How do I start welding?

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Dawai:
Stick welding? My ac/dc hobart stickmate was the cheapest thing out for a while. My miller synchrowave tig welder has a stick welding function, does a excellent job.

BUT for dragging it around the smaller 140lb hobart burns rods just fine. I normally keep "dry" 3/32nd rods here, 6011 for normal cold roll steel, 7018 for higher chrome-harder steels. THE 7018s can be a pain to strike for a newbie.

Striking a arc, you have two methods, for the normal rods you can scratch strike to initiate the arc, then pull back to your arc length, or bump strike, with the 7018s after the first burn it has a glass like flux over the ends and you have to hit them pretty hard to shatter that.

HOT-start option.. is a wonderful thing, like a tig it has a super high voltage to "initiate the arc" you just get near the work and it lights up.. a tiny 120 volt miller welder I used at a nuclear plant for electrical hangers had that, it was the size of a small lunch box, auto-switched power from 120-to 220, seemed to run better on 220. They sent me into "containment" one day, and it was stolen within a hour from the gangbox outside the secure area. I wanted one for here at my home shop, well.. lil things are sometimes like diamonds.. that lil welder was then about $2k.

I also used that Hobart dc welder to derust car parts, like fenders.. with a huge tank of arm and hammer solution as a electrolyte. (very dangerous) Each welding method has a place in the home shop. FOr sheet metal welds, I prefer the gas torch, for thick and quick welds I prefer the stick welder, for quick thin jobs not requiring ultimate strength the mig, for stainless and aluminum, well the tig rules. THE tig is actually a lot like gas welding with better heat control.

Rock on guys.. I got a big project here that is kicking my butt..

vtsteam:
You can weld cast iron with a 7018 rod in a stick welder, too. Tried it this summer, and it worked. I was all ready for cracks and total failure, but it didn't happen.

There are more expensive purpose made rods for CI, and gas welding rod, too, plus brazing as methods. But I was really surprised to succeed with the 7018.

Here's a video on how to do that, which I watched before trying it:

vtsteam:
And the same guy welding CI without pre-heat below. I combined both 7018, and no pre-heat back stepping, and it worked.

Vernon Tuck:
Hi,

I'm late to the party as I'm a new member and this is my first post.

And quite frankly, I did not read the first sixty-six answers to your question. But no matter. I will re-invent the wheel as necessary.

About twenty years ago, I was asking your very question. An old geezer made this recommendation. I followed it and have no regrets.

Now I AM AN OLD GEEZER. Go figure...

Go ye forth and buy an oxyacetylene rig. Ideally, buy a torch model that has interchangeable tips that can burn propane. It is much cheaper, cleaner, and safer (better said "less dangerous") than acetylene. But it won't burn as hot. I'm told that you cannot weld with it. But you can cut, heat, bend, and braze steel with it. By getting a torch model that will accomodate these tips, and using the proper tip along with acetylene, you can also weld with it. Acetylene will weld steel, iron, and even aluminum if you know how. Acetylene welding built the world from about 1898 until the onset of world war 2, when "shielded metal arc welding" ("SMAW") aka "stick welding" eclipsed it.

Therefore, as your second acquisition, I recommend an old "stick welder". I would far rather have an old, used, industrial quality transformer based welder -- such as the "round top" Lincoln Idealarc 250 AC/DC "stick" welder than a new shiny buzz box. Can you spell "duty cycle"?

If you can afford these two items simultaneously -- marvelous. Those items plus a good quality angle grinder and a few disks, and perhaps an abrasive "chop saw" and you will have what it takes to embark on a very rewarding life pursuit of making stuff. If you can afford only one item buy the gas welding rig. If you can afford only two, buy the gas welding rig and an angle grinder. The MECO MIDGET is a tiny torch with big capabilities but there are many many others.

The two most crucial big ticket items for gas welding are the regulators. They come in "single stage" and "two stage" flavors. I bought some antique Airco two stage regulators on ebay and then paid to have them rebuilt. They are far superior to the modern single stage regulators -- and classy too.

As to those who suggested you buy a MIG welder first, I vehemently disagree, especially those who recommend a low end, low powered, low duty cycle machine. A high end (big $$$) MIG machine would be the last thing on my list. A low end machine would not be on my list at all.

Just sayin'.

VT

superc:
Hi Raynerd.
I am coming into this late, so I hope I am not too late. All of the advice is good, well intentioned advice, but it is being presented in a vacuum as you lack hands on. A decade or two ago I was in almost exactly the same place as you. I had just bought a small farm on land filled with rocks. In only a few months I had busted up more outdoor equipment than I had ever dreamed of even touching much less owning in the decades before. Everything from snapped off mower blades to busted plows and torn sheet metals. Yes, running to the local farm supply store and just going 'eenie meanie minie mo' and buying something was both an option and a strong temptation.
Fortunately an older much more experienced individual gave me some good advice first. His first comment, 'welding, if you don't know what you are doing, is potentially very dangerous.' And no, he didn't just mean setting yourself on fire. There are many other things that can go wrong.
His second piece of advise which I also followed was, 'check at the local college or trade schools and see if they offer any welding classes, then take them.'
I took welding classes starting with the basic of oxy acetylene and moving on to mig, tig and plasma. Several semesters worth.
One of the most important things you get out of such a class (besides some very good textbooks) is safety techniques. Watch out for rosebuds, don't coil your cables and lots of other little things that will keep you from looking like a piece of burnt toast. Another major thing you will get is hands on at the hands of an expert. (Also some comradery with other students who are as new to all of it as you are.) It is much better to feel hot steel in your hand in a classroom environment than learning by yourself at home. Learning temper and heat treatment comes with good classes. Brazing techniques, other stuff not even hinted at here. Maintenance of your equipment. Do you really need to plunk down $30 for a wire nipper or is that old pair of long nose pliers just as good. Learn the answer while doing on someone else's equipment with an instructor watching over your shoulder. After the school semester is done then think about what equipment will best suit your needs. It is also very probable your instructor will have also mentioned by name some specific brands and types of equipment to NOT buy and he (or she) will probably have some good reasons for that advice and a tale or three to back them up. Yes, I have an oxy rig, but because of what I learned in school (and experimentation done in class) there is no acetylene here. Mapp (or even propane) is much safer for someone just starting out. All of them can hit temps suitable for brazing and with a rosebud I can make old iron run into a puddle with Oxy-Mapp only a little bit slower than it will using Oxy-Acetylene. I have tanks topple over fairly often (sad but true) as we bounce around in the pick up truck trying to get to the busted machinery out there in the back meadow. I have a small wire rig also and thanks to the school classes a few sticks, a couple of marine batteries and the knowledge of how to do an emergency field repair to hold something together long enough for me to have someone with one of those really big stick rigs visit me and use his rig on the really thick metal.

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