First Stick in 50 Years a Challenge

[CaddmannQ]

Originally Posted by BukitCase

Unless you still have that 300 amp Lincoln, I think you meant 3/32" not 3/16" - but yeah, I find that NOT welding for just a couple MONTHS requires FIRST getting the rust off of ME - much less 50 YEARS... Steve

Oops yes 3/32”

That old Lincoln was owned by the Air Force Base hobby shop in Ogden Utah. Probably came from a World War II San Diego shipyard.

[mccutter]

Originally Posted by digger doug

Next time try using a helmet...

Caught on camera!

[CaddmannQ]

I did a bunch more practicing with the stick welder after my last experience and I came to this conclusion.

Do not buy welding rods at harbor freight.

Where it says AWS on the side?

Asian Welding rod Sucks.

[OZWELDER]

As a general statement , I can understand what you are saying. I do get that those cheap ones are not worth buying

But,not all Asian welding electrodes suck.

If you can get your mitts on some Kobelco ( Kobe ) you will find out they are pretty damn good.Unfortunately they are not cheap electrodes,but you do get what you pay for.

When I welded for a living I did xray work with a Kobe electrode that could leave a "through the pipe" penetrated welded bead on the internal surface of the pipe that was of TIG quality.

Once you had developed the technique it could be done time and again -Kobe LB52U if anyone is interested.
Most products that come out of that large country west of Taiwan are usually poor value for the money paid and that why I do my level best to avoid them.

Oz

[CaddmannQ]

I think a good deal of the problem is in the packaging.

These rods don’t come in a sealed can, but in a plastic package with sticky labels.

I had four different packs of that Vulcan welding rod and I opened them all and looked at them. Some of the rods looked much darker than the other ones and I think maybe they were exposed to moisture. I tried welding again with some of the other rods, and the results were better.

I was often having problems getting a good start. You know when you have a bad start that the rest of the weld doesn’t often go very well either. Anyhow I was able to do some better welding with that rod by picking and choosing which ones in the pack I used.

It’s gonna be consistently 100°F+ here soon and I will take those rods out and bake them in the hot hot desert sun and see if it improves the action.

[greywynd]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

I think a good deal of the problem is in the packaging.

These rods don’t come in a sealed can, but in a plastic package with sticky labels.

I had four different packs of that Vulcan welding rod and I opened them all and looked at them. Some of the rods looked much darker than the other ones and I think maybe they were exposed to moisture. I tried welding again with some of the other rods, and the results were better.

I was often having problems getting a good start. You know when you have a bad start that the rest of the weld doesn’t often go very well either. Anyhow I was able to do some better welding with that rod by picking and choosing which ones in the pack I used.

It’s gonna be consistently 100°F+ here soon and I will take those rods out and bake them in the hot hot desert sun and see if it improves the action.

Toss em into an oven at 250 for an hour, that will bake the moisture out all together. I’ve done that different times for rods that had been exposed to moisture.

At the farm in Onterrible they would often lay on top of one of the woodstoves to bake.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[USMCPOP]

Originally Posted by CaddmannQ

I’ve done lots of oxy acetelyene welding since I was a teenager, and I have had a bit of MIG and Spray Arc practice. I have burned some steel with my new TIG welder too, but this is the first time I have lit up a stick welder in nearly 50 years.

I was amazed that it came out this well but I turned it down too much after I made the initial tack on the right and had an ugly start. I turned it back up a little bit and skipped past that to make a fairly good bead.

The new TIG welder actually makes a pretty good arc welder, once I figured out that the MMA switch actually means SMAW to me.

At least I remembered to reverse the polarity right off.

This was done with some brand new 6013 rod from Harbor freight. It seemed a little lacking on penetration. I ended up welding at about 90 A when I thought it should be closer to 65.

Anyhow based on this and the fact that I am 67 years old I won’t be turning professional welder anytime soon.

My kid at community college class ... 6013 isn't for penetrating and AC is a happy medium I think. This is 135 Amps AC on 1/8" ticket though I don't know what size electrode. Smooth as a baby's behind. He said he just pushed/dragged and it was fast.

[Whitetrash]

Originally Posted by USMCPOP

My kid at community college class ... 6013 isn't for penetrating and AC is a happy medium I think. This is 135 Amps AC on 1/8" ticket though I don't know what size electrode. Smooth as a baby's behind. He said he just pushed/dragged and it was fast.

That's pretty right there. My Hooklift truck at work has some mounting brackets with vertical stick runs by some oldtimer at the upfitters Kois Brothers. Every time I look at them I'm impressed just perfect vertical runs.