HI. Newbie here . Purchased cheapy arc welder from aldi when i try to strike arc the electrode sticks to the workpiece so i loose the arc as i have to use force to pull it off. Any suggestions . Thanks
Perfectly normal when learning. The secret is strike it like a match & start moving as soon as the arc is struck, otherwise it sticks to the job & starts glowing
Some rods are better than others aswell, allowing easier striking/re-striking.
weldequip
Air cooled A/C want to stick far more than an oil cooled, ether scratch it as Mr equip says, or strike it reasonably hard against the work the bounce stops it sticking, what rods you useing?
Other thing you could try is swapping the polarity of the electrode and clamp round if it's DC. Had this issue a while back when I was welding some brackets...
1/ This is a cheap air-cooled AC set, so no need to worry about polarity.
2/ Welcome to the fun of learning to arc weld. Just like learning to ride a bike, it takes a while before your face stops hitting the ground. Don't worry about the rod sticking - just give a quick twist and it should break free. Then start again.
What is the current capability of the arc welder and what size/type rod?
I picked up a $0.99 cheapie from ebay. It says up to 100A and 3/32 (2.4mm) rods. Cranked up to full it will barely do 5/64 rods (2mm), it works better on 1/16" rods.
As others have said, it takes practice. These low-end units don't have the short-circuit current to blow through the initial contact.
Some rods work better than others. There are "easy strike" rods that may help.
Make sure you have power up .Dry your rods in oven...that helps. Really good earth. Strike on something else to heat rod then move immediately to job and arc should strike easier It`s like sqeezing a gun trigger....just enough contact to get the arc going then the slight separation to stop it sticking.
Use heavy gloves and put your left hand on the rod four or five inch up from tip of arc. That should give you a better feel .
Also, if you have lost the flux off the end of the rod (Usually when it has got stuck and it has been pulled or twisted to free it), it won't weld properly and will keep sticking until you get far enough up the rod to meet the flux again.
And yes, turn the amps up.
I am using aldi arc welder off a 13amp plug into standard 13 amp socket so can only go up to 60amp ( i think). I am losing flux through electrode sticking .Whats the best way to trim the electrode? Would a light reactive welding mask help a beginner ?FINALLY Is it safe to hold the electrode with welding gloves to maintain a steady arc . I have been practicing and all i get is black burn marks on the workpiece because as soon as i strike the arc the force i need to pull away loses the arc.
Also my arc welder will go up to 140amp but im using it off standard 13amp domestic socket, therefore not sure how high i can set the amps. The manual says over 65amps i need power supply . Any advice please
What size rod are you using? at that amperage, you should be using a 1.6mm electrode. Is 60A the max it will go up to - sounds low?! - you really want to avoid messing about trimming electrodes.
Light reactive helmets great for beginners as it's one less thing to worry about while you are welding. Holding the rod with a gloved hand isn't best practice, although i do it all the time, even when running 5mm rods on full power. All my gloves have burn holes in the fingers. On smaller rods/lower amps it shouldnt be too much of a problem.
On those air cooled stick welder and the cheap ones seem worse, they have a massive draw at start up, the intial arc draws far to much power. Inverters have power correction in them to eliminate this, and for some reason the big transformer types don't seem to have the problem as bad
Older (especially oil-cooled) welders have a separate transformer and regulating inductor (kind of like a second transformer, but with only one winding). This means that at arc strike, which is in essence a short, the transformer sees *something* - the inductor - and therefore a finite load, and is reasonably happy. Once the arc is established the load on the transformer reduces a bit, with energy going into maintaining the arc.
The common way to make a cheap welder is to regulate the arc current by adjusting the flux linkage in the main transformer by moving a part of the core in or out as required. This avoids the need for a costly inductor. The problem here is that at arc strike the transformer sees a direct short across its output, which gets reflected across to the input, and *POP* goes the fuse.
Note: the large oil-cooled welders with "infinite" adjustment have the same transformer-plus-inductor design, just that the inductor is adjusted by varying a gap in its core, rather than switching taps off the inductor.
I know it sounds dumb, but my hands shake a bit and it's the way I get better control of the striking. A half-length rod is effectively stiffer and allows me more control when striking.
I use some heavy-duty wire cutters on good dry rods so that very little of the flux is lost.
I hope nobody minds, but I'm going to ask the mods to move this thread up to arc welding, as there's some very good advice on arc starting here, and it's in the private forum.