The last heading that I posted was Burning Metal. After reading that topic you would have understood what it meant.

Well this time it is Sticking Metal and yes you guessed it I am on Stick welding and the stick keeps sticking to the metal when I try to spark up. I have another week of practice with the stick welder then we move on to mig.

I was later told to turn up the amps and it should not stick. Well next week we shall see.

Just put sum chewing gum in between 2 pieces chistos, that'll do the twick

Christos. Just a tip mate, a welding rod is made up of 2 components ( basically ) a core and a flux. What happens is you make a contact with the core onto the metal at the wrong angle/pressure/speed and a couple of other wrongs and the flux breaks away from the core of the rod.
Without the flux ( the brittle coating on the rod ) the metal ( for want of a better word ) has no shielding, the flux of a arc rod is similar to the gas with MiG TiG without it you simply don't get a weld.
Try this, hold the rod at more of an angle then the instructor tells you and sort of strike the rod onto the work piece as you would strike a match, quick side strikes rather then a pressure point contact. You will see a long line of sparks as you draw the rod along the steel/work piece, now half way through one of these long strikes ( the length could be as little as 1 inch ) pause the rod and apply downward pressure, just a fraction and then lift the rod ( about 1/8 inch ) off the work piece, ( all this must be done as one action, sort of speak ), there should be a arc and you should be able to do a weld. all settings must be correct and the workpiece be clean and well earthed.
What you are doing is creating a dead short of an electrical component to cause extreme temperatures
Jumpy would know what I am trying to say.....
If you think welding mild steel with rods is sticky, try welding Stainless Steel with arc rods.
It helps to create an ark with more power but not needed once you get used to it. A rod with blue in it, full blue flux or striped blue and grey flux are better rods to learn with ( more friendly ).

MIG welding is a piece of cake compared with stick/arc welding.
Good luck.

bugger, that's it I will leave it up to an expert


Paul

If you had a welder and some scrap metal at home you'd be an expert in an hour Christos.
Have you had any flashes in your eyes yet?

Fed,,, strippers are much better to look at,,, flashers, strange men in long coats YUCK




Bugger did i wright that

Paul

Thanks Frank for the reply.

I will give that a go and see how that goes.




Not even close yet. I am trying very hard not to FLASH anyone. We are in our own enclosed area and use the curtain to close everything off.

First day was just safety class and we know about the little triangles.


Another interesting thing that I did last week was on the first time taking the stick out off the handle. I kept twisting the handle and you guessed it I pulled it apart. Took about 5 minutes to find the little spring and another few minutes to put it back together.

I not going on your boat held together by gum.

Leave your undies on christos else ewe'll get FLASH

Dry rods helps a bit too Christos, did they mention that?
They should have a little oven there to dry them out with.

I am doing the course at Tafe and the rods that they use are from a new box. I think the shelf life is less then three months from the time that they got them to the next time another class uses them.