Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello all. seem to have inconsistent welding from my machine which is a lincoln 225 buzz box. I don't do much welding, but there are days when I do one pass on a project without any issues, and when I go for the second pass, the electrode keeps sticking as if I don't have enough juice. I've increase the amperage and it doesn't make a difference. I then switch to a new electrode and everything's fine. this doesn't happen all the time, just occasionally. I've been using the Harbor freight electrodes. any ideas? Thanks

how have you been storing the electrodes?
also what type are they?

Check your work clamp and all lead connections. Corrosion, loose connections, or anything that causes high resistance in the welding circuit will do exactly what you are experiencing, especially as they heat up.

tweake wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:59 pm how have you been storing the electrodes?
also what type are they?

I store them in a container in my unheated garage. They're the Vulcan brand from harbor freight.

burnttoast wrote: ↑Wed Dec 01, 2021 12:26 am

tweake wrote: ↑Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:59 pm how have you been storing the electrodes?
also what type are they?

I store them in a container in my unheated garage. They're the Vulcan brand from harbor freight.

if changing electrodes fixes it, odds are its either a poor connection in the stinger, or its electrode problem.
you don't mention what type electrode and unfortunately don't know what type of climate your in, but generally keeping electrodes in the garage is not good (unless your in a really dry climate). here we typically store them in the hot water cupboard (mine are stacked on top of the water heater), anywhere they will stay hot and dry, otherwise the moisture stuffs them up. try to store them in wooden box or carboard. not metal or plastic.
easy way to check is go buy a new packet and try them.

I’m curious about the comment about avoiding plastic and metal boxes. That’s what most of mine have come in and I always kept them right in their plastic tight closing boxes. All I do is keep them in the closet with the water heater and most of it is very forgiving 6011 / 6013 which are pretty forgiving though the 7018 I’ve had seems ok with it as well for around the farm purposes..
I’ve never had any [emoji26]issues that I can think of so am I missing something on rod storage?

Regarding the intermittent operation of the Lincoln how old is it? If it’s say over 10 hrs and sat in the cold garage slight corrosion on the selector switch might be your problem . Been there done that a couple times with mine . After all you’re not going to carry it into the house every time you are finished thus it lives in a pretty hellish environment 24/7. It’s a really good idea to store it with a cover that goes all the way to the floor , box over it ect. . Anything to minimize the dirt that gets in there. The volume of crud that gets into mine is amazing[emoji22]


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its all about humidity. heated cupboard keeps the humidity down and warm so it doesn't condensate.
however if you store them out in an unheated and humid shed/garage, you can have issues.
timber soaks up moisture then releases it later on when the humidity is lower or its been heated (eg by the sun).
where as plastic/metal containers will sweat.

use old sheets or blankets to cover machines rather than plastic covers for the same reason.

In the end those old machines will far outlast anything made today with their auto setttings and LED displays . They all are nice and look cool but are definite points of failure.
FWIW nearly every time I have problems that come and go striking arc on rods that had worked a second ago it usually is a bad dirty corroded or loose connection on the stinger. That clamp point takes a lot of twisting, dropping, yanking……..you get the idea. Clean Check Tighten is a way of life with these old guy . The other place as I mentioned before I think is the amps dial where it contacts that contact insid. For whatever reason it’s happened twice to me and it was lays that favorite most used setting notch. Why I don’t know but that’s my experience. So if you’re experiencing a possible bad contact try switching the amps and see if it starts ok. At least that’s a good way to help isolate the source of the problem.



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