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Stick welding is a process that uses a covered electrode that is also called a stick. The full name for Welding is Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) and is more widely used than many other methods of welding.

This works by melting the flux that covers the electrode as the welder welds a work-piece. As this process continues it forms gas and slag and these two things shield the arc and the weld pool of molten metal. What happens when the piece is finally all welded together, there is slag that the welder must chip off. The flux also adds scavengers, deoxidizers and other types of alloy elements to the metal during the weld.

There are many advantages of using this method. First of all this is one of the most inexpensive ways to weld because the equipment is easy to use, portable and inexpensive. You don’t have to worry about regulating the flux because the electrode does the regulating of the flux. Whats nice about this method is that you are getting a method that is less effected by wind and drafts so its less of a concern. You can also use this method in any position.

Throughout the world if you were to take a pole, stick welding is used more than any other form of arc welding. It is also versatile, flexible and used by a wider variety of individual. As an example, you can use this method to make small repairs around your home, you can repair equipment and it is used in the erection of still and other commercial types of joining metal.

Sometimes there can be problems with Welding but they are relatively easy to fix. Some of the most common problems you may run into include:

• Spatter — this basically makes the metal look messy and it is expensive to clean. There are many things you can do to fix this and we will talk more about this in the tips article.
• Undercutting — this also changes the appearance of the metal and can weaken the weld especially when it has tension or fatigue.
• Wet Electrodes — if you see that your arc is erratic or it is acting rough, then the electrodes can be wet.
• Cracking — there are different types of cracks can happen in different spaces in the weld, and it can be caused by high carbon or high alloy content.

Flux coated electrodes can be found in a wide variety of different sizes and lengths to suit your application. The best way to tell which ones you need is to match the base metal with the properties of the electrodes. You can usually find them in bronze, aluminum bronze, nickel and stainless steel.

Of all the electrical welding methods, stick welding is the most versatile because it can be used to weld more metals together than many of the other methods. It is also one of the easiest to do though it will take practice if you are truly a beginner to welding. However, even when you are a beginner it is quick to learn and with practice you will do a very good weld using this method.

Welder World is a brand new community website for weldering to connect with one another and gather free information on welding. Come by WelderWorld to get your free Ebook on Welding Basics just for joining the Welding community for free. You will find Welding Forums, Welding Blogs, Welding Community Members and more just for signing up for free to join and then you can get your free Welding EBook on Welding Basics. Come be A part of our Welding Community.

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When you are looking for tips on how to make your Welding better and safer it is important to remember why you are using this method. It is also important to know some advantages and limitations of this method before you get started.

Some of the advantages of using this method include:

§ You can use it with any commercial metals so you don’t’ have to worry about compatibility.
§ You are doing a continuous weld and it pulls electrode wire off a spool.
§ You can perform this method in many different positions.
§ Your weld deposition rate will be higher than any other alternative process.
§ You make more money because you can work faster.
§ You can learn to manipulate the gun fairly easily.
§ You can also adapt the process to other types of applications like mechanical and robotic.

There are a few limitations to this method however. These are things you need to know:

§ You are going to pay more for your equipment and it can be more complex to work with.
§ You might have a little difficulty in hard to reach places because the torch is bulky and has several cables.
§ If you have wind or drafts around while you are using this method you can compromise your gas shielding.
§ You’ll need to dedicate some time to training to get the correct parameter selection.

With these things in mind, here are a few tips to make your welding process better:

1. Remember that most Welding applications will use a direct current polarity. Really you won’t have to do much once to get the parameters set because it will regulate it self.
2.The electrode extension is that part that helps determine the arc you will have when working based upon its length. You have to set the length before you start. The current will flow in the wire and it will heat the length of your wire; then the current will heat your arc.
3. The short circuit method of transfer should be used if you want to weld thin materials or large gaps in a joint. This method uses the lowest range of current and small electrodes. This will insure that you have low head and a small, quick weld pool that will freeze.
4. The Globular method of transfer should not be used if you can get away from it because it is so difficult to control. There are ways that will work better than flat services but it is possible to do it on flat services. It also makes spatter uncontrollable.
5.When situations arise when you need to weld thicker sections then you should use the spray transfer method because you have more current and higher deposition rate. You can get a spatter free stream of drops and this method can be used in all of the welding positions.

Finally, when you are purchasing Welding supplies make sure that you purchase them from a reputable dealer. Also check all of the parts to see if they are working before you make the final purchase.

Welder World is the leading place for welders to gather as a community to share and get free information on Welding. Visit our community today at WelderWorld to join for free and then get our free Basics of Welding EBook. There will be many welding forums, welding blogs, and welding members to share information with as well as a free ebok just for joining that is all about Weldiing Basics. Visit and become one of our Welding Community Members.

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This process is called by many names and it basically is a welding process that uses an arc to heat metal that needs to be joined. The welder uses a continuous feed filler metal (a consumable) electrode and this is used on the work-piece. Similar to other types of welding a shielding must be used and this is usually a gas or mixture of gases.

This type of welding is also called short circuit transfer. In the MIG process, when the wire actually touches the metal to be connected, it lets go of the metal that does the welding. What the purpose of this is to stop the metal transfering across an arc as to avoid puddling.

Also known as Welding , the MIG(GMAW) process uses a metal gun to provide this service instead of a torch so that you get a direct current going to the metal. You can use both constant current and alternating current systems to also produce this method of welding.

Welding uses four ways to transfer metal. These are:

Globular — this method is difficult and used the least because it has a tendency to spatter because the gun will move to a high heat without warning. This makes the welding surface come out with flaws.  This method uses carbon dioxide so the electrode tends to produce a ball of melted metal that cases irregular shapes that are bigger than the electrode. They then drop and falls onto the piece you are working on which causes a spatter. This is difficult to control as you would imagine.

Short circuiting — this uses a smaller current than the globular method but it still uses carbon dioxide. Thinner metals can be welded together with this method becuase there is a lower current. This method is similar to the globular method because drops of melted metal from the electrode still forms, but it causes the electrode to short circuit instead of the drops falling on the work. This closes off the arc but comes back again because the surface tension pulls the metal goblet from the tip.

Spray — this was the first method for transfer used with Welding and used to weld aluminium and stainless steel. The difference with this process is that the electrode metal passes through an electric arc that is stable and goes all the way to the workplace. You will get a very high quality weld with this as you will stop the spattering. You also will watch as the current and voltage increases so you get small, vaporized steam droplets instead of large globules.

Pulse spray — this last one is a newer way of doing this type of welding that uses a continuous current that pulses and melts the filler wire. In each pulse a small droplet of metal will fall.

This also allows the welder to use a lower current. The welder gets a more stable arc and this stops spatter and the short circuiting process. The gas that works the best in this type of slower situation is argon gas, not carbon dioxide gas.

Welder World is a brand new community website for weldering to connect with one another and gather free information on welding. Come by WelderWorld to get your free Ebook on Welding Basics just for joining the Welding community for free. You will find Welding Forums, Welding Blogs, Welding Community Members and more just for signing up for free to join and then you can get your free Welding EBook on Welding Basics. Come be A part of our Welding Community.

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TSince TIG(GTAW) welding can be difficult there is all kinds of information that will help you understand it better and how to do it more effectively. There are a few things that need to be in place before you start to weld using the TIG method.

What to prepare
The first thing you want to do is prepare the area where you are going to do your welding because you want it to be kept free of contamination. This means that you will have to really clean the area to make sure you have no grease, moisture or dust. You will also want to make sure there are no air drafts in this area because this could bring more problems.

The next thing to prepare is the metal that you are going to use for Welding . You will need to make sure that the joints are as clean as you can make them and you do this by using a stainless steel wire brush.  Many welders will dedicate one brush to whatever metal they have so they don’t have to worry about cross contamination.

If have slag on any of the metal you can remove it with a file. Next, you will want to clean the base metal. The reason you want everything to be so clean is that if contaminated, the metal can either break down or make a bad connection. Of course, it depends on the metal which it will do, so cleaning everything can stop this from happening.

Beginning to weld
Many things can happen to contaminate your weld so you want to make sure that you have a shield gar to stop this from happening. Most welders will use Argon because it seems to work best with Welding . By using this gas, you are protecting the area from oxygen which can contaminate what you are doing.

If you are using thicker aluminum, you can also add helium to the Argon because it ionizes hotter than Argon and you will need the hotter temperature in these types of welds. If you need helium you can get these already premixed, this is available with your gas supplier.

A note about suppliers: they are not the same so you will want to make sure you use someone who is reputable. Before you go ahead and buy, you want to check for leaks at all of the sealing points.

When you are checking for Welding leaks as you weld the best way is to use water and soap and a small acid type brush. These together will produce bubbles if there are any gas leaks. All you do is apply this solution of water and soap on the joint to and if you see air bubbles, you know you have a leak.

You will want to check all your supply hoses and gas connections to make sure there are no leaks before you get started. Make sure the torch insulators and your o-rights are fitting properly and that the seals are intact.

If you are like a lot of people and like to avoid problems before they start, the best thing to use is a gas lens on your torch so you can see easier.

Welder World is a brand new community website for weldering to connect with one another and gather free information on welding. Come by WelderWorld to get your free Ebook on Welding Basics just for joining the Welding community for free. You will find Welding Forums, Welding Blogs, Welding Community Members and more just for signing up for free to join and then you can get your free Welding EBook on Welding Basics. Come be A part of our Welding Community.

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The acronym TIG stands for Tungsten Inert Gas Arc Welding and the acronym GTAW stands for Gas Tungsten Arc Welding this is the same process but it is referred to by these two different names.

In the situation you will be Welder using an electric arc that generates the heat. You then have a tungsten non-consumable electrode that then produces the weld you are attempting to make.

One of the things that have to happen in this type of welding is that the particular metal that you are welding has to be shielded from contamination in the atmosphere or you will get a poor weld. Due to the point that was just mentioned, you will find that the area is shielded with an inert gas that is used with a filler metal where necessary.

This type of welding needs constant current to flow across the arc using an ionized gas called plasma. Plasma also has metal vapours within it. You will usually use GTAW if you have to weld thin metals like stainless steel, aluminium, magnesium or copper allows. GTAW also gives the person who is operating the welding process more control of the weld.

What this means to the weld is that it is a stronger weld and has a higher quality than many other types of Welder . Many experts say that it is harder to learn, is complex and can be slower than other welding techniques.

Some welders like using a different kind of torch to produce plasma arc welding which is very much like this one but a little different. This type of welding will give a more focused welding arc, but usually this is done through automation.

How It Operates
The reason this welding process is the most complicated or difficult to master is because the welder has to use a smaller arc length; they have to be able to have a very steady hand. If they aren’t able to keep a distance between the electrode and the piece they are working on, the piece can become contaminated and there can be problems with the weld.

This is also a two handed process because you have to be able to hold the torch in one hand and feed a filler metal into the space that you are welding. You can see that this is a very intricate process and one that requires high skill.

There are a few types of TIG Welding that will not require this type of weld and the individual will not have to use filler material these types include: edge, corner and butt joints. These types of welds are called autogenous or fusion welds (Source: Wikipedia).

A welder who is highly skilled in this process is able to alternate between using the torch and then using the filler material in a pretty fast way.  As they do this the filler rod can be taken out as the electrode moves forward, and it doesn’t have to be taken out of the gas shied. This highly developed process is really only for those who can do it well and have been trained.

GTAW can operate using several different currents: positive direct current, negative direct current or alternating current. This will all depend on how they set up the power supply in the beginning.

Welder World is a brand new community website for weldering to connect with one another and gather free information on welding. Stop by our new welding community, WelderWorld, and sign up for free to become a member and get your free Basic Welding Ebook. You will Find lots of benefits to this welding community such as forums, blogs, and other community members plus you can get the free basic ebook on welding just for stopping by. Come be A part of our Welding Community.

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