Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey all,
I recently purchased an ac/dc stick/tig machine mainly because I want to learn tig. My experience is solely aluminum mig. I picked up some lincoln 3/32 7018 to test out stick. Is the 7018 a good choice for learning stacking beads and is there another rod you would recommend during my learning process?
The machine is the alphatig 200x
Thanks
Chris

It's a good choice. It's a versatile rod. Good for any position. An industry standard. The 3/32 size will be easier to control for learning as well. I do pipe work. Mostly in position. So I use 3/32 90% of the time I'm stick welding.

I thought I was doing good with the 7018 until I realized the glowing red stick. Weld beads look better than my mig beads. Good ground,tight arc 75-85 amps, getting about 10" per rod. Then noticed 7018ac. I thought that may have been the problem so I switched to ac and glow stick once again. I'm assuming the glowing stick is not normal. I dropped down to 70 amps and played hell with sticking the rod. Any ideas on what else I can try to avoid the glow stick?

301 wrote:I thought I was doing good with the 7018 until I realized the glowing red stick. Weld beads look better than my mig beads. Good ground,tight arc 75-85 amps, getting about 10" per rod. Then noticed 7018ac. I thought that may have been the problem so I switched to ac and glow stick once again. I'm assuming the glowing stick is not normal. I dropped down to 70 amps and played hell with sticking the rod. Any ideas on what else I can try to avoid the glow stick?

Go watch Jody's video on vertical uphill 7018s. At one point he discusses it,. If it is glowing you are on the hot side of the amperage and with such a small rod it heats up pretty quick.

Glowing red is an indication your amps a wee bit high. Probably 78-82 amps should do the trick if 85 is too high and 70 too low.

Also, if you are welding all the way to the end of the rod to maximize the distance, the rod will be much hotter in your stinger. So, lower amps or shorter runs I run 7018 3/32 really hot (90-95 amps) on my machine, but each machine can vary.

You can always grab some 1/8" because you'l need to run both probably at some point so you may as well get used to it.

I'm heading out shortly to pick up a couple different rods to learn the differences in how they weld. I'll be sure to get some 1/8. I'll also run some beads and increase one amp per rod.
Thanks for the input
Chris

301 wrote:I'm heading out shortly to pick up a couple different rods to learn the differences in how they weld. I'll be sure to get some 1/8. I'll also run some beads and increase one amp per rod.
Thanks for the input
Chris

Just don't buy 6010s they won't run on that machine of yours. Learn to use 6011s though-they are quite useful

Picked up some 6011. Different animal than 7018. It's not as easy as I hoped it would be but a fun learning experience. Makes mig welding seem like a breeze. I'm sure I'll have many more questions. Thanks for the advice

301 wrote:Picked up some 6011. Different animal than 7018. It's not as easy as I hoped it would be but a fun learning experience. Makes mig welding seem like a breeze. I'm sure I'll have many more questions. Thanks for the advice

Huh... Usually mig welding is the easy one but hey-if that's what's good with you that's good. Maybe it's my day being filled with fellow high school students sticking electrodes all day and never being able to get them started and then running mig because trigger is easier. Good for you though man-like to see some pics some time

those 7018 ac rods will work fine on dc you just runnin a wee bit hot, as long as the flux isn't burning off or popping off you are doin fine. I some times run 3/32 like that on the heavy hauler truck frames til I can use 1/8 inch rods.

as far as MIG being easy...I never thought so...at least what I call MIG... hard wire no flux at all...(some folks call anything that comes off a roll and through a gun mig) anyway I ws never any good at it..maybe because I never used it much














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Haha yeah I guess I made that sound like mig was difficult. What I meant is I nitpick things about mig sometimes and compared to stick I have no problems with mig. As for sticking electrodes I'm pretty good at that. Sometimes I get smooth starts though. Through my eyes considering I burned my first rod a couple of days ago, I'm not doing too bad. I'll post some pics for any constructive criticism I can get. Some forums are easier to post them than others but I'll get some up

[img][URL=http://s1358.photobucket.com/user/Trave ... a.jpg.html][IMG]http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q76 ... rwoqma.jpg[/img][/URL/img]

I must be doing something wrong. I hate to sound like a dummy but I searched the forum for instruction on uploading photos and followed accordingly. Some sites have a required post count before pics are allowed. Could that be my issue?

301 wrote:I must be doing something wrong. I hate to sound like a dummy but I searched the forum for instruction on uploading photos and followed accordingly. Some sites have a required post count before pics are allowed. Could that be my issue?

Here, this way worked for me on your photos:

http://s1358.photobucket.com/user/Trave ... a.jpg.html

http://i1358.photobucket.com/albums/q76 ... rwoqma.jpg

Thanks Dave. Did you use the image icon then copy and paste link?

[URL=http://s1358.photobucket.com/user/Trave ... a.jpg.html][/URL

Whoo hoo. This is my first try at a seam

http://rs1358.pbsrc.com/albums/q763/Tra ... 0&fit=clip
This is a second pass

http://rs1358.pbsrc.com/albums/q763/Tra ... 0&fit=clip

My first attempt at stick welding

http://rs1358.pbsrc.com/albums/q763/Tra ... 0&fit=clip
And my somewhat stack

7018 @75 amps

301 wrote:http://rs1358.pbsrc.com/albums/q763/Tra ... 0&fit=clip

My first attempt at stick welding

http://rs1358.pbsrc.com/albums/q763/Tra ... 0&fit=clip
And my somewhat stack

7018 @75 amps

Turn up the amps on those 7018 and it will wet in at the toes much easier.
For 7018 I run 3/32" at 90-100 amps.
1/8" at 125-140 amps.

Will do. Funny how before I got my machine I had too much junk laying around. Now it seems I don't have enough scrap steel at all.

301 wrote:Hey all,
I recently purchased an ac/dc stick/tig machine mainly because I want to learn tig. My experience is solely aluminum mig. I picked up some lincoln 3/32 7018 to test out stick. Is the 7018 a good choice for learning stacking beads and is there another rod you would recommend during my learning process?
The machine is the alphatig 200x
Thanks
Chris

7018 (DC/AC), 6010 (DC), and 6011 (DC/AC). Master these. All other rods are "boutiquey" and not of code work in USA, generally. Don't do fancy. Stay basic.

I changed my lawn mower blades this morning. During the change my wife mentioned she wanted some kind of yard ornament to put by the garden to dress it up. The way the blades were laying gave me an idea. My first stick welding project began. She got a miniature windmill made out of bed rails and mower blades. My welds looked similar to bubble gum and cornmeal but you'd a thought I gave her a diamond ring.
I'll give the 6010's a try but I don't know if my machine will be able to do anything with them.
I'll upload a pic of the diamond ring if I can get past all the ads on photobucket.

Remember the important thing here is not how great or creative this is. The important thing is I'm king for the day and saved at least $30 from her buying something from a craft store.

301, I took a moment to edit your post so the picture shows, rather than just the link.

On photobucket, under "share this photo", select the IMG option, copy and paste it directly into your post here, and the photo will show with the post.

A nice simple project, requiring you to think, design, fit, and weld. Even if it's basic, it's experience in all the above. Plus, the wife's happy! Happy wife, happy life! (25 years' experience with that...)

Steve