hired on to weld maintenance for the Trans-Alaska pipeline, The company has tested every combination of welding for every use for 30 years. and stick is still here. we TIG attachment beads and hot passes, and alloys. We wire the structural, and we have combinations of all of them.

In the end stick has its place, and if you can't stick weld you can go somewhere else. after many decades it is still the standard that all else is measured by. I have sub-arc welded pipe and plates. TIG welded steels and Alloys, just came from a job on the arctic ocean MIG welding a pipeline, and I still have paid the bills under the hood burning stick more than anything else

A point was made and is right on the money, welding is only 20 % of working with metal, the fit up is the key

 

[greenmule]

Very true,the reason many cut down on stick among the amatures here,is cause they can't stick weld,most couldn't make a weld that was decent,out of flat postion even with their migs.

There are places for migs,just as there are places for tig,fluxcore,subarc,and try as the money pinchers do to get rid of stick on jobs,it ain't happened yet and it ain't going to happen in next 50 years anyways.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Here my take as an amature. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

The thing about a stick weld is that if you can make it look good, then it's probably a good weld (usually). You can make really pretty mig welds that won't hold.

 

[bobodu]

I tend to agree,but the real problem is the assumption that a good looking MIG weld IS a good weld.
I would think we have all seen the stories where some guy has built a trailer or motorcycle with a little 110v MIG and has had a catastrophic weld failure. Yes, I know full well that it is possible,but it is also more than likely that a person capable of properly doing this would have a better machine.
Somewhere in my shop is a textbook that shows x-rays of welds and it was enough to make a stick man outta me for heavy use applications.

 

[jenkinsph]

I use both stick and mig depending on the job at hand. Proficientcy comes with practice, lots of practice.



Steve