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Stick Welding Video - A Review of Stick welding a T joint with 7018

" Old School Stick welding. When in doubt, whip it out."

Stick welding Video of a Tee joint welded using a 7018 rod...This is one of the most common skill exercises that virtually everyone does in welding school. In this welding video , you can see the welder using a common technique of making circles with the arc to make his bead uniform. It works.

But something that I have found that works better is to make a series of U's so that it looks like an ocean wave. You pause at the top of each U for just about half a second and that fills in any undercut you might otherwise have.

stick welding video series of u technique

Miller electric has a simple way to remember the things to pay attention to to make any stick weld look better. They Call it "CLAMS". it stands for:

Current setting,

Length of arc,

Angle of electrode,

Manipulation of the electrode

Speed of travel.

If you're just learning the Stick process, or even if you are an experienced welder, remembering these five points will improve your welding technique.

Lets look at them individually:

Current setting

...set the amperage too low and you wont penetrate, and you will find out why they call it "stick welding" because the rod will stick constantly.set the current too high and you will get undercut, the rod will turn red hot before its done and will burn wierd toward the end of the rod. And you will have to beat the slag off with a jack hammer.The trick is to find the sweet spot. Everythings got a sweet spot if you think about it. Everything from Golf to Tennis, to the rpms on a motocross bike, has a sweet spot . So why should welding be any different? Its not. So how do you find the sweet spot? One way to find that sweet spot is to set the amperage just high enough so that your rod will not stick even when you hold a really close arc.

That brings be to...

Length of arc.

I like a really tight arc. No matter what. Even though everyone is different, the number one mistake made by noob stick welders is holding too long of an arc.

Angle of Electrode ...AKA the angle of the dangle.

Dead nuts 90 degrees works. So does about 10 degrees either way. For overhead welding, dead nuts 90 degrees with a tight hot arc is the way.

Manipulation of the electrode.

As I mentioned earlier, Using the Series of U's has always worked for me for welding flat, horizontal, and overhead. vertical uphill is a little trickier.An upside down V or U is my best friend.

speed of travel.

Again , you are going to have to find a sweet spot for travel speed. too fast will cause undercut, too slow will build up too much. Follow your gut instinct here and see what happens.

Learn from this welding video and maybe your slag will come off easier.

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