today we are fielding viewer requests on entry-level stick welding we've had a lot of requests lately so let's get into shielded metal arc welding or stick welding you guys like to stick your tongue stones and when you're TIG welding I like to stick the stick electrodes that's why they call it stick welding in it let's talk about rods because this this process is real simple it doesn't have very many variables to it at all except for the rod very simply when we set up a machine any machine we are essentially connecting the ground or work cable to the negative lead or lug on the machine and we are connecting the electrode holder stinger' whatever you want to call it we're putting that to the positive terminal okay it's that simple some machines you can switch polarity on some machines you have to unbolt and physically move them to dcen or dcep some machines have AC output they'll run all three polarities when we say all three we're talking an alternating current DC electrode positive DC electrode negative okay let's talk about the electrodes themselves I'll go through each of them one at a time I'll run them to their capability and I'll call out an amperage there and there's a big range of an amperage first one common rod East sixty ten this rod is designed to run dcep only okay it's the way it's designed to run so the classifications of the the numbering system for these common electrodes these are for steel these are for carbon steel electrodes the first two numbers in sixty ten indicate tensile strength it's 60 thousand pounds the third digit being a 1 indicates position then here's where it gets a little weird one is for all positions - is for flat and horizontal okay so let's take that one we're saying it's all positions we can weld flat vertical horizontal and overhead but it doesn't tell you whether it can run vertical up vertical down or both as far as a sixty ten it will and here's why let's get to the last number it's a zero that has the flux make up and it has the say the flux characteristics and the electrical characteristics because of the flux so zero in this instance is high cellulose sodium big deal you know here's what's important the sixty ten is a violent digging fast freeze type of weld pool which means when I strike an arc I can dig and gouge I could I could actually blow holes in this 3/8 plate with it but as soon as I step out of the weld pool the weld pool freezes nicely which allows me to weld flat horizontal vertical up vertical down and overhead in this particular instance that's just the nature of sixty ten again dcep only eight-inch just for the flat beads that I'll demonstrate I'm gonna run about eighty five ninety amps there are correct and incorrect ways to stick weld okay we don't want to use extreme angles with TIG welding we said that we're always going to push so when we weld this is always a forward process with MIG welding where you generally straight in slight drag slight push with stick welding kind of the same thing you have a window here but we don't want to use extreme angles like this and drag it we don't want to use extreme angles and pushin electrode we need to direct the art down into the material so with just about any of them any of the rods that were going to discuss you know if this was straight up 90 degrees and I went over here to about 10 degrees or so 15 degrees and I was a dragon I'd be fine okay so let's just keep everything real simple here we'll get into techniques of weaves and motions and all that later on so first rod we're going to run eesti 10 8-inch dcep I'm going to run about 85 amps and I'm just going to strike an arc and use a very slight rocking motion okay just back and forth and just kind of carry the beat along Paul I'm doing real simple between the rod then employees barely dragging the rod on the material there's a very slight pitch so this rod the nature of this flux produces a I'm gonna say a light crystal II type of a flux it doesn't come off real easy it doesn't come off connected I should say but don't beat the out of it because it can become airborne if you beat it come right back and stick in the lip or go on your iron generally let it cool scratch on it wire wheel with a grinder hand wire brush one of the other this rod does produce a fair amount of spatter that's that's just nature of the beast remember I said it was a violent digging type of art so the benefits of this rod route passes attacking stuff together you know again we've run it in all positions so if you're just running beads and you're running at the correct amperage with the right technique your bead is going to be about twice the size of your rod I wasn't doubting it in there matter of fact if I was it would probably stick so let's run let's run this wrong let's do a long arc okay so we're gonna strike an arc and we're gonna run normal for a little bit and then I'm going to show you what happens if you do if you lift up and start running in a long arc weld pool is going to get violent or I should say the arc is going to get violent and weld pool is gonna get it's going to kind of scatter all over the place gonna be hard to see where the actual pool is so let's try that we're still at 85 amps again we're running at 85 and gentle fit during the weld pool normal are clean and here's what happens when you pull the autoclave boxes ball hard to keep see our clip violent we're just kind of making a mess things are out of control because we're not we're not getting that good stream down at the bottom of the rod to direct it into the play we're just pouring a bunch of heat in there the normal bead the slag is already off of it this mess down here I'd have to get some power tools on it to get it cleaned up we're three times as wide as a normal bead so that's the sixty ten the second rod that we have to run very similar but it is called sixty 11 again go through the numbering system 60,000 pounds tensile strength the one in the third digit means that it will run in any position again this one as a violent digging fast freeze type of arc I wish that I had the exact same size but I don't so that I could can show you the comparison some people have a hard time telling the difference between the two as far as they are characteristic fast freeze digging violent type of weld pool the one in this case indicates a composition there's a allows it to run on alternating current and dcep so it's a very similar to sixty ten except this one will run alternating current as well I'll run it on dcep to show the art characteristic and you can hear it and everything and then I will run it AC so you can kind of hear it and it's a little different little I'm gonna say it's close to the same art characteristic although it doesn't it doesn't penetrate or dig quite as much because again it's on alternating current so let's run sixty eleven on dcep this is three thirty second I'm going to run at about 70 amps everything is pretty much exactly the same it looks the same under the hood it smells the same when you get done they've got that light crispy flaky slag on there so both of 60 1060 11 run real close to the same every one of these little ripples is my heartbeat no I'm just kidding every one of these ripples in here's where I kind of just a general stitch rock or whatever but that's how violent and how fast freeze this electrode is as soon as you oscillator step forward it freezes and it makes that Ridge in there let's do a whip and then we'll run this rod AC as well when we talk about whip stitch they kind of all mean the same thing to me whips is more of a violent term you know it's like a whip whip it so we're gonna initiate the arc get the weld pool and we're just going to step completely out of it we'll step let it freeze come back on the leading edge I'll try to make each of these ripples in here I'll try to make them more pronounced so let's try the whip whip it good good this is sunlight daddy yeah yeah you know what to be doesn't look too much different than anything else but that is the big old stitch and the whip and all that there's all kinds of little techniques slag doesn't want to come off of there very friendly look at all those beautiful dabs beautiful so there you go there's a little afternoon playtime for you there doo doo doo stitch big wait I mean every time you step out of it it freezes you come back on the leading edge of it you kind of make that ripple pattern in there so I mean this has got so many applications for it's a great farm rod each through Russ mill scale you can repair stuff there's two rods you can weld the world without on the farm with an AC machine this is one of them I'll tell you what the other one is there after a while got a little story to tell you it's a good one so I did mention that this rod would run alternating current I'm gonna have to turn the amperage up slightly I'll probably go to this was 70 amps dcep ago 80 amps alternating current I think by that art shot you can see that you know you can do some movement manipulation I think I did a little uh a little stitch and Nene there may be huh I don't know what you call that but started out a little cold it looked like but that was the right amperage I could tell that it was softer in the penetration profile I haven't sick to Grindr on any of these yet you come back and look at these over the top you walk by him and glanced at them it's gonna be real hard to tell which one sixty ten and which ones 60 11 the next rod we want to run is the the sixty 13 very common rod very soft arc very dense slag it'll it'll come off in a slag peel and it kind of looks weird because when you run this rod correctly and you get down to the end there's a massive holes in your in the in here slag that's getting ready to come up and you swear you got porosity 60,000 pounds tensile strength one all position although I have not had much luck running this vertical up I think it runs better vertical down for me three indicates the type of flux and the polarity the correct polarities that this rod will run on are dcep dcen or electrode negative and alternating current so this rod will run on anything electrode negative will deposit more material quicker so you'll get a little bit more of a crown or bill and let's run them on all three yeah we're not gonna play those songs during this one here we're not gonna whip it this is just straight drag be as steady as you can try not to fall asleep very quiet very quiet to run do not see a slag peel this plate is getting superheated from all these other beads but watch this this how easy this is just coming right up off of there with the rod that I'm flicking it off there so this one looks to be crowned up a little bit it's got good color again it's real soft running this is not one that you want to do a bunch of manipulation you're not going to gain anything by doing that matter of fact you're gonna make B welds if you do that this slag is so dense you take a chance of this slag running around in front of your pool and this that's where you'll trap slag so this is one of those rods that we just kind of want to drag it and be as steady as we can that was dcep at a hundred amps I'm going to change polarity all I'm going to do is change leads and do another bead at a hundred amps so that was en to me it looked softer and quieter should be crowned up about the same maybe just a skosh higher skosh with the welding term essentially those two look the same again as I was welding this it it sounded somewhat quieter no we'll run this alternating current and listen to it I think with alternating current I want to turn this up from a hundred to about 115 Gela lacy buzz working out here nice toss need our full Sparkle show going on the coast but the nature they see that those parcels are small they're not heavy big batter there's a long don't do that so this is another good general-purpose farm rod again soft art you can make some beautiful welds with it sheet metal downhill thin stuff on ii-in if you had a machine that's alternating current only this is another good choice of a rod no reason to manipulate it on any polarity you're not going to gain anything BP in alternating current and I turned it up slightly soft very pleasant type of an arc weld pool appearance okay the last rod that we have here is 30 30 seconds 70 18 now 70 18 is one of the other rods that I mentioned if you had two rods you could weld the world with alternating current now this is one of them great all-around farm rod 70 thousand pound tensile strength one in the third digit indicates that it'll weld in all positions flat vertical overhead horizontal it'll do them all however unlike sixty 10 this will only weld in the vertical position uphill we do not want to run this rod going downhill slag just two-fluid it'll run right down in front of your pool the eight indicates the characteristics of the flux low hydrogen type of flux low hydrogen is the diffuse' balamb ount of hydrogen particles per million it's low hydrogen okay we've done some videos you can reference a video that we did on hydrogen boil with 70 18 or 60 10 pretty interesting stuff anyway soft medium type of penetration good appearance good mechanics we're gonna run this pretty much like like 60 13 we're not going to manipulate it whip it we're just going to drag it try to make it a nice round weld pool I'll run dcep first and then we'll run alternating current dcep I am going to run eighty five amps 330 second flat position I'm trying to do that here and the flux is slag on this rod is more of a I don't I don't want to say it's like a dense iron powder glass pot you see how shiny it is smooth ripple pattern I'll run this rod again on alternating current to show you that it will run nicely a little bit of a rough start there camera guy so this is alternating current and it runs pretty smooth sixty Hertz out the whole time stuff right here intro to stick welding I hope that helped the viewer several at multiple viewers actually that we're asking a lot of questions about getting into stick welding pretty easy stuff again simple rules about rod angle arc length I think those are the main two things pay attention to amperages just keep it real simple when you start out and if we can help you with anything please contact us thanks so much for subscribing to weld comm over the years we sincerely appreciate that please check us out on Facebook and Instagram and whip it whip it good you might have to cut that part