Learn About How To Arc Weld Here
FREE how to arc weld guide for you to use. There comes a time in a man’s life when he is going to need to learn how to arc weld. You might need to build yourself a nice big box trailer, or fix up the old farm plough. Yes, using a stick welder can be a bit of a pain in the bum at first especially if you have never done this before.
Like with anything, safety comes first and that is where we will start. Protective clothing is a must when welding. Not only do you have to be protected from the hot sparks but also the damaging UV rays that are given off from the welding process. Welded objects also become very hot and it is easily forgotten where you just welded, and if you pick up what you just welded you can burn your hands badly. This is why you need to wear some thick leather welding gloves, a long sleeved shirt and long pants.
When you are welding there is often spatter and hot sparks flying around all over the place. I have learned the hard way by not wearing fully enclosed footwear. I have burnt myself many times from just using sandals and flip-flops. Please use fully enclosed leather work boots to protect the tops of your feet from the hot welding spatter. Welding and grinding go hand in hand so you are also going to need some protective eyewear and some earplugs. Get a full face shield mask because just using safety glasses won’t protect the rest of your face.
You can’t weld without using a welding helmet, so you’re going to need to make sure you have one that you can use. I like using those automatic darkening welding helmets as I find they make it really easy for me to see where I’m welding. I would definitely recommend any beginner to get one of these helmets.
You must and I can’t stress this enough, clean up the material you are going to weld. It needs to be shiny clean to get the best possible chance of doing a successful weld. Quite often people will weld on top of rust, mud, oil and paint. This is a big no no, as it will cause weld contamination and porosity, but ultimately it will make welding for you so much harder.
Now for the welding electrode to use. I would suggest that you use a 6013 rod as these are very easy to use. They can be bought anywhere and they are able to be used in all positions. These may also be labelled as a GP rod which means general purpose. On the back of the packet there will be instructions telling you how many amps you need to use for this particular sized welding electrode.
Now we can connect the earth clamp to the metal you plan on welding. For the best chance of getting a good arc started grab some metal clamps so that you can hold down the metal you are going to weld to your bench. This will stop it from moving around when you are striking the arc.
I recommend you use the scratch technique to get the arc started. This is just like striking a match except you are using a dirty great big long welding electrode. The idea is to drag or scratch the plate until the arc starts. Keep doing this over and over again until you can start it all the time. Once you master this you should be able to start the arc and hold it burning in the one spot.
Laying a weld bead down with an arc welder. Once you can establish an arc and keep it burning in the one spot you’ll now need to make what is called a stringer bead. This is just a weld in a straight line. Once you have that arc established, angle the welding electrode slightly towards the way you want to travel and slowly move in that direction. The trick here is that you have to keep the arc going and your hand steady. Practice burning up half a packet of rods and by then you should have it down pat.
This has been an arc welding basics lesson on how to arc weld.
The next step for you is to follow this link on how to arc weld, and see some welding videos and more arc welding instructions here http://www.learn-how-to-weld.com/how-to-arc-weld.html.