Welding Rods for beginners

[k0ua]

An excellent option but it depends on your area. The ONLY introductory welding classes available where I live is offered at our vocational college.

Priced at $795 for 30 hours of instruction for any ONE process. MIG, SMAW (stick) OR TIG. A little too pricey for fixed income seniors like myself.

Try to find a competent welder that's willing to spend a little "one on one time" to get you started in the right direction. Shield Arc and others have mentioned this before.

YouTube is another option although I am hesitant to suggest it as there is so much BAD info out there. Welding Tips and Tricks is my favorite. I've learned more from watching Jody in two years than almost 50 years of welding on the farm.

Terry

Without a doubt, if you are going to get instruction from you-tube on welding, Jody at Welding Tips and Tricks is the one to watch.

 

[daugen]

It was rock and roll time today. After spending two hours spraying both orchards and all my shrubs (bugs and mold: this area is a petri dish), I hustled back to the barn and started welding about 9am. Much cooler day. I welded and worked on that deck straight until 2pm, then realized I was tired, hungry and about to make mistakes. Well, more mistakes than normal...

But I got a lot done. And for sure doing it nicely the first time would avoid my hours of grinding. Wore out two Dewalt discs today. Put a hurting on a third one.
I clearly have a technique/ability issue with my interweaving slag through everything like a marble cake. Thankfully there is enough hard metal in there to do just fine.
But at least today I did most of them twice instead of four times.

These pics are just a progression hopefully in order. The humorous part is that assuming one didn't care about the structural integrity of what one was welding, was it all show and no go...,
one could slobber on that fill in Rustoleum primer and all the sins of past are just taken care of, truly swept under the rug. By the time I finished with the primer, almost none of the imperfections could be seen. Life is good. :dance1:

I still have more tomorrow but I was pleased with what got done today. Horrible aesthetically, at best marginal functionally, but adequate. And I do paint fairly well.
Lot of gaps to deal with today, but no disasters.

I learned today that welding blankets are no sure thing. The harbor freight thing was utter junk, my table caught on fire briefly when a big glowing glob burned through the blanket to the
board I had underneath, but even the Hobart one let a spark burn my leg while I was sitting down to do one lower weld and had the blanket over my legs.
Geez you get hot doing this, that Hobart shirt is a killer. Need to wash it, probably by hand in the utility sink. Boy is it filthy after the last few days.

If I do much more of this, I need to get a better helmet if I can't adjust this one better. Too much time not seeing well enough.
Having low skills added to low visibility is not a recipe for success.

 

[daugen]

forgot to add I'm going to clean and undercoat the bottom of this deck with rustfix and then truck bed coating. That should help the other side of some of these poorly patched
holes. Holes were my waterloo, very easy to get much worse in a hurry.

 

[Spanner]

Lessons being learnt left, right and centre!
Pic #1 would be your best weld beads yet?

 

[daugen]

Lessons being learnt left, right and centre!
Pic #1 would be your best weld beads yet?

thank you. Yes, first weld of the day, took the time to get in position, used the larger rod which just seems to work better for me.
I think I go too fast...pretty sure of that. Admittedly a little leary of things dissolving on me.

held together by spit and twine.

 

[daugen]

it was like forensive evidence damning me, looking at that pic of the primer I put down on the welded area that was going to get sandwiched. Wanted to get a coat of filler primer on it, which sealed all the holes. Covered the evidence...
Except in that stressed area with the two holes, the old cracks shone right through. Sigh.

but in my defense look at the thickness of the metal in that area.
Where fools did not fear to tread.

 

[Big Barn]

it was like forensive evidence damning me, looking at that pic of the primer I put down on the welded area that was going to get sandwiched. Wanted to get a coat of filler primer on it, which sealed all the holes. Covered the evidence...
Except in that stressed area with the two holes, the old cracks shone right through. Sigh.

but in my defense look at the thickness of the metal in that area.
Where fools did not fear to tread.

CSI NC.

 

[daugen]

I figure I've got about half of it welded and half of it looking like it's welded.
Which is still hugely stronger than what i started out with.
Incremental improvements are ok. I had low expectations and did not surprise myself.

did not do the bottom edge, need to turn the deck over.
I was NOT going to try to do overhead welding. Not after I had already set the table on fire.

 

[Oldpath05]

7014 not that great on thin metal or gaps, better to start with 6011, then cover with 7014. One good thing about welding, can always do it again.

 

[PJSprog]

Also you could tell your friends the welding arc revealed "hairline cracks" not visible to the naked eye and you thought it best to deal with them before they got worse.

Oh, man ... I'll definitely remember that one, Terry. :thumbsup: