Hello, I started welding (arc) when I was about 13 (my mum and dad bought me a arc welder for my birthday), no one to teach me just jumped in, a few arc eyes later (I did have a shield, the one that you hold) but sometimes it was a pain (not as much as arc eyes though) and I quite enjoy welding. I admire people who have a go at doing something, afterall that is how we learn. Anyway thanks for your tips, just goes to show you live and learn, no matter how old you are.
Just noticed, these points below are not mine, so I don't take the credit for these wise words.
A few pointers:
(1) If you are using a stick, try using 1/8 rod 6011...a nice all around rod that burns through rust and paint better than 7018. If 6011 won't hold the pieces together, 7018 will not either because its technique and not the welding rod. After you get good with 6011...then try 7018. Obviously any weld is better when it is clean and ground, but lets face it, repair welding is not exactly the same as keeping 300 sailors afloat.
(2) When using a wire feeder it is NOT like stick, you do not drag the weld, but push the puddle. Stay at a 15 degree angle and push the weld along. A puddle of steel is like a puddle of water...if there is too much "spatter" then cut back on the wife speed (amps) as it is just like dumping too much water into a bigger bucket of water...splashing happens.
(3) After welding with a wire feeder, look at the nozzle. If wire is sticking out by an inch, cut back on your wire speed. If only a quarter inch is sticking out, turn it up. Perfect "stick out" is about 5/8 to 3/4 of an inch long.
(4) Watch the wire come off the wire feeder closely. It should be coming off in super fast droplets called globular transfer. You my friend are really joining steel together. If it is just a haze and the machine is humming, it is called spray transfer and not welding much at all. Turn up your wire speed, that is penetration, and penetration is amps and what joins steel together.
(5) Remember when stick welding it is called arc welding. If you try and drag your rod on the steel, it will probably stick. NO GOOD. I tap my rod to get it to light, then try to hold a decent arc. Just like a spark plug, there is a distance between electrode (rod) and ground (work piece) to make heat. Constant contact means dead short.
(6) Ever wonder why new rod is so easy to light and then a half burned one is not? It is that blasted slag on the end of it. I take my gloved hand and just break that flux off and it lights like a brand new rod. Don't want to do that? Always keep a block o wood handy. After you are done welding stick the rod into the wood red hot. It will light like a new rod after doing that. No piece of wood to stick into. After welding, flick the rod really hard and the red glowing glob will fly off and be easy to light as well. I had a coworker that did this and the jerk burned me more times...but it does work.
(7) With welding all you have is electricity. never be afraid to fuss with the amperage and voltage to get it just right for you, and what you are doing. Every job, welder and person is different.
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Never weld vertical down; it doesn't hold anything together.
(9) People are challenged by vertical up welding when really it can be the easiest and fastest because it really fills in fast. This is the key...opposite from what you think. If the weld is droppy and lumpy, don't go faster, it will make it worse...go slower...in fact hold each side. When I first started welding...yep I counted. Welding is a dance. Hold the rod to the left for a second, go fast across the middle, then hold the right for a second, then go across the middle but moving up in a z shape ever so slowly. Again, hold the edge, fast across the middle and the weld actually flattens out. Heat is absolutely critical on vertical up welds so it must be right.
(10) A good looking weld is simply mimicking again and again the same hand movements to get the same result. The more consistent you are, the more consistent the weld will be. But this works for bad welds too. If it sucks...stop and do something different, it won't automatically just get better.
(11) Horizontal welds are the hardest to look good. They actually have a tendency to roll. Flat is the easiest...but so is overheat. Yes overhead! It has the exact same settings as flat, and the weld behaves the same, it is just that overhead welding can be uncomfortable. Like flat welding, give the rod or nozzle a little back and forth (not much) and the weld will flatten out nicely.
(12) Wire feed is a little different. You can make some nice swirly marks in a number of ways. Remember when I said do the same thing consistently and you get a consistent bead? Well with a wire feeder you have options. ALWAYS PUSH, but you can do little C-shapes, do small circles, or go back and forth. I like circles the best, BUT after years of doing it my wrists can't take hours of that so I go back and forth.
(13) When all this is mastered, we can talk about Permie Welding 201; welding while looking in a mirror. (everything is backwards).
