ARC welding

Nissan11

Nissan11

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Location
Marston, NC
Ive been MIG welding for about a year and tried ARC welding for the first time yesterday. WOW! It is NOTHING like MIG welding. I need to know what I am doing wrong. It either jumps around and is spotty or it is so hot that metal just drips off of what I am welding. What do I need to do different? Is the drag angle different? How much pressure am I supposed to put on the stick. Should I act like I am trying to push the rod through the weld, or just lightly hover over it?

Here is the welder we have at work that I am using....it seems like a good one because when MIG welding it comes out 10x better than my cheap flux wire welder at home.



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Here is an example of a weld I did using the same welder but for MIG. When ARC welding it looks NOTHING like this. It looks terrible. I should have taken a picture.


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It all depends on what type of steel or other metal and thickness you are welding and what type of rods you are using. The point of arc welding is to form an arc therefore you are not actually touching the rod to the metal basically you hold the rod close to the metal you are welding the angle you hold the rod at can vary between rod types most rods are all position rods so your angle does not matter to much. Dragging your weld while going back and forth between whatever you are welding together and slow and steady to ensure penetration while arc welding, this is what i find to be the easiest technique. Also it is different from mig welding in where your seam or bead is forming, it will form behind the arc as you drag along the surface practice on flat stock if available and try to get uniform beads then move on to welding two things together. I am no professional I just enjoy welding for a hobby hope my advise is helpful if you have any more questions or need some clarification on anything I said just shoot me a pm and I will try to help you out. Also your amperage if to hot will burn through easily most rods are best between 80-120 amps if you have trouble getting an arc to form start higher and work your way down if you have ever used a plasma cutter it is about the same trying to form an arc.
 
I've been stick-welding for a long time. You will get all kinds of answers on this subject, and for the most part all of them will be right. The big trick to stick welding is learning to watch the "puddle". Rod position and distance has a lot to do with it, but after you learn to to keep the puddle smooth and moving the rest comes naturally. I'm sure some of the pros will back me up on this. The real secret is practice, practice, practice. Good Luck! :)
 
ARC is the only welding I've done, and I did it years ago back in highschool (freshman year I think).

I remember the key for me was to keep a steady slow pace, and make sure NOT to touch the rod to the metal, otherwise the rod will get stuck. Like Msperlazza, the point is to create an arc, so touching what your welding doesnt really work too good.

I also remember that the whole puddle thing was a big deal, and watching it really helps your weld. Too big of a puddle and your weld is getting out of control, too small and its not penetrating the metal very well. I got decent at it, but Im sure now Im pretty terrible.
 
post pic's of your arc welding. If we can see your weld we can diagnose what you are doing.
 
I love arc welding, I do it everyday welding on pipe. Sounds like your running to hot to me. What kind of rod are you using? How thick of metal are you welding on?

An arc weld isn't as pretty as a mig or tig weld but you can still make decent welds with it. You want to try and hover over the metal, too close and you'll stick it, to far away and you'll long arc it. Ive welded with a machine like you have and they are nice and definitely can produce a quality weld.
 
could be a few things. the rod may have had moisture preventing a good arc, the heat was too low (sticky rod) and from what you say you had the rod in the weld. I always did these things when I first started ARC welding:

1) strike the arc like you're striking a match
2) move from left to right
3) keep the rod about 1/8" away from the weld
4) move slow and always remember as the rod burns you have to lower it so the pattern of the hand looks like this (down and away)

..
...
......
..........
............
...............
....................

and so on.

that'll get you started.
 
I practiced for about 15 minutes tonight. I started on a different welder, a Miller welder/generator on our truck. This is the welder I will be using most often. I took a picture of where the settings were for each weld. None of it came out good. it seemed like the higher the amps the further the arc. I also feel like I am going through rods in a matter of a few seconds. Is it supposed to be WAY slower than MIG welding? Also, why when I used the higher amps did the weld just spatter around? According to the settings on the welder, even all the way up the metal is way thicker than what that welder was set at.

Here are the sticks I used tonight...We have some 7018 but I didnt try them.


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The metal I was using....



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1st try


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2nd try


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3rd try


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another try on the same setting but slower. I thoguht I was getting the hang of it at this point...


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UNTIL......another try on that same setting.....



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Chip you slag, so we can see the weld better.

You are not pushing your rod in fast enough LOL Ie; the arc is to long. Looks like your not staying in your puddle too. Travel a little slower keep your circles tighter & keep the arc short. Remember to keep pushing in the rod..

6013 is a pain in the ass.



start with a 6011.
 
A few rules of thumb to go by:

The arc length should be roughly the diameter of the rod you're using. 1/8 rod = 1/8 arc

The 4 or 5 numbers on the rod tell you the strength, position and polarity/coating the 6013 is a great rod to start with. It's probably one of the easiest to strike. To break the # down, the 60 = the tensile?? strength x 1000, the 1 means it's a vertical up, flat, horizontal or overhead rod. and the 3 means it's a AC or DC electrode negative.

A 7018 is a bit stronger and what was required with all the structural work I used to do. It actually will lay a little nicer bead IMO and chips much easier, just takes a little more skill.

To add to the watching the puddle thing, With stick welding you can really see the puddle shape good. Once you strike the arc make small circles in one spot till you can see a nice shiny dot in the center with the slightly brighter slag around it. From that point you wanna keep that shiny spot right over the joint as you move along. With a little practice you'll get the feel for it.

Always completely chip the weld so you can really see what what the weld looks like. It looks like you haven't chipped any in the above photos. When you get good the slag will come off in nice long plastic like molds. Especially with the 7018.

Good luck I hope this advise helps. I really enjoy stick welding it's how I learned and I think everyone should learn it first. When you get good at arc, you'll look back at your MIG welds and realize that you still got a lot to learn. And I don't mean that as an insult, merely to say that it will be an eye opening experience. You'll learn the true feel for a strong and sound weld.
 
I agree with all of what jeff said above, except for the part about 6013. For me it is much much easier to get a good bead, but it is more sensitive to dirt, rust, and mill scale than 6011. clean that stuff us, slow down, and run that 1/8" 6013 at about 95 amps. Keep your arc short and you shoudl see much better results.

and again, like he said, we can't really critique a weld that is still covered in slag.
 
I dont undrstand how to set the dials on the welder. You say stay around 95 amps, according to that dial on the left, 95 amps is included in 3 different settings, all but the highest. And what about the dial on the right? Why can I only use 7-10 on that dial?
 
Take a picture of the face of the bobcat welder. The dial you are refering to looks like it's for mig welding. My trailblazer has a toggle switch that will switch it ti stick welding. Where is your set at?
 
Millers description of the fine amperage knob is a bit vague to me. The way they describe it is that the midle one is the amp range and the right knob is to fine tune in that range. They say that the right one is a percentage of that range so 8 on the right is 80% of the range on the left. So I guess 80% of 60-140 might be like 125 amps or so??
 
Youve got all of those nice machines and no one at work can show you first hand how it's done? Much easier to see and hear the sounds and emulate than to read about how to do it.
 
For 6013 run at 85-140 with the fine tune on about 2. If your rod turns black & burns up while you are welding it's to hot. Strike like a match pull away to see where you are then go in to start welding.
 
Looks like you have the hang of it, now it's practice, practice, practice. When you start to go out of position (vertical up & down, overhead) & using different rods. Post up again. We can help....
 
that machine also works on an alternator type set up that is then rectified and cleaned up electronicly to produce a DC welding arc. The dials most simply put are this:
facing the machine left to right.
1. Process and polarity (no brainer) AC DC or CC CCV pending the model.
DC is what I'd stick to, But AC only rods do exist the packaging will list those detail if you buy any
2. the voltage setting show the ranges, kind of like heat settings. low to high (hot to cold) easy right. The machine your using even sudgest the appropriate rod
3. THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE for dailing in great welds other than technique.
This welder works like an alternator and is also affected by its RPM under a load. So when you select a range use one that may seem lower than need but but allows you to use this dail at the highest setting possible (that welds good). This type off machine performs better like this because it will run a higher loaded RPM and the DC sine wave will be smoother and provide a smoother arc characteristic. for example (random numbers I don't know exactlly whats on this unit) 110-155 at 4 on the fine tune want produce as smooth an arc as 75-110 at 8. In other words set the middle on the lower end and crank the last dail to acheive the best arc.
Also splatter other than the heat range is created most by leaning the rod to one side or another way to much. A common mistake for new welder to try and see as much as they can. 15 degress past center leaning in the direction of travel is standard for most all positions and situations. This is known as Backhand. Forhand in stick pushes solidifying flux over and into the weld pool producing more splatter and poor weld flow and penetration.
 
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