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:

 

[square1]

I can't count the number of welds I did that seemed pretty nice but I missed the seam totally. Big puddles are my friend.

LOL, so it's NOT just me!

 

[daugen]

one of the areas that still needs some attention is the bottom right corner, where the two square holes are. There is an attachment/option that plugs into those two plastic grommeted holes. Maybe a flag or corner indicator like big trucks have up on their front?? Two prongs push in from the front and hold it in. Need to look at the parts diagram and see what goes there. Otherwise it looks pretty unfinished. I had no desire to try to cut square holes in metal. Round ones are in my pay grade... Little hold down clip goes in those holes, will cover top part but bottom probably could use a little piece of metal.

Going to likely give it a rest today, will start again tomorrow early and first make a bigger patch. The more I looked at that little square patch the more I had visions of one side disappearing when I welded it on to the deck. Bigger patch is uglier but...

 

[daugen]

I keep finding more things in those pictures to "educate" me. Like making sure paper towels aren't lying underfoot to catch sparks and
scare the heck out of me. And certainly a need to have an non flammable work surface. I thought these welding blankets worked a lot
better than they do. Having worn a fire company approach suit once in training, for sure the blankets are not made by the same company..
But it truly gets into the what do you expect for thirty bucks, much less ten bucks for a HF blanket. Maybe less...I guess they expect you to layer six of them on top of each other... however my bad for having plywood under there.

This mower deck is way too big for my folding welding table which of course is all metal and I had to elevate it to work on. Very bad arthritis with fused neck, recent neck operation, not too flexible shall we say so had to get the work surface up to where I could work on it.
I should search welding tables on this site and bet a lot of you have something pretty neat and much larger. I needed metal beams...I could always wrap the two by fours in Reynolds Wrap...though that would melt from a nice slobbering blob that I seemed to develop.

 

[daugen]

The idea just came to me to put the deck on the forks of my FEL and raise it up to any height I wanted. Hmmmm.

 

[lilranch2001]

Be careful....
Welding on equipment can cause all kinds of issues, between burning electrical and arcing across bearings

 

[k0ua]

Be careful....
Welding on equipment can cause all kinds of issues, between burning electrical and arcing across bearings

There won't be any problem with him welding the bush hog with it being held up by his forks. Just put the ground clamp near the weldment area. No current will flow into his tractor.

 

[daugen]

thanks, hadn't thought of that. My L has more than a few electronic circuits, sure don't want to fry them.
This is a 40" wing finish mower that gets dragged alongside a Gravely garden tractor that is either a 50 or a 60 deck.
102 heat index out and climbing, sat in front a fan in the barn and looked at the mower deck while the fan air felt warm not cold
and easily came to the conclusion another day. We have nice dry weather coming up; look forward to continue finish this welding.
I have a piece for the front and then that square patch. And then I turn it upside down; that's where I thought the tractor forks might
come in handy. Plus I have the big mower frame, a separate piece, to weld/fix.
Job security :thumbsup:

 

[dragoneggs]

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

Me too... not sure it will pass the savvy eyes here but worth a try. :laughing:

The idea just came to me to put the deck on the forks of my FEL and raise it up to any height I wanted. Hmmmm.

I have done this several times now... a new big steel table that I restored, a rack for my wife's greenhouse, and cutting down a 6ft back blade to size for my BX. Sure beats working on the garage floor with old knees and lousy pads!

 

[daugen]

I finally had to lay down a bead I couldn't grind off, and it didn't do too badly.
Hard to see, far corner of deck internal shrouding had rusted into almost nothing; I just so happened to have
a piece of metal cut that fit in just perfectly. Scraped the surface junk and crud out, air blasted it, and
then did fine with a 7014 1/4 at 90 amps.
Not sure why, likely the speed I go (like a bad golf swing which I don't know how to play) seems to make the larger rod at 90 amps go
a lot easier than the 3/16 at 75 amps. Seemed to have less burn through problems, was putting down more material quickly enough.

Filling holes is sure hard. Plus the material often still has a hole in it after I've ground it. Likely why most folks just weld and don't grind...

Saved the best for last. Heavy metal to heavy metal. Two thick pieces need to get welded, then I'm done welding on this deck. Have to buttress one piece with angle iron; on both decks the wheel support either ripped out there or was repaired previously by welding so it seems that the factory did not make the wheel mount strong enough. Plus wing mowers tend to run into things...
Well, it will be strong when I'm done. More pics to come.

 

[LD1]

I finally had to lay down a bead I couldn't grind off, and it didn't do too badly.
Hard to see, far corner of deck internal shrouding had rusted into almost nothing; I just so happened to have
a piece of metal cut that fit in just perfectly. Scraped the surface junk and crud out, air blasted it, and
then did fine with a 7014 1/4 at 90 amps.
Not sure why, likely the speed I go (like a bad golf swing which I don't know how to play) seems to make the larger rod at 90 amps go
a lot easier than the 3/16 at 75 amps. Seemed to have less burn through problems, was putting down more material quickly enough.

Filling holes is sure hard. Plus the material often still has a hole in it after I've ground it. Likely why most folks just weld and don't grind...

Saved the best for last. Heavy metal to heavy metal. Two thick pieces need to get welded, then I'm done welding on this deck. Have to buttress one piece with angle iron; on both decks the wheel support either ripped out there or was repaired previously by welding so it seems that the factory did not make the wheel mount strong enough. Plus wing mowers tend to run into things...
Well, it will be strong when I'm done. More pics to come.

1/4" rod @ 90A on sheetmetal:confused2: