First Stick in 50 Years a Challenge

[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.