April 24th, 2006 
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Learning how to weld is not as hard as you might think.
All you have to do is simply follow a few basic steps, to get that welding down pat. It’s like baking a cake or building a house. You need to follow a set way of doing things.
There are a few basic and easy to learn steps that you need to take into consideration before you even attempt how to stick weld or arc weld.
A lot of the time, people simply just rush in “guns blazing” and when they have a go at it half a dozen times and they can’t do it, they give up. Listen, like I’ve said, stick welding might seem a bit daunting at first. But once you learn these basic steps on how to arc / stick weld the whole process will become a lot clearer to you.
How do I know? I’ve been there and done that. I know how hard it can be to learn how to stick weld for a person who has never welded before in their life. Often the first timer will make a few silly mistakes that can spoil their first time stick or arc welding experience.
Things like:
• How to strike an arc and keep it going. This is a big issue for anyone who is learning how to stick weld. How do I do it? Why does it keep sticking to the job?
• What size welding electrode should I use?
• What type of welding electrode should I use?
• What about welding safety. What should I be aware of when welding? What will hurt me and put me at risk of injury? If you are new to welding, you might not be aware of what to look out for.
• Which way do I move the electrode?
• What power setting should I set my machine at?
All these and many more questions are what the DIY’er or learner welder need to find out.
You need to.
1. Learn how to stick weld and arc weld the right way the first time.
2. By following a set of easy to understand step by step instructions.
Which means…
3. By having a successful first time arc welding experience, you will never have a negative experience, therefore your ability to learn will not be ruined by a bad first time experience.
To find out how you can learn how to weld, quickly fast and easy.
Head on over to learn-how-to-weld.com – this is a brand new site that is being developed to help people like yourself learn how to weld.
Watch the video related to welding
Learn what tig welding is from an expert in arc, tig and mig welding in this free DIY video. Expert: Malcolm MacDonald Bio: Malcolm MacDonald graduated from Connestoga College in 1968 from the Fitter Welding Program. He currently teaches a welding apprenticeship program. Filmmaker: Melissa Schenk
Help answer the question about welding
When Mig Welding how can you see what you are doing?I've never done it before and I'm scared to try. I have to do it next week at a volunteer job only for this once but I'm still nervous of doing something wrong. My question is when you have a mask on (really dark) how can you see what you are doing?Any tips on this welding are greatly appreciated, even really basic things.
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Great tips on welding, FREE projects you can do at home. Simple, quick and easy lessons on how to MIG TIG and ARC weld.
Learn how to select a quality mig welding wire.
www.learn-how-to-weld.com
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nice weld
the metal isnt dirty enough to affect it. I certified with metal that looked like that
very nice hand still
I get mine at the local hardware
try looking in the yellow pages under welding supplies
i go back & forth circles work ok,
just get the heat right
1/16 rod they sell them at sears just for those things
i got a 1/2 box i dont use them anymore
i biught a 110 mig it works much better
18v with 260 wire… I think you should use less wire, more like 190-210. But that’s just me. Weld would look flatter. Have a nice d@y! =)
I would like to see that weld cut open and sent to a lab for testing. HE DID NOT EVEN CLEAN THE METAL. Dirty welds have poor penetrations and are set up to fail. People, if you are too lazy to clean the metal, don’t weld.
You can find that kind of job and many more at <www.careerbulider.com>,. Good luck on your job !
Arc welding represents a multitude of welding processes which use an electric arc to melt the work pieces being joined.
One of the arc welding processes is Shielded Metal Arc Welding or the so called stick welding. It uses an electrode that has a coating on the exterior which produces by melting a Liquid slag and gases that protect the weld pool from the Oxygen and nitrogen from the air. There is no need for shielding gas fo this process.
Another arc welding process is the Gas Metal Arc Welding, so called MIG welding which uses as electrode a solid wire that doesn't have that coating on it. Because there is nothing that formes the slag and the gases during welding, the shielding of the weld pool is realized with a protective gas which can be Argon, Carbon dioxide, Helium, etc. mostly Ar and CO2 and their mixes.
There are other different arc welding processes that use gas shielding like Flux cored arc welding, etc.
Check out http://weldingpedia.com/Welding%20Processes.html for the chart of the welding processes.
Dont hold….!!!!
After the discovery of the electric arc in 1800 by Humphry Davy there was little development in electrical welding until Nikolai N. Benardos and Stanislaus Olszewski developed carbon arc welding, obtaining patents in the 1880s showing a rudimentary electrode holder. Later in 1890 C. L. Coffin received U.S. Patent 428,459 for his arc welding method that utilized a metal electrode. The process, like SMAW, deposited melted electrode metal into the weld as filler.
Around 1900 A. P. Strohmenger and Oscar Kjellberg released the first coated electrodes. Strohmenger used Clay and lime coating to stabilize the arc, while Kjellberg dipped iron wire into mixtures of carbonates and silicates to coat the electrode. In 1912 Strohmenger released a heavily coated electrode but high cost and complex production methods prevented these early electrodes from gaining popularity. In 1927 the development of an extrusion process reduced the cost of coating electrodes while allowing manufacturers to produce more complex coating mixtures designed for specific applications. In the 1950s manufacturers introduced iron powder into the flux coating, making it possible to increase the welding speed.
In 1938 K. K. Madsen described an automated variation of SMAW, now known as gravity welding. It briefly gained popularity in the 1960s after receiving publicity for its use in Japanese shipyards though today its applications are limited. Another little used variation of the process, known as firecracker welding, was developed around the same time by George Hafergut in Austria.
first off clean ,clean, clean. Any impurities will make a hard job even harder. Second preheat the base aluminum to a good warm temp. not too hot though or you will warp the metal around the hole. make sure the rods are dry and have no moisture at all absorbed in the flux. set the amperage low , somewhere around 60 – 80 amps. striking the ark and getting it to hold will be a little difficult. If the base metal is thin, then a continuous weld is out of the question for a novice. instead, do like you were talking about and build up a few spot welds on top of and around each other until the hole is sealed up. stick welding aluminum is a very tricky and hard task to master, so take your time and try not to loose your patience. remember once aluminum starts to go molten it likes to fall out very quickly leaving a bigger hole than what you started with. oh yes, one last thing, make sure the rods you're using are the right rods for your welder AC rods for AC welder or DC rods for a DC welder.
Hahaha I work at a Sawmill If the welders where I work cleaned all the metal before they welded they wouldnt be welding very much! I see them blast the metal quikly with a torch and then weld away!
making a triangle is a good technique
MIG is a lot easier on thin metals. But if you know what you are doing you can do just as well with arc welding. It all depends on how much heat you use. If you want to use an arc welder and save on buying a MIG practice on some scrap pieces til ya figure it out
Have you guys seen “You Can’t Weld This!”? It’s pretty funny… The guys over at WeldingMart com had it made! Do a youtube search for it
It just takes practice. It's been 5 years since I've done this so bear with me. It sounds like you know what to do, but you have to be a little quicker when it comes to moving the electrode up. Just scratch the surface using a quick motion and immediately raise up the tip. Try upping your current a bit too. The reason its sticking is because the electrode is spending too much time in contact with the base.