Stick Welding and Rain Rain Go Away!
Good evening my brothers and sisters of Steem!
I got into my welding today to start the work of creating the frame for my Surthrival Trailer Mark 1 Project. I'm using an older stick welder that was a craigslist find and am not really familiar with stick welding. I began learning how to weld with my buddy Tom's mig welder.
I'm welding outside because my brothers garage is too tight for the operation to create the solar panel frame. Today broke out in some major rain showers. So today ended up as a shopping expedition to get the basics I needed to get started welding including the welding electrodes. I learned a lot by searching the internet on my phone and calling up my buddy Tom. He is a stagecraft guy currently on the road building stages all over the world for broadway type theater productions. From the call today, he said he was going to be in town tomorrow! He is going to hook me up with some of his spare equipment to help get me started and give me some pointers on my set up.
Since leaving my 9-5 job and starting this journey to build my own business and live my passion. I have opened myself up more to asking for help from other people. I have been a very prideful person up to this point and never really wanted to ask anything from anyone. I've prided myself on my abilities to help others with my skills. I am learning that sometimes it is good to ask others for help when needed, and it can also help connect you with your network of friends/family on a deeper level.
One of the big things I learned today was the numbering system for the welding rods. After learning what the number code meant I picked up a box of 6011 Lincoln welding rod. The first number 60 relates to the psi of the tensile strength of the weld in thousands so 60 would be 60,000psi. The last part of the number relates to how the rod is used and the type of flux in the rod. The number 1 means the rod is good to use in any position in space whereas if the number was a 2 it would mean it can only be used in a horizontal position. The combination of the numbers 11 gives you the flux designation which will affect the amount of slag or corrosion that will build up around the weld. From what I read 6011 rod is the most general purpose you can buy for welding steel.
Here is a pic of me after completing my trial weld with a custom tool I made to help my Dad with a car repair. I will have to make another update to let you know how successful the tool was :)
Peace and Joy @makinstuff
Thank you for your time if you gave this a read!
Welding is such an art. I have a Mig welder that need's a gas cylinder and i did some welding without the gas and the welds were " OK "sort of........ Looks like progress makinstuff i will stay tuned!
resteemed!
Thanks @silvertop! I really appreciate the re-steem brother. I know I've got a journey in front of me learning stick. There is definitely a technique to getting the arc started and getting the correct penetration. I started to get the hang of how to create a good weld on the MIG by sweeping like a parabolic motion and moving forward. Stick welding is quite a different beast though.
Stick welding, old school technology. Once you learn how to do it, you can weld some really thick steel with it. The downside is that it's easy to burn through thin stuff unless you have small rods and the amperage is turned down.
I'm sure you get it figured out.
For sure! @amberyooper, I learned about burn through yesterday for sure, and did it a little on a couple spots on my frame. We did adjust the amperage down and it went way better!
howdy there makinstuff! well sir, stick welders take some time for most of us to master but someone handy like yourself will probably be able to handle it pretty fast, great job on getting it set up to go!
Thank you for reading and your kind words @janton, that means a lot brother. I know its gonna take a minute to get it down. I love it though! beats sitting in an office :)
you're very welcome makinstuff! from what I've seen on your blog I just can't see you being stuck in an office, did you really have that kind of job before?
I wasn't in there all the time, I was on the road a bit for a while. The project slowed way down and I was in the office way too much for my liking.
howdy again makinstuff! oh I believe it! you look like you'd go crazy or drive everyone else crazy if you were stuck in an office cubicle all day! lol.
I'm glad you escaped!
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