So...you're having trouble stick welding...

[torker]

For you home shop guys out there...who are fighting this...and getting frustrated..
A thread here brought out a bunch of advice...mostly it came down to "Practice, practice, practice".
Just to let you know how true that is..
The British Columbia Welding Program has probably one of the best "Entry Level" weldor programs anywhere.
There are two different routes to take.
If you work for a shop that will back you as an apprentice. You take a 6 week entry level...then into that shop for a year..and so on for 3 years.
"IF" you get lucky and are under a good journeyman who actually has time to teach you...you will be a good weldor someday.
The other way...the "Class" system is the best IMO.
We have..entry level..."C" class. Then on to "B" class after one year of certified "C" hours (Combined school and work time). The same as you move on to the final "A" class.
"C" class training is very rigourous. It lasts for 7 months.
The kicker...you spend about 4 months...8 hour days...stick welding.
There are a stack of books...containing all the welds you have to pass in this time. They are all destructive tested. You have to pass each weld before you can go on to the next. I've seen guys stuck on the same weld for up to 3 weeks. They don't cut you any slack.. it HAS to pass the bend tests.

So picture that... 4 months...eight hour days...steady stick welding in all positions with almost any rod you can think of. Under pressure the whole time because you HAVE to pass the tests.
Some of these welds are HUGE...there's one that you have to do many times. It's the dreaded "T" bar welds. You end up pumping over 30 pounds of rod into these. They get so hot they can burn the skin off your hands. They make you really question your sanity.

Then you walk out of there with your diploma...and nobody will hire you because you STILL don't know how to weld.... and you really don't. In real life there are so many variables that even intensive training can't cover it all.

My point...the home shop guy who burns a few rods a year...and gets down on himself...really shouldn't.
It's a lot harder than you think.
Russ

[ega]

I've been doing this in an amateur capacity for some years and realize I shall never get to the level described. However, few of my welds fail and, like the Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance man, I can't imagine how some folk manage to live without a welding set and a lathe. The best single piece of advice on welding I have seen is to give some thought to the design of the joint and thereby guard against less than perfect welds ( a close second would be to remember the hazards - some would no doubt put this first).

[small.planes]

In one of my metallurgy books (IIRC) it likened welding to doing freeform casting, in the worst possible conditions with rapid chill, and with all the associated drawbacks that implys....

Dave

[Boucher]

In the oil patch and water well industry where you were running 3/8" and thicker pipe you were expected to burn a fifty pound box of rods a day. It didn't leave much time for drinking coffee. On large diameter pipe there might be three welders working around the joint you had to keep up or get out. The joints were machine beveled with a suitable thick base at the bottom of the vee. Up into the early seventies the quality of foreign pipe both Japanese and Mexican was mostly bad by the late 80's It was better than domestic. You didn't get much variety of position but you did get a lot of practice and you were always working with fresh rods.

[NickH]

No one's mentioned that for beginners it can be advantageous to start with the amps on the high side & creep down whilst practicing on scrap as you might blow away some steel but will build fewer steel porcupines, get going quicker and run some seams rather than getting frustrated quickly.
You'd still have to learn how to tell you have a good weld but if it looks good and a cross section shows good penetration without porosity you'd be getting there.
I was lucky enough to have a good teacher and be a quick learner for gas MIG and stick, I'm not sure I'd have done so well on my own:D
Nick

[Dawai]

Yeah, I watched a steamfitter apprentice break all the flux off some rods and lay better welds than I could with fresh hot and dry ones..

Kinda pisses you off.

Breaking the chill off metal with a torch seems to help the "pretty quality" of welds.. I used to wrap them up after post heating them with a rosebud to anneal them.. but everyone said I was nuts.. so I quit.. still never had a critical weld fail.. even some poorly engineered ones held.

(ohh) and on weld failures.. I built a 327 for a stock car.. was watching it run at a local dirt oval.. he had to come into the pits.. the roll bar had broke loose and hit him in the back of the head.... I'd like to think it was my engine twisting that car so hard.. but, it was a brittle weld.. (not mine)

Heat pens.. are a wax that melts at a definite preheat temp.. a great way to know you got the chill knocked out of metal before welding..

[boslab]

we have different names for rods and stuff over here so bear with me, when i get the pleasure of doing any welding these days [stick] i use what the sales rep calls idiot sticks, touch rods to the polite, the core melts faster than the flux so starting is easy a gentle tap the flux tube fracturescore touches work youre away [Eirlikon fincord 's' and supercord are my fav ones], in work we have what the fab shop call the pink death, vodex from the murex co smoke splatter and stick they are difficult to master at the correct amps so people whack up the amps to get them working but end up with seriously undercut welds, a false economy in my eyes but hey i,m not an accountant.
it is nice to weld with a good set and a tidy rod indoors out of the cold, not so much fun out on site with a howling bitter wind up to your knees in freezing mud, if you can lay down a bead at all under those conditions your pretty good, never mind laying down a multi pass with stick that can pass the mean and nasty NDT boys
[i weld better with my eyes shut these days, must have caught the force or summit, age dont come alone]
regards
mark

[torker]

Mark...you bring up a good point. Most beginners start with rods that are very hard to light.
7024 and 7014 are nice handling rods...easy to start and beautiful 70,000psi welds. Flat and Horizontal only but that;s best for a begineer anyway.
Russ