Just got my first stick welder, what do you think?

[norlander]

+1^ again, and try to relax-you might be tensing up without knowing it? The hand held mask is a good idea, we were not allowed head shields except up ladders or steelwork. Points on the handheld are
its easier to tack up than fixed shade head mask (not advisable, but we would line up, close eyes and tack, no shield ) but also, they don't trap fumes like headshields can and we would lay the stinger in the mask thus prevent any arc ups from the live rod.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Personally I prefer a handheld if I can't use the good auto helmet. I must have burnt a massive quantity of rods with just a handheld and I still pick it up sometimes - it just feels right.

But really my true preference is the auto and I think the reason is that it frees up a hand for propping. Keeping everything stable is a great help.

 

[Higgins420]

I got a chance to have a go yesterday and tried holding my arm into my side and also mole grips make great props, which both definitely helped.
part of the problem at the moment is i don't have a bench or table suitable for welding on so i'm having to deal with a make shift table about 2ft high with 6mm plate on top so doing a horizontal joint i'm sitting on the floor :/ good practice for awkward welding i suppose but a decent table will help, its on the todo list at the mo...

one thing i know i'll prefer about DC is getting an arc going, i'm finding it really hard to get an arc reliably, sometimes a fresh rod will start up easy (seems to be when the plate hot) and sometimes it will keep sticking and leave a load of mess, i've taken to starting it on a piece of scrap and burning ~ 10mm and it seems to restart ok hot.

I've gotten me old band saw going today so have cut up a load of test scraps, all i've done so far has been messing around really so i'm gonna take a bit of time to prep them and really concentrate on keeping it consistent and see how i do, i had some rust remover in the garage with phosphoric acid in it, cut and polished a fillet i did yesterday and it showed it up well so should be able to see where i'm going wrong

I've left my phone lead at the workshop so ill grab it and get some photos up tomorrow.

 

[norlander]

check you have a good return (earth/ground). Check your return clamp if its a cheapy type a cleaned up G cramp or mole gtips can sometimes be used to make a better return clamp. If you rods are old stock, sometimes they can be a pain.
The tabs on your cables look as though they could use a scrub up??.
Have a piece of scrap as a strike up/warm up plate and light up on that before sparking up on the actual run.

 

[Kent]

Poor strike up could be
Poor contacts - check, clean, tighten
Too low a setting - try some more
Practice - keep at it
Confidence - it comes get the rod in there

 

[Higgins420]

Ye i know the orange cables in the pic were definitely a little worse for wear, all sorted out now, i've put a M dinse on the 4m earth lead from the mig (nice and new) a panel dinse on the mig and 200mm or so with a F dinse on one end and a nice new lug on the other on the oxford so i can use the ground lead on any welders i may have in the future (providing they have the same size dinse obviously) i've put a new lug on the orange stinger cable for now as its not in too bad shape, i've got 4m of cable and and i new electrode holder on its way for piece of mind. i don't have a pic of my earth clamp but its the same style as these bad boys with copper jaws/strap rated to 400A.



i think it is just down to practice to be honest, i have found leaning the rod more when striking it and bringing it back up when the arcs going seems to avoid it sticking somewhat, i assume when the rods lent over its sitting on the flux with the tip close enough to arc but no contact to stick?? correct be if i'm wrong but that seems to make sense in my head haha.

i didn't get time to get to my workshop today but i had a couple of scrap pieces knocking around in my panniers so cut them, polished them and had a go at etching, cant remember when these are from to be honest but as you can see there nothing special haha, but it was a successful experiment, can see much better where i'm going wrong (and you can see what appears to be the love child of a crunchy and a blackjack peaking out in one of them :/) i've got a feeling the middle bead on the first pic is mig











these next few are through a microscope at 4X







it looks to me that the bevels were too shallow (infact a think a couple of them had no more than i slight radius on the corners :/) and the gap too small and hasn't penetrated at all, again let me know if i'm wrong on that.
looking forward to etching some better beads, i've got some strips cut up to really concentrate on and prep, have put a deeper bevel on the buts and am going to leave a bigger root gap, these are all 6mm mild steel sheet and would have been between 95 - 110 Amps

 

[Kent]

I think with that amount of effort and interest you simply have to become a good stick welder!

 

[Bill Edwards]

Yes you're correct, you haven't penetrated all the way through and need a good sized bevel and a gap. When you get it right you will have a bit of weld that has gone to the bottom of the piece meaning you have full penetration and the entire piece is then solid.

 

[flash-bang]

A tip I was given 40 years ago when I started welding:
Wrap the cable over your arm once. Bring the cable up on the inside of your arm, over the top, then hold it.
It keeps the cable nearer to your elbow and your hand is much less influenced by cable swinging etc.
It really works, I can't weld neatly if it's just hanging. ('course I'm going to have grief when I start mig welding!)