Stick Welding notes for newbies project

[Grahame Collins]

Hi everyone,
I notice that on a pretty regular basis we get inquiries re welding 1.6 mm material with stick.
Often the inquiries are from novice welders who have little experience welding the thicker material let alone the thin walled stuff.

I think we can kill two birds with one stone here by doing a series of posts that include the sort of stuff these new blokes need to know about their safety,the machine,the possible applications ,the maintenance, the electrodes, and the joints. basically along the lines of the original mig write up. Hopefully it will be good enough to join the mig write up as a sticky.

I went back to my mig notes posted in the stickies and its been 8 years since they were written. Crikey! a lot has happened since then, but I did indicate that I was willing to write a similar one for electrode welding.

Since the welding inverter machine is now widely available to the home welder it seems a good idea to do it and include techniques, applications and a bit of write up on welding difficulties.

Up to this point I have a basic framework but welcome more input.

1. Safety
2. The inverter welder machine basic explanations.
3. Applications
4. Equipment maintenance
5. Electrode types suitable
6. Setting up current to weld - Running the first beads
7. A description of welded joints
8. What is good -what is bad - How to tell the difference - some diagrams and photos
9. Difficult welding projects - common issues
10. Welding Newbies FAQ's

I invite our professional and experienced stick welders to join in.

If you are a novice welder is this something you would like to see in our welding forum?

Cheers

Grahame

[Michael G]

Sounds good Grahame
Depends on how basic you think it should be but perhaps a 'common issues' section (for example "I can't start an arc" - Have you got a good ground through the earth clamp?)
and a FAQ section ("Can I weld through paint?";"When I weld near my magnetic clamp why does the arc go off to one side?";"How clean does the joint need to be?")

Michael

[WelderMick]

And lots of good photos showing good vs bad
- Mick

[Cliff Rogers]

Maybe some links to tutorials that are already out there on the internet with some comments/reviews about them.