Does any body stick weld anymore ?

[fastfredracing]

I have a really nice 110v mig. 99% of what I weld, are mufflers, suspension brackets, body panels, you know, mostly little stuff. My welder is great for this sort of thing, and I can move it anywhere in the shop that there is a wall outlet.
Well, last weekend, i broke the frame on my snow plow, 1/4" plate. One of the driveways/roads i do , is more like 4 wheeling with a plow on. it is brutal. I caught the edge of the road, and really broke it good this time .
So now, I have to make quite a few really strong welds . I was going to fire up the stick welder, and start practicing this week. I have not stick welded since shop class in grade school .

[1990C4S]

Most auto guys have switched to the cheap mig machines. I cannot stand the 110V flux core machines, I've been spoiled from where I work.

Stick is easy, you will have no problem. Grind a V into the joint and do two passes if it's heavy material. And pre-heat it.

[widebody911]

The problem is not one of stick vs MIG, but of amperage, but of power. Get a small spool of bigger wire, turn up the amperage, turn down the speed, and get the thickest, shortest extension cord that will reach. And yes, if you have a good torch handy, pre-heat the joint so the welder doesn't have to work as hard.

[cabmandone]

I have welded 1/4 with my 110v mig a few times. I'd grind a V, use a torch to preheat and weave in a nice bead. Mine is actually rated for up to 1/4" material.

[dad911]

Originally Posted by cabmando

I have welded 1/4 with my 110v mig a few times. I'd grind a V, use a torch to preheat and weave in a nice bead. Mine is actually rated for up to 1/4" material.

Me too.

Sold Stick welder years ago, don't miss it. Have a tig, haven't learned it yet. My goto is mig.

[Tim Hancock]

Before I got my 220 mig welder, I used my Tig welder in stick welding mode to weld some broken heavier equipment. I learned to stick weld as a teen in the late 70's.... It is like riding a bike.

My tig is air cooled and takes too long for general repair of heavier metal and my 110 mig was not powerful enough (even though I made a dedicated short heavy gage extension cord and used a box fan to blow on the uncovered innards to keep it from overheating) Now I am in pretty good shape with the addition of the 220 mig. I can now weld just about anything steel or aluminum between my Tig and Mig.

[Arizona_928]

Ac only machine?
Do a 6011 root then 7014
If dc then I would do the 6010, and 7018.

Prolly can get away with just a 6010/11 but over kill is a good thing.

[Mike Billings]

If you have a torch why not weld with that? I believe you can make a high quality weld with the torch vs some of the alternatives.

[wdfifteen]

Haven't stick welded in decades. I used to build trailers and have many hours of experience with the stick and the slag hammer. Glad that's behind me.

[wswartzwel]

I mostly use a MIG at the shop, but for heavy stuff I use a miller engine driven DC Stick welder... I also use it for medium aluminum welding using Neptune aluminum rods Neptune – AAA | Rockmount

[T77911S]

I have a 220v that I can stick or mig with!! I love it. not much of a welder but I am getting better.
I practice with the stick every now and then. since I can mig better than I can stick I figure if I get better at the stick, my mig will be that much better.
I have used the flux core. again not a pro but I find that the flux core works better on the cheap pot metal stuff.

I also try to practice on very thin metal. I figure there is less forgiveness on heat settings.

it also came with a spool gun.i would like to get the gas so I can do aluminum.


this thing has been I life saver.
took the seats out of the 930 and of course started to strip the bolts. put lots of protection inside and welded my allen to the bolt.
not the first time I have welled an allen to a bolt.

sometimes its fun to just get 2 pieces of metal out and just start welding.

[Mark Henry]

My MIG and TIG are my go-to's, but I have some HD equipment that needs to be hard faced or is just too thick for my MIG welder.
When my life depends on good penetration on heavy material I stick it. For heavier than 1/2" you need stick or 600v MIG and often 3 pass welds.
Been years but stick on schedule pipe was still code here last I checked.

[rfuerst911sc]

I still have a 300 amp stick welder from my dad I haven't used it in 20 or more years . But it is what I learned on , that and oxy/acetelyne . I can still remember cranking it up to max amps and I swear you could cut 1/4 " steel like butter . I still call it the old grey buzz box......... probably worth more in scrap with all the windings inside of it . But I keep it for sentimental reasons and I'm actually going to put an outlet in the new man cave to feed this beast .

[Bill Douglas]

New stick welders, or the rods, are easy to use these days. It's different.

When I was a kid you had to keep it millimeters above the metal or it would stick. Now you just slowly zig zag drag it over the surface.

I prefer mig so there are no horrible gases coming off the weld.

[Brian 162]

I took a heavy equipment mechanic course in college 37 years ago. I spent the better part of a week stick welding re-bar onto a track of a dozer. I could probably pick it up again if I had to.

afterburn 549, we used to hire welders to weld pipe on heating loops if we were doing a major boiler replacement. They used stick welders with generators mounted on their pickup trucks.

[fastfredracing]

Oh man, I am standing at the top of the rabbit hole again. I've had this miller cst 250 for years, and never once fired it up.
I ran through a whole box of rods yesterday practicing, and just picked up another box this am.
I think I see a new hobby forming . It is not hard, but I can see, that I will have to invest some time before I can make a weld that I would not be ashamed of . At least I can stick things together for now .

[T77911S]

how about a pic or your welding.

who knows you might get some advice.....not from me, icant help.

in fact any non-pro welders should post

been meaning to get the welder out but I keep forgetting

[fastfredracing]

I worked on this all night, really think I nailed it . Advice ?

[Mark Henry]

Here's the work I was doing on the front end loader (FEL) of my tractor. This is a detachable FEL, the bottom part (mount) stays on my tractor, it wasn't made for my tractor so I had to heavily modify it. All 3/8", 1/2" and 3/4" steel that can at times be holding 3+ tons over your head. You don't want to fuch around with wimpy welds on this puppy.
Tacked things up with my MIG then everything was stick welded with 6011 and topped with 7018.

BTW yes the new welders make stick welding easy compared to old welders. My new welder is a TIG/stick/plasma cutter combo Everlast 256SI welder. I also have a Millar MIG now 25 years old.

[Porchdog]

Code manager at work, hobby welder at home.

I have a 110V Snap-on gas mig and 220V Miller trailblazer (AC/DC) at home. At work we have everything. The shop guys mostly run TIG/Flux core gas. Road guys mostly weld Tig, hard wire mig and Stick.

For heavier stuff I always switch to stick even though my skills aren't the best. It's just to hard to get the penetration with 110V.

As stated above run your roots with 6010/11. Grind the root pass as necessary to have a great surface before you run over it - you can't burn flux out of the way. If you are running 7018 or other low hydrogen rods they need to be dry. It helps a lot with the 70 series if the joint is warm when you start.

Lincoln rods are fairly easy to find and high quality - which means easier to run. Hobart rods are easy to find but I think they are junk. The same thing with Mig wire - find some Lincoln or other quality wire and you will find it easier to lay in good welds.