Stick Welding Tips - 3 welders

hey Jody here with welding tips and tricks' calm this week's video is about stick welding also called shielded metal arc welding SMAW you need to know the proper terminology if you're in school or if you're working off a procedure that's how it'll listed on on a welding procedure is SMAW but in conversation with the guys it's stick welding or maybe even arc welding for some of the old timers alright we're gonna get right into it here this is a MIG arc and what I want you to notice is that that nozzle just pretty much stays the same distance from the arc all the time and that is how MIG welding differs from stick welding in in the learning process because during stick welding that stick electro gets shorter all the time it's burning off and continually getting shorter so what you have to do is not only progress the puddle along at even rate but you have to feed your hands inward to compensate for the rod getting shorter all the time and that's difficult to do when you're first learning this is something I see beginners doing virtually all the time and they're first starting is just holding too long of an arc because they can't get used to the rod getting shorter all the time contrast that with you know after you get a little bit of seat time holding a more consistent arc big big difference puddle is more defined this is the sixty 13 rod which I don't really care for because the puddle is kind of hard to see sometimes and can really get some slag inclusions if you if you don't use the right amperage or do some things but anyway the the weld on the left there obviously is just crap and then it got a lot better when I tighten the arc length so I'm gonna talk about today some beginner stick welder machines that you might want to think about it all depends on what you want to do with the machine as far as which one you want to choose today we're talking about the Lincoln tombstone ac buzz box that red one that you see in all the big-box stores and everlastin vert or 160s th which is a TIG high freq start as well as a stick welder and then a Miller Thunderbolt AC DC transformer machine probably most common stick well they're out there is this one easy to find I just went to Craigslist just now found one right away for a hundred and sixty dollars I'm sure you could get one for a hundred if you looked very hard at all they are good little machines they're very durable very tried and true but limited in what you can do you can pretty much just stick well then just stick well with electrodes that are designed to be used for AC but that's actually quite a lot of them 60 60 11 60 1370 14 if you want something a little more versatile if you want to stretch and be able to run DC rods like 70 18 and and and such and also be able to take weld on DC here's an option for you it's just Everlast 160 sth it's a high freq pigs foot pedal capable or it can do lift arc and it's a stick welder a good little stick welder very portable machine and fairly affordable I believe it's under five hundred dollars and by the time you add foot pedal and all its it's still fairly reasonable but it's capable of doing some precision work kind of like this little machine shop work here filling in little puddle little rosette welds I did this little hammer project here pretty much maxing it out at 160 amps on some two-inch bar stock welded to a one-inch handle and it's got a lot of power very smooth arc in addition to being a really good really capable little stick welder so now you can you know if you wanted to practice for your 6g test or practice for you know whatever stick welding as well as TIG tic route with stick Phillip that's a possibility today I'm going to be using these Lincoln Excalibur 1 878 teens and I'm going to crank this machine up to close to 140 amps and I am welding a piece of pretty big piece of square tubing or a rectangular tubing to a base plate here just some scrap that I had laying around what we're going to do is compare how these two machines weld against one another the little inverter versus a miller thunderbolt ACDC transformer now 78 teens do not restart very well so it's good to have a file handy a rough file knock that that lassy substance off there and it makes him restart a whole lot better also he start better if you can kind of grip the rod up a few inches away and kind of steady it up like that now this is a stinger holder that came with this machine and I'm not really you know crazy about this type but it's about as good as any it just happened you just have to crank the handle lock it on the rod and then you have to bend the rod to get the angle you want and I usually bend my rod some way or another anyway to get to get the right angle that's comfortable for me now rod angle is one of those things that can make a lot of difference but on a joint like this that's just in front of you on the bench there's a lot of leeway a lot of forgiveness you don't have to hold it like between five and seven degrees or something like that you know as long as you don't get crazy with rod angle you'll be okay trying to keep a tight arc you know best advice on stick welding almost anything is turn the Machine up hot enough that when you hold a really tight arc it won't stick and then hold a tight arc and that's kind of what I'm doing here I can pretty much feel the flux kind of rubbing against the base metal and I'm not resting it you know against there although I have done that before pretty much let let the weight of the rod almost just rest if I crank it up hot enough but today I'm not I'm not holding quite that tight an arc alright I'm not showing every every side of this just kind of get given the idea we're gonna we're gonna make a tie in here to that previous crater light up in front and then kind of drag it back there and and shoot for that crater and pause for a second and then try to cover up my arc scratches as I go that's the goal you always want to strike your arc in front of you where you'll weld back over top of your arc scratches and arc strikes any kind of welding test that you're going to take or if you're welding to code arc strikes are strictly forbidden they can produce little stress risers little hardened areas and failures can occur off of something as simple as an arc strike so just get in the habit of striking the ark somewhere that you can well back over top of it all right back up a little bit and snap out I'm using a little masonry chisel here that to knock off spatter bb's I wouldn't normally grab a masonry chisel to whap on steel with but fist for knocking off spatter it's a nice wide blade chisel and it actually comes in pretty handy a lot more handy than I than a regular chipping hammer all right well that's the first pass with a little inverter and I'd have to give it a passing grade pretty smooth arc probably could have turned it down just a little to reduce the spatter but I'd rather run it hot and get good penetration all right another little tip here if you are in the market for an inverter not all of them will run a sixty ten this is an example this is the 160s th trying to run a sixty ten and here is running a sixty eleven big difference it will run a sixty eleven pretty well it has trouble with a sixty ten so you got to be aware of things like that if if you're buying it to practice 60 ten route that's not the machine for you now we're gonna use the Miller thunderbolt now and you can also hook up since it's an ac/dc transformer you can also hook up a scratch start TIG rig to the miller thunderbolt or any other ac/dc stick welder and i'm with making a little weld here on some inch and a quarter pipe that's got a little saddle cut to it using a little scratch start rig air-cooled torch with a with a valve on it for the argon and you know got to have a flow meter and that's really all you need so that makes this machine kind of versatile you can use any rod basically because it's ACDC and you can also do scratch start TIG I got this thing starting off about a hundred and forty amps on DC plus DC positive and so now we're going to run two beads over top of the one bead that that we just ran with the inverter and just kind of compare things and see if one is that much different than the other or not much no wells like this multipass wells using 7018 are fairly common in the industry you know even when I was a pipe welder I also had to we'll quite a bit of structures like this for pipe supports and pipe hangers and you know what this there's a skill to it all the guys throw off on structural well there's doesn't take as much skill as those pipe welding it's just a different skillset and I had much respect for the guys that did it when I had to do it because you have to get in all kind of tight spots and and all kind of positions and you know you got to make a weld free from undercut and right fill it weld size and all that stuff just a whole different skill than pipe but a skill nonetheless a little bit cold so I'm going to crank it up five to ten amps or so and see how the rest of it goes didn't do too badly but it just seemed it just seemed a little cold these dials like this on welders they are about as accurate as a Zebco 33 you know I mean it's not exactly precision close enough but one machine is different from the other a lot of times let's see what happens here a little hotter yeah I don't know too early to tell it actually seems like I could crank it up a little bit more but it is hot enough that that it's not trying to stick with me at all and that is that's a good sign you can see how much I'm trying to overlap that first pass probably about two-thirds a little more than half and that's important when you're doing a multi pass weld like this you would think you want to overlap it exactly half way that's usually not enough you usually wind up with a little low place between the first and second beat if you do that all right Oh quick chip and hammer or wire brush action and we'll be ready to put that second pass on see what kind of shape we're in here so far so good I really honestly can't tell a huge difference between the outcome from the inverter and this little thunderbolt here both are fine the converters probably got a little smoother arc but what that what how does that translate into the actual bead I don't think I don't think much you know it just pretty much allows you to make a nice bead either way and the biggest the biggest advantage of the inverter is portability you know you can throw that thing on your shoulder and put it the trunk of your car back seat of your car floorboard of your car whatever in this little Thunderbolt you know you might strain your gut trying to haul it around much it's just pretty hefty now which one's going to be here 30 years from now anyone's guess that's also always a consideration when you're shopping for a welder you know is this going to be something that my kids are going to use does that matter to you you know these these transformers are pretty rugged machines and inverters don't have the reputation yet of being as rugged as transformers that just is what it is now this this Thunderball here died on me in a video not too long ago and it actually what it was was a head of dent in it from when I bought it I bought it off Craigslist for three hundred and fifty dollars and it's like new look looking anyway and had very few hours on it but it groaned a lot when it was welding and it had a dent in the side and come to find out I guess it was making contact with something internally anyway I took the panel off and did a little hammer dolly action on the the dent and so that it wasn't making contact with the little mechanism that changes amperage in there the case wouldn't and Wells again just fine and and so I'm glad to because I like to have machines like this and the you know in the arsenal for doing videos with because a lot of people have simple machines like this will hit it a lick with the wire cut brush and see what we got you all right a little summary here if you're trying to dip your toe in the water you want to get started welding you think stick welding is maybe the best way to get started the cheapest probably the cheapest way and a good way would be this little lincoln AC buzz box AC 225 amp buzz box Craigslist all day long for 100 to 150 bucks pawn shops you can find them yard sales they're durable tried-and-true you just have to use a rod that's designed to be used on alternating current but there are a lot of them there's sixty eleven sixty thirteen and even now alternating current version of a 70 eighteen now call a 70 18 a see it actually welds pretty decent then weld quite as good as a 70 80 non DC but you'll see right here it's not a bad not a bad weld I've got a little hot right there about a hundred and five amps for a 3/32 rod so I'm getting a little spatter but it the end result is a fairly smooth weld with a 70 18 on alternating current using a simple buzz box now for something a little more versatile in other words you can do not only stick welding but also TIG welding with high freq start and with a foot pedal if you want to buy the foot pedal now this unit is quite a step up in money from the lincoln buzz box close to $500 for the unit itself and then a little less than $100 for the foot pedal if you want to buy that but then then you have a TIG welder with high frequency start and foot pedal control that also stick welds just doesn't do 6010 very well you'd have to go to sixty eleven on this and if you're buying it for practicing sixty ten route passes that's not the machine for you all right the mill or a thunderbolt ACDC a decent little stick welder not my favorite don't get me wrong it has kind of a little bit of a funky arc when you're using sixty 13s and and 70 twenty fours and rods like that but you can also hook up a scratch start TIG to this unit and it runs really well this unit will also run a sixty ten rod really nicely got smooth enough arc with the scratch start TIG that's not a problem so it's it's a good choice if you're wanting to Pratt the 6010 route passes and also TIG route passes for pipe for a upcoming pipe test I try to make interesting videos I don't always hit the mark but what I don't want to do is make the textbook kind of videos the kind of training videos or we all had to endure at school and in their careers and everything well and trying to make them interesting and not like a textbook sometimes I may ramble a little bit I may go down a few rabbit holes so listen Christmas is right around the corner this is the last video that I'm going to do before Christmas I'm gonna kick back and enjoy family and enjoy Christmas and you know enjoy a glass of wine but Merry Christmas to you you know I know that you've got lots of choices out there and thanks for thanks for giving me your time and we'll see you after Christmas you

Channel: weldingtipsandtricks

Views: 3,950,380

Keywords: stick welding, arc welding, stick welders, arc welders, stick welding machines, stick welding tips, arc welding tips, buying a welder, Shielded Metal Arc Welding (Invention)

Id: JEFd56ofHos

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 23 2014