Welding Tips and Tricks

To begin, I'm a hobbyist welder.

To keep myself from going nuts with all this quarantine nonsense one of the things I do is go out to the garage each evening and lay down some practice beads. I run 4 rods of 7018 and then do about a dozen beads using the MIG (Lincoln MP 210).

MIG is not a big problem and looking through my helmet I see the glowing red bead, like I'm squeezing molten metal out of a pastry bag. Very easy to judge speed, etc....

However, when doing the stick I do not see the bead, just the burning tip of the stick. My beads are all over the place and not very uniform. Is there something I'm missing or is this just something I have to get use to?

Try looking right behind the arc, not at the arc. You want to focus your attention on the weld pool, the molten metal.

If you can't see the weld pool because of the swirling mess of slag, then read up on drag angle and finding the right amperage for the size 7018 you are running.

Good luck!

IndyChops wrote:. I run 4 rods of 7018 .....

What diameter rod are you using and what amperage are you using?

I always find the MIG arc to be brighter than a stick arc. Try turning your helmet shade down a bit when stick welding.

What shade and also what brand of 7018 are you running? 7018 should have a very distinct easy to read puddle following behind the arc, but some kinds like 7018AC don't. Also your arc length may be hiding the puddle if you're not holding a close enough arc.

@sbaker56: Lincoln, but just picked those up at Home Depot when I ran through all my Hobart. Usually, I can manipulate the rod a bit "by feel", I can feel the rod come in contact with the steel.

@Louie1961 turned it from 10.5 to 9, helps a bit, but not much

@Oscar 3/32 at 100 amps. Mind you, I'm just laying beads on 1/4 steel

@v5cvbb I tried focusing on few different spots, but the main problem remains. I just don't see the pool whereas it's very clear when I MIG. Somewhat confusing.

IndyChops wrote:I just don't see the pool whereas it's very clear when I MIG. Somewhat confusing.

In stick welding, the electrode is hidden and the arc is partially hidden when you use the proper arc length, so it's pretty normal if you use the same shade compared to MIG. I have found the same as you. Reduce the shade by 1 level. See if it helps. You can also up the amps a little bit since you're running beads on ¼" plate. I think 3/32" 7018 can run up to about 110A before it starts to get squirrelly.

IndyChops wrote:@sbaker56: Lincoln, but just picked those up at Home Depot when I ran through all my Hobart. Usually, I can manipulate the rod a bit "by feel", I can feel the rod come in contact with the steel.

@Louie1961 turned it from 10.5 to 9, helps a bit, but not much

@Oscar 3/32 at 100 amps. Mind you, I'm just laying beads on 1/4 steel

@v5cvbb I tried focusing on few different spots, but the main problem remains. I just don't see the pool whereas it's very clear when I MIG. Somewhat confusing.

We found the problem , unless your lucky enough that your Home Depot has actual Lincoln 7018 Excalibur rods like Oscar's apparently does, they're probably Lincoln's 7018AC like most stores carry, they do NOT have the same distinct puddle that a normal 7018 does and are much harder to read.

Yea but I no longer buy 7018s at home depot because they jacked up the prices. Cheaper at my LWS, about $120 per 50lb tin.

Oscar wrote:Yea but I no longer buy 7018s at home depot because they jacked up the prices. Cheaper at my LWS, about $120 per 50lb tin.

Yeah, I'm still jealous

Oscar wrote:Yea but I no longer buy 7018s at home depot because they jacked up the prices. Cheaper at my LWS, about $120 per 50lb tin.

My LWS charges about $40-$55 for a 10 lb. tin of Excalibur. (depends on size)

I honestly don't think I would burn through 50 lbs. of it in 7-8 years, so wouldn't even buy a 50 lb. tin

Those 50 lb. tins are not Excalibur, I don't think.

Excalibur is the only 7018 to burn, IMO, but what do I know...

TraditionalToolworks wrote:Those 50 lb. tins are not Excalibur, I don't think.

The ones at my Home Depot are. They were $70 per 50lb tin before they got smart and jacked up the prices. I snagged about 8 tins before they did though.

Oscar wrote:The ones at my Home Depot are. They were $70 per 50lb tin before they got smart and jacked up the prices. I snagged about 8 tins before they did though.

Yeah, I see those 50 lb. tins of Excalibur online. Home Depot lists them for about $190 online.

You must be able to get that stuff cause you're in pipeline country...the welding section at Home Depot is pretty lame in my area. They don't have much of anything...

FWIW, the Feetweld 180 6011 I have is listed for small arc welders on the Lincoln site. Not sure if that is why it burns well, but the Forney 3/32" burns ok as well...

@Louie1961 turned it from 10.5 to 9, helps a bit, but not much

Still too dark for my preference. I typically run about an 8 for stick welding at those amps. Add some extra ambient light to your welding area and make sure you aren't getting any light leaking in from the back of the helmet. That should do the trick. I also like to try and "hide" the arc with the rod tip if possible. Putting some small movement into your rod (really small circles for instance) can help as well, by moving the light and shadows around a bit.

Louie1961 wrote:Still too dark for my preference. I typically run about an 8 for stick welding at those amps.

I saw your comment about turning down the darkness for stick and when I was testing some stick on Sat. I set mine to 9, it seemed ok. I could see the slag on top of the weld puddle. I didn't try turning it down to 8, but the next time I try some stick I will try that.

I use a Miller Digital Elite without the latest clearview, so not a fancy helmet, but not bottom of the line import.

sbaker56 wrote: We found the problem , unless your lucky enough that your Home Depot has actual Lincoln 7018 Excalibur rods like Oscar's apparently does, they're probably Lincoln's 7018AC like most stores carry, they do NOT have the same distinct puddle that a normal 7018 does and are much harder to read.

Ah, correct you are, the rods clearly have "AC" on them. I'll try some Excalibur rods to see the difference, but those seem a bit pricey.

Louie1961 wrote: Still too dark for my preference. I typically run about an 8 for stick welding at those amps. Add some extra ambient light to your welding area and make sure you aren't getting any light leaking in from the back of the helmet. That should do the trick. I also like to try and "hide" the arc with the rod tip if possible. Putting some small movement into your rod (really small circles for instance) can help as well, by moving the light and shadows around a bit.

Well, my helmet only goes down to 9 so I'll have to try your suggestions on the lighting.

I do use small circles, about the size of the holes in notebook paper, but it is tough to keep that consistent if you can't see the bead.

IndyChops wrote:

Louie1961 wrote: Still too dark for my preference. I typically run about an 8 for stick welding at those amps. Add some extra ambient light to your welding area and make sure you aren't getting any light leaking in from the back of the helmet. That should do the trick. I also like to try and "hide" the arc with the rod tip if possible. Putting some small movement into your rod (really small circles for instance) can help as well, by moving the light and shadows around a bit.

Well, my helmet only goes down to 9 so I'll have to try your suggestions on the lighting.

I do use small circles, about the size of the holes in notebook paper, but it is tough to keep that consistent if you can't see the bead.

The puddle will only be partly visible due to the slag covering, so you pretty much have to get used to it. How dirty are your clear protective lenses inside/outside your helmet? Those help tremendously.

I ripped this off the internet, but it's pretty close to what I see through my helmet on a shade 10 though it's visible on shade 9-11 for me and what you should see with some decent 7018.

IndyChops wrote:

sbaker56 wrote: We found the problem , unless your lucky enough that your Home Depot has actual Lincoln 7018 Excalibur rods like Oscar's apparently does, they're probably Lincoln's 7018AC like most stores carry, they do NOT have the same distinct puddle that a normal 7018 does and are much harder to read.

Ah, correct you are, the rods clearly have "AC" on them. I'll try some Excalibur rods to see the difference, but those seem a bit pricey.

I'm not a professional welder, so take this with a grain of salt. I've used those Lincoln 7018AC rods and didn't find them to be all that much harder to read than Excalibur, ESAB Atom Arc, Hobart stuff from TSC and a couple of others.

What I do know is that when I started out I did what you're describing by trying to run beads for at least a half an hour every day and then started on projects after I got reasonably comfortable. At some point I realized that what I thought was the puddle was really more what I'd call a reflection off the slag than the actual puddle and the actual puddle was slightly behind that....the light bulb just came on at some point, but it took a lot of hours for that to happen.

You certainly won't see the bead, and it's very different from MIG, but it's sort of the nature of the beast.

You might want to try drawing lines to follow on the steel, add an extra light overhead as already mentioned, and make sure you're going slow enough. Especially when going back and forth between MIG and stick you have to really make sure you're taking your time with stick. In some ways running beads on a pad is harder than following a joint because the joint has a line to track....that could be part of why you say they're all over the place, assuming you mean not straight.

I found that using magnifying safety glasses helped me see the puddle a lot.

[quote="IndyChops"]To begin, I'm a hobbyist welder.

I was having the same problem and turned down my shade lens. I will be adding more lighting as well. Learn a lot from the comments.... I use 3/32 6011 electrodes.