- Today we are fielding viewer requests on entry-level stick welding. We've had a lot of requests lately so let's get into
shielded metal arc welding or stick welding. You guys like to stick your tungstens in when you're TIG welding. I like to stick the stick electrode. That's why they call it
stick welding, innit? Let's talk about rods because this... this process is real simple. It doesn't have very many
variables to it at all except for the rod. Very simply when we set up a machine, any machine, we are essentially connecting the ground or work cable to the negative lead or lug on the machine. And we are connecting
the electrode holder, stinger, whatever you want to call it, we're puttin' that to
the positive terminal. Okay? It's that simple. Some machines you can switch polarity on. Some machines you have to unbolt and physically move'em to DCEN or DCEP. Some machines have AC output. They'll run all three polarities. When we say all three, we're talking alternating current, DC electrode positive, DC electrode negative. Okay? Let's talk about
the electrodes themselves. I'll go through each of 'em one at a time. I'll run'em to their capability and I'll call out an amperage. And there's a big range of an amperage. First one, common rod E6010. This rod is designed to run DCEP only. Okay? It's the way it's designed to run. So, the classifications
of the numbering system for these common electrodes these are for steel. These are for carbon steel electrodes. The first two numbers in sixty ten indicate tensile strength. It's sixty thousand pounds. The third digit being a
one indicates position. And here's where it gets a little weird. One is for all positions. Two is for flat and horizontal. Okay, let's take that one. We're saying it's all positions. We can weld flat vertical horizontal and overhead. But it doesn't tell ya whether it can run vertical up, vertical down, or both. As far as a sixty ten,
it will and here's why. Let's get to the last number. It's a zero. That has the flux makeup and it has the I'll say the flux characteristics and the electrical characteristics
because of the flux. So zero in this instance
is high cellulose sodium. Big deal, you know. Here's what's important. The sixty ten is a violent, digging, fast freeze type of weld pool. Which means when I strike an arc I can dig and gouge. I can actually blow holes in this three-eighths plate with it. But as soon as I step
right out of the weld pool, the weld pool freezes nicely. Which allows me to weld flat, horizontal, vertical up, vertical down, and overhead, in this particular instance. That's just the nature of sixty ten. Again, DCEP only. Eighth inch. Just for the flat beads
that I'll demonstrate, I'm going to run about about
eighty-five, ninety amps. There are correct and
incorrect ways to stick weld. Okay? We don't want to use extreme angles. With TIG welding we said that we're always gonna push. So when we weld this is
always a forward process. With MIG welding, we're
generally straight in, slight drag, slight push. With stick welding, kinda the same thing. You have a window here, but we don't wanna use extreme angles like this and drag it. We don't wanna use extreme
angles and push an electrode. We need to direct the arc
down into the material. So, with just about any of 'em, any of the rods we're gonna discuss, you know if this was
straight-up ninety degrees and I went over here to
about ten degrees or so, fifteen degrees, and I
was dragging, I'd be fine. Okay, so let's just keep
everything real simple here. We'll get into techniques
of weaves and motions and all that later on. So first rod we're gonna run, e sixty ten, eighth inch, DCEP. I'm gonna run about eighty-five amps and I'm just gonna strike an arc and use a very slight rocking motion. (crackling) Okay? (crackling) Just back and forth and just kinda carry the bead along It's all I'm doing, real simple. Keeping the rod very slow, barely dragging the rod on the material... with a very slight pitch. (Crackling) So this rod, the nature
of this flux produces a I want to say a light
crystally type of flux. It doesn't come off real easy. It doesn't come off
connected, I should say, but don't beat the (beep) out of it because it can become
airborne if you beat it and come right back and
stick you in the lip or go in your eye. So... Generally let it cool. Scratch on it. Wire wheel with a grinder
or hand wire brush. One or the other. This rod does produce a
fair amount of spatter. (tapping) That's just the nature of the beast. Remember, I said it was a
violent, digging type of arc. So the benefits of this rod, root passes, tacking stuff together, again, we can run it in all positions. So if you're just running beads, and you're running at
the correct amperage, with the right technique, your bead is gonna be about
twice the size of your rod. I wasn't gouging it in there. As a matter of fact, if I
was, it would probably stick. So let's run, let's run this wrong. Let's do a, a long arc. Okay? So we're gonna strike an arc, and we're gonna run
normal for a little bit, and then I'm gonna show
you what happens if you do, if you lift up and start
running a long arc. Weld pool is gonna get violent. Or I should say the arc
is gonna get violent. The weld pool is gonna get, it's gonna kinda scatter
all over the place. It's gonna be hard to see
where the actual pool is. So let's try that. We're still at eighty-five amps. (crackling) Again, we're running at eighty-five amps. Gentle pitch, carrying the weld pool, normal arc length, and here's what happens when you pull the arc length back too far. (crackling, then sudden stop) Hard to keep the arc lit. Violent. Wide. Okay, we're just kinda making a mess. Things are out of control
because we're not getting that good stream down
at the bottom of the rod to direct it into the plate. (scraping) We're just pouring a
bunch of heat in there. The normal bead, the slag
is already off of it. This mess down here, might have to get some power tools on it to get it cleaned up. (swishing) We're three times as
wide as a normal bead. So that's the sixty ten. The second rod that we have to run, very similar, but it
is called sixty eleven. Again, let's go through
the numbering system. Sixty thousand pound tensile strength. The one in the third digit means that it'll run in any position. Again, this one has a violent, digging, fast freeze type of arc. I wish that I had the exact same size, but I don't, so that I could
show you the comparison. Some people have a hard
time telling the difference between the two, as far
as the arc characteristic. Fast freeze, digging,
violent type of weld pool. The one in this case
indicates a composition that allows it to run on
alternating current and DCEP. So it's very similar to sixty ten, except this one will run
alternating current as well. I'll run it on DCEP to
show the arc characteristic and you can hear it and everything. And then I will run it AC
so you can kinda hear it. And it's a little different, a little... I'm gonna say it's close to
the same arc characteristic although it doesn't, it doesn't penetrate or dig quite as much because again it's on alternating current. So let's run sixty eleven on DCEP. This is three thirty-second. I'm gonna run it about seventy amps. (crackling and hissing) Everything is pretty
much exactly the same. It looks the same under the hood. It smells the same when you get done. It's got that light,
crispy, flaky slag on there. So both the sixty ten and sixty eleven run real close to the same. Every one of these little ripples is my heart beat. No, I'm just kidding. Every one of these ripples
in here is where I kinda just a gentle stitch, rock, or whatever. But that's how violent and how fast freeze this electrode is. As soon as you oscillate or step forward, it freezes it. It makes that ridge in there. Let's do a whip and then
we'll run this rod AC as well. When we talk about whip, stitch, they kinda all mean the same thing to me. Whips is more of a violent term, you know? It's like (growls) - Whip. I'm gonna whip it. So, we're gonna initiate the arc, get the weld pool, and then we're just gonna
step completely out of it. We'll step, let it freeze,
come back on the leading edge. I'll try to make each of
these ripples in here, I'll try to make'em more pronounced. So let's try the whip. Whip it good! (crackling) (presenter humming) ♪ We can whip it. ♪ ♪ Whip it good! ♪ ♪ Moving forward. ♪ ♪ Step back. ♪ This is kinda like dabbing. (crackling) Yeah, yeah, you know what? The bead doesn't look too much different than anything else. But that is the big ol' stitch
and the whip and all that. There's all kinds of little techniques. Slag doesn't want to come
off of there very friendly. Look at all those
beautiful dabs. Beautiful. So there you go, there's a little afternoon
playtime for you there. (humming) Stitch, big whip, I mean, every time you step out of it, it freezes. You come back on the leading edge of it, and kinda make that
ripple pattern in there. Oh, I mean this has got so
many applications for it. It's a great farm rod. Eats through rust, mill scale. You can repair stuff. There's two rods you
can weld the world with out on the farm with an AC machine. This is one of 'em. I'll tell you what the other
one is here after awhile. Got a little story to tell ya. It's a good one. So I did mention that this rod would run alternating current. I'm gonna have to turn
the amperage up slightly. I'll probably go to this was seventy amps DCEP, I'll go eighty amps alternating current. (crackling) So I was thinking about that arc shot you can see that, you know, you can do some movement and manipulation. I think I did the little
stitch and nene there. Maybe, no? I don't know
whatcha call that, but. Started out a little cold, it looked like, but that was the right amperage. I could tell that it was softer
in the penetration profile. I haven't sicced a grinder
on any of these yet. You come back and look
at these over the top. You walk by 'em and glance at 'em, gonna be real hard to tell which one's sixty ten and
which one's sixty eleven. The next rod we want to
run is the sixty thirteen. Very common rod, very
soft arc, very dense slag. It'll all, it'll come off in a slag peel. And it kinda looks weird because when you run this rod correctly, when you get down to the end, there's these massive
holes in, in your slag that's getting ready to come up and you swear you got porosity. Sixty thousand pounds tensile strength. One position, although,
I have not had much luck running this vertical up. I think it runs vertical down for me. Three indicates the type
of flux and the polarity. The correct polarities that
this rod will run on are DCEP, DCEN, or electrode negative and alternating current. So this rod will run anything. Electrode negative will
deposit more material quicker, so you'll get a little bit more of a crown or build-up with EN. Let's run'em on all three. And we're not gonna play no
songs during this one here. We're not gonna whip it. This is just straight drag,
be as steady as you can, try not to fall asleep. (quieter crackle) Very quiet. Very quiet to run. (crackling) (clears throat) Do not see a slag peel. This plate is getting super heated from all of these other beads. But watch this. This is how easy. This is just coming right
up off of there with the rod that I'm flicking it off there. So this one looks to be
crowned up a little bit. It's got good color. Again it's real soft running. This is not one that you want
to do a bunch of manipulation. You're not gonna gain
anything by doing that. As a matter of fact, you're
going to make (beep) welds if you do that. 'Cause this slag is so dense
you take a chance of this slag running around in front of your pool. And so that's where you'll trap slag. So this is one of those rods that we just kinda want to drag it and
be as steady as we can. That was DCEP at a hundred amps. I'm gonna change polarity. All I'm gonna do is change leads and do another bead at a hundred amps. (Hissing crackle sound) So that was EN. To me it looked softer and quieter. Should be crowned up about the same, maybe just a skosh higher. Skosh, that's a welding term. Essentially those two look the same. Again, as I was welding this,
it sounded somewhat quieter. Now we'll run this alternating
current and listen to it. I think with alternating
current, I want to turn this up from a hundred to about
a hundred and fifteen. (electrical shocking sound) Got a little AC buzz working right here. Nice, soft, smooth arc. Little sparkle cell going on because that's the nature of AC, but those sparkles are small. They're not heavy, big spatter. There's a long arc. Don't do that. So this is another good
general purpose farm rod. Again, soft arc. You can make some beautiful welds with it. Sheet metal downhill, thin stuff on EN. If you had a machine that's
alternating current only this is another good choice of a rod. No reason to manipulate
it on any polarity. You're not gonna gain anything. EP, EN, alternating current,
and I turned it up slightly. Soft, very pleasant type of
an arc, weld pool appearance. Okay. The last rod that we have here is three thirty-second's seventy eighteen. Now seventy eighteen is
one of the other rods that I mentioned, if you had two rods, you could weld the world
with alternating current. Well, this is one of 'em. Great, all around farm rod. Seventy thousand pound tensile strength. One in the third digit indicates that it will
weld in all positions. Flat, vertical, overhead,
horizontal - it'll do'em all. However, unlike sixty ten, this will only weld in the
vertical position uphill. We do not want to run
this rod going downhill. Slag, just too fluid. It'll run right down
in front of your pool. The eight indicates the
characteristics of the flux. Low hydrogen type of flux. Low hydrogen is the diffusible amount of hydrogen particles per million. It's low hydrogen. Okay, we've done some videos. You can reference a video
that we did on hydrogen boil with seventy eighteen or sixty ten. Pretty interesting stuff. Anyway. Soft, medium type of penetration. Good appearance, good mechanics. We're gonna run this pretty
much like a sixty thirteen. We're not gonna manipulate it, whip it. We're just gonna drag it. Try to make a nice round weld pool. I'll run DCEP first, and then
we'll run alternating current. DCEP, I am going to run eighty-five amps, three thirty-second, flat position. I'm trying to do that in here. (crisp crackling) (clears throat) The flux, the slag on
this rod is more of a, I don't know, I don't wanna say it's like a dense iron
powdered glass type. You can see how shiny it is. Smooth ripple pattern. I'll run this rod again
on alternating current to show you that it will run nicely. (electrical shock noise) We had a bit of a rough
start there, camera guy. Well, this is alternating current
and it runs pretty smooth. Sixty hertz output. Old time stuff, right here. Intro to stick welding. I hope that helped the viewer, several, multiple viewers, actually, that were asking a lot of questions about getting into stick welding. Pretty easy stuff. Again, simple rules about rod angle, arc length, I think those
are the main two things. Pay attention to amperages. Just keep it real simple
when you start out and if we can help you with anything, please contact us. Thanks so much for subscribing
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Facebook and Instagram and ♪ Whip it. Whip it good. ♪ (laughing) (beep) (Presenter) You might
have to cut that part.
