Welding Rods for beginners

void777 · Mar 14, 2017

I've always preferred Lincoln brand but go to a welding supply house they can better advise you if you can explain what your working on and give you prices on what you need hope this helps.

flusher · Mar 15, 2017

For stick welding try welding two-handed for more control over rod angle, gap distance and speed.

If you're having trouble getting decent stick welds, cut the rod in half and learn with these shorter rods.

7014 and 7024 are "drag" rods. You angle the rod about 30 degrees from vertical and drag the rod along the workpiece. These rods are easier to use for a beginner and are useful for making capping welds over 6010 and 6011 root passes.

Good luck

crystallake · Mar 16, 2017

Starting out, hold the rod between your thumb and forefinger to help you control. Just be sure to have your gloves on, no danger other than the heat. It wont bite you. Other hand of course on handle of stinger.

daugen · Mar 16, 2017

crystallake said:

Starting out, hold the rod between your thumb and forefinger to help you control. Just be sure to have your gloves on, no danger other than the heat. It wont bite you. Other hand of course on handle of stinger.

Click to expand...

so as long as I have my gloves on, I can hold the rod in my teeth?

good advice, thank you. It's all about smoothness and consistency, though I admit I'm a little short on understanding how deep the puddle should be based on the
thicknesses of the metal and what if there are multiple metals joining of different thicknesses. I guess if it all leaks out the bottom
I'm going too deep...or too hot.
I like the idea of dragging a rod to start; I could always caulk better that way vs pushing it.

If I cut the rod in half I'll be extra careful not to cook my finger crystallake; I realize the other end is hot but heat for sure travels.

k0ua · Mar 16, 2017

If you cut your rods in half, you can usually get by without holding the rod with fingers of the other hand. I still sometimes hold the full size rods with my fingers to get started. You just gotta know when to let go.

Deere Dude · Mar 16, 2017

k0ua said:
I still sometimes hold the full size rods with my fingers to get started. You just gotta know when to let go.

That is really easy to figure out. Don't need much coaching on the release timing.

Oldpath05 · Mar 16, 2017

7014 and 6011 are two of the best rods to have around, 7014 is a strong rod, great for tacking, welding on clean-ish steel. 6011 is a good rod to have for welding over crap, rust etc, and best for filling gaps, it can weld down beads or up, also good for cutting steel if no torch. When my last stick welder burnt up I was in the mist of trying to find out what's the difference between 6010 and 6011 rods, what little I used 6010, I didn't notice much difference, when I buy another stick machine I'll re-test the two.

Now a ? for the welder extraordinaire on here, what do the numbers mean in 6011 and 7014 or which number means All Position?

bcp · Mar 16, 2017

What the numbers mean:

AWS Classifications

Bruce

Eric Salop · Mar 17, 2017

daugen said:
PJ, we'll have fun together and make lots of sparks.

What I worry about is folks jumping out of Unfriendly Politics, with their hair on fire, and then try to discuss the pros and cons of welding rods.

Hair on fire ? If you find that happening too often, try turning the amps down a little

As a newbie stick welder too, only having played at it for about a year, I will let others comment on choice of rods as there are many on this very helpful welding forum much better qualified than me to offer you rod advice (anyway, I live in England where everyone learns to weld with 6013).

What I would say is that the only thing that really matters at first is practice. The scrap pieces you have been given will be perfect for that. As Newbury says, for the moment put out of your head all thoughts of trying to repair anything until you get the hang of things, or you will almost certainly get disappointed with the results. Practice on scrap, then practice some more. After that, do some more practice. Keep at it a little each day if you can.

If it appears that it is all going wrong and you begin to wish you had bought a mig instead, don't give in, just go back inside for a while and watch this brilliant training video by Steve Bliele Arc Welding Lessons - YouTube.

daugen · Mar 17, 2017

Eric, thanks for the link. Excellent video, easier to see what's going on/properly filtered than other YouTube videos.
I took a lot of notes. I have more than a dozen pieces of scrap metal to train on. Might start on that today or tomorrow.