Stick,Mig, Carbon Arc, Gas, and now Tig. Let's talk.

[Dmack]

You guys are so spoiled with flux coated stick, in the old days, they dipped the stick in flux and went for it. That is how they made the victory ships in the Kaiser shipyards.

With DC

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't many of the victory ships disappear from what was believed to be catastrophic failures attributed to welding issues? Not criticizing as the logistics of completing a ship in a weeks time is beyond amazing. Going from memory of a tv doc years ago.

 

[wanderinthru]

You just have to be sure you're really grounded, like a copper rod up your ass grounded to earth and should be good to go!

I did a big stainless tig job in the 80's. Welded up some boiler parts, al n the bench. But the welder was a sine wave and a big bulky torch with no water cooling. It was difficult... the heavy bulky torch and no water cooling made the job so bad. The modern torches are smaller and lighter and THAT
I love.

But nothing beats 6010 for welding rusty dirty steel. Like a broken farm trailer like I fixed last fall.
And the ONLY way to really learn how to weld, how to manipulate a molten puddle and control depth of penetration, is to start with 6010. After you get that down bring on the low hydrogen rods (7018) for the cover pass.

Welding with mig is more like running a caulking gun. Excellent welds but you never gain the skills to do 'man's welding'.

Not that I disagree, but, I have always started kids out with oxy gas welding. It is "basically" every manual welding process in very slow motion. Agree, stick is the next best place to start.

 

[shiftpro]

Not that I disagree, but, I have always started kids out with oxy gas welding. It is "basically" every manual welding process in very slow motion. Agree, stick is the next best place to start.

You're right. I was referring to stick welding. This was how welding was presented to me also, 1976 Grade 10 shop class in high school. Back when they actually taught us something useful. You have to learn how to carry a pool of molten metal.
Good practice for tig welding.
I know experienced welders who have a really hard time with tig because they have been on mig forever. I think they learned to weld on mig.
So what is a welder to do if he can not tig weld? He says "tig welding is overrated" haha...