hey i want to learn and practice about arc welding i think i have the necessary equipment from my dad but i want to learn more tecnical things not just by practice, do you guys know any books, guides or youtube chanels to begin with?
i have little experience on welding and id like to learn more during vacations and then learn to do other types of welding.
>practice about
watch bob moffatt and jody welding tips and tricks. jam your rod in a tight slit. repeat until you can do it consistently without thinking
weld.com sucks without bob. I haven't watched any of their new videos
Welding theory is simple as pornfilm.
Electricity melt metal. Molten metal get rust. What do? Protect metal with gas, slag, or combination of two. Hence, stick weld is coated in flux, MIG uses gas, TIG uses gas. Even laser weld uses gas.
How join metal? Mix them. Which is why you don't just shit on surface, but heat up base metal to the point it melts, your rod melts, both mix and create joint.
How select current? Too low - and you just shit on surface of metal without actually fusing two things. Too high and your arc shit out metal out of weld pool and leaves you with undercut.
How weld thin metal (with stick)? Make a spot, let it cool off, make next spot. Or get thin electrode. Or adjust current down low.
Electrode positive? Negative? Read fricking package. Heat is on the positive terminal. On stick weld doesn't matter that much.
What is heat affected zone? Something something carbon brittle, you're gonna weld mild steel only anyway
Arclength? Electrode thickness, or there about.
Rod types?
6010/6011 - cellulose rods, spattery, burn hot, burn though shit, slag is thin and flaky, puddle cools fast.
6013 - titania/rutile rods. Less spattery, burn less hot, need more clean surface, slag is thick and a lot of it (so it can result in slag inclusion easily, you need more current to move it away from weld pool). Easy to start and re-start.
7018 - low hydrogen basic rod. If dried before welding - high quality weld that is suitable for structural and fancier steels, as it avoids hydrogen cracking or whatever. Slag is thick, but it doesn't cover weld pool as much as 6013. Hard to start, easy to run.
So, 6010/6011 are for fences, repairs, pipe welds. 6013 is for furniture or wherever you use thin metal and want neat looking weld without spatter all over it. 7018 is for structural weld like idk, car ramp... Or for neat looking welds, if whatever you weld is thick enough not to melt through
Rest is practice. Which is much more important
Oh, more arc length - more voltage - more heat. Less arc length - less voltage - less heat.
Don't worry about it, just get bunch of scrap metal and weld smth, you will understand after 1 kg of rods wasted.
I once bought a pack of 7018s . I couldn't get it started. But then, I weld once In a blue moon and with cellulose rods and ac transformer. How does one even gets the 7018s started? Do I have to bake them inb4? Do I have to start them with both hands. They make me feel stupid.
nta but yes 7018s should be used the day of opening the pack, otherwise needs the oven. iirc, 7018 is difficult because it requires a very short arc length, which is irritating to get the hang of as a beginner unless you watch a professional do it in person.
If not doing code work just wrap in foil then throw them into a toaster or regular oven like everyone else has done for decades.
Many keep an old electric oven in their shop for cooking. I store mine in ammo cans with good gaskets too.
7018 varies greatly. ESAB Atom Arc is glorious, Lincoln nice, while the Hobart my school had to buy once donation pallets ran out was sticky as frick.
Doing things the cheapest way may be a compulsion but in welding quality filler gets better results with reduced frustration.
>How does one even gets the 7018s started?
First of all, not all 7018 run on AC.
But in general, you have to clean the metal real good, and then you strike like a match. If you tap it, you'd stick it.
Also make sure current is set correctly.
Dry electrodes also help.
7018 is very easy to run, slag gets away by itself (unlike 6013 where it tries to get ahead of the rod), minimal spatter, pool is very visible. It is just pain in the ass to start and re-start.
Many hobby welders lack enough OCV for 7018s.
Read textbooks (plenty of .pdfs online) and site like the Miller company site have free training videos. The best welding forums are weldingweb and the Miller forums.
Example Navy non-resident course material:
https://www.militarynewbie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/US-Navy-course-Steelworker-Volume-1-NAVEDTRA-14250.pdf
Videos are for the visual part, but text is best for theory and understanding components.
Stick welding's one of those things where practice beats everything. I leaned that way, when I was a teen. Go to a scrap dealer, get a stack cast-off mild steel plate (different thicknesses) and clean them up with a grinder. Start burning lines, until you can reliably start and arc and keep it going, while you burn through a whole rod, then move on to joining metal and THEN check out the pro utubers. That way, you'll better understand their explanations, why they're telling you to do something and what is causing some of your failures.
Remember to focus on the puddle. I see a lot of trying to learn to weld by trying to just drag the rod from one side to the other as consitently as they can without looking at what the puddles doing. start the arc and wait for a second, watch the puddle form and then drag that puddle trying to keep it the same shape the whole way. also keep a short arc length. you should just about be able to feel the rod slightly touching the metal. 'welding tips and tricks' and 'weld.com' on youtube are really good.
>. you should just about be able to feel the rod slightly touching the metal
I can't imagine being able to feel that through the thick gloves I wear (pic related). Maybe I should consider better gloves.
Gloves shouldnt matter. Just rest the electrode slightly on the metal as you're welding. Those gloves are fine.
As ive illustrated in the diagram the metal in the elcectrode is burned back further than the flux when you weld. To you it might look like youre holding a tight arc but that flux at the end could be hiding how long that arc really is. Just remember you cant keep too short of an arc, unless you jam the road into the puddle and smother the arc I guess.
thanks for the tips. I'll see how it goes next time.