I've been burning rod most of my life off and on. I never had any school training but I've welded for a living at times and did machine maintenance most of the other times. I always wanted to get schooled at it but I finally retired. Now I weld for home projects. I love your videos because it teaches me some of the "schooling" I always wanted to get. You're never too old to learn new things.

What a humble man you are: "I knew I was worth nothing and that they were paying me to teach me". That's the way great men think of themselves when, on the contrary, they are worth every penny. Best regards.

this job story is one of the best arguments for Unionizing I've come upon

In my early days I didn't even know I had a crappy job till I got something better. 65 years later I realize just how crappy some were! We all pay our dues to get in to the old mans club.

Whenever I start getting full of myself I look at videos like this and realize I still have a lot to learn

You have the best arc shots on KZfaq and have the prettiest welds all around. Bet you're good at anything to choose to be. You're a cut above. You're the Godfather.

I just started going to Tulsa Welding School in Houston Texas, and a week before I went to school I found your channel because I didn’t know much about welding, and going on my 2 to third week now. And I want to thank you for being very instructive, having high quality video, and interesting stories. Thank you sir

I love when some one is willing to take the time to master a trade, even more so when that person is willing and excited to share that knowledge to others. This country has lost the mentor-ship that it used to have....so these videos are awesome.

“Black booger club” got me dead that’s how I felt first day in the shop grinding

Best videos and arc shots anywhere. Thanks for all the work you do making these videos.

landed my first welding job! started school at 19(still attending) 22 now and I'm doing production welding(mig) haha it's a sweatshop environment but man feels good to be learning and getting paid for what I wanna do better than my last job haha mcdonalds.

You honesty adds great value to your product Jodie. I really appreciate that and the variety of work types from Mig, stick and Tig. Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Taking pride in your work is . . . Priceless. Merry Christmas, and a fortunate new year to all.

Bloody impressive as always Jodie. Looking forward to full review on this machine. All the best. M

Jody, each time you show I am 😮 amazed.

Thanks so much for doing these videos. I am teaching myself to stick weld and literally learning every time I strike an arc. Even ur comments and stories are helpful. Preciate it man!

Like you, my thoughts were; whenever there was a crappy job (and they are a part of even the good jobs!) it was always nice to take away something positive as well as the pay check . That positive attitude gets you through the day and brings out the silver lining on any pile of dung. Cheers Jody!

Thank you for sharing your experiences and knowledge about welding so keep it up Jodie 💪🏼😎 Greetings From Chile 🇨🇱

I am now retired had a few jobs welding I just learned more from this video than anything I picked up while working . Thanks

Love your stick welding videos Jody. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the great video Jody your a good teacher you taught me more than I learned in welding school thanks for all your hard work.🙏👊🏻

Awesome to see someone promoting the importance and value of jobs that could easily be underappreciated. Thank you jody

Thanks Jodie for this old school lesson!Congrants for your great job for years in KZfaq from Argentina!

12:21 a good old whack on the end of the electrode against the table before sticking it in the stinger always worked for me.

hey brother than you for making these videos, im in school now, second year and your videos really helped me progress.

I could listen to ur stories from the early days of learning to weld forever. Keep up the great great work!!!

Didn't expect these to still be available 3 or 4 years after this video came out, but they are! Thanks.

To this day, this is my favourite welding video. Watch it countless amount of times! Great video

I’ve been watching your videos for some time now and I’ve picked up a lot of info from them. I just got my first welder and laid my first welds just a day ago and I realized it’s not as easy as you make it seem

Awesome! All of your useful knowledge helps. I'm going to be taking a welding fabrication class this coming semester.

I'm just learning how to stick weld with my everlast welder. Your teaching style is fabulous.

I so enjoy your videos. It inspires my to go out to my shed and practise. A true welding word smith. Thank you Jody.

Always telling myself “ill do it like that next time!” when I watch your channel. Daily after-work routine haha

Jody, you are a great asset to the welding community and a roll model for the future generation. I really respect how free you are with your knowledge and you don't discriminate between brands. I got a good chuckle seeing you in an ESAB hood, Lincoln gloves and a Miller jacket. Keep it up.

Jody you inspired me to buy my first everlast welder and to continually learn and improve on my welding. I can't wait to get my first welding job.

This channel been going years been watching it years and still look forward to it.

Dude, I love your videos. I'm in school for welding and your videos have helped so much

Thanks always appreciate your wisdom and knowledge ,

we've all been there.. and it's a great way to learn. love hearing your story

I appriciate the positive attitude and genuine advice. I'm getting ready to graduate from high school. Trusting I keep my hood down hopefully I'll be able to pass my 3G smaw test at the welding class I've been taking since junior year and enter the field with some basic certs and experience. These videos help and give me some good examples of both technuiqe and mindset as I get ready to put food on my own table.

Thanks for the great video, super welds and tons of info for me the beginner. Thanks for always explaining so well what you’re doing.

Great story and demo Jody. Hard to imagine, even when younger, doing 10 hours of stick work!! Thanks as always.

SAN ANTONIO TEXAS 💯 thank you for kickin down this knowledge to us it is greatly appreciated.

Great video Jodi I really enjoy your stick welding videos and always learn something new Thanks!

I was dual shield welding with 1/16th wire today, and I had my hood on the maximum darkness of 13. You are totally right about how bright it gets at higher amperage.

7018 rods are one of my favorite rods to weld with! I am taking a college welding class and our shop has every welding rod 6010, 6011, 6013, 7014, 7018, and 7024. Thanks for the tip Jody!

Working at a pipe yard helping boost production for a project. Welding 49” flanges, putting down 1/2” fillets, and 7/8” fillets. We’re burning about a 50lb can per flange. Talk about some hot stingers, some hot whips, and plenty of practice planning ahead on beads!

Bam! hot start thanks for leaving that in.

I've got around 5 almost 6 years experience(now I haven't been able to find a welding job so it's not what I'm doing now) but I still find myself watching alot of your videos still and it's crazy you have videos for everyone and even your beginner videos I learn stuff from them and it's nice

It’s awesome to see you welding those bids

For lots of 7018 work, I keep a brick on the table. Nothing fancy, just a square paver. I tap the rod straight down, and scrape it to the side so starts are easy.

Story time with Jody is the best way to end the day lol.

i have had that same flashlight for 4 years and have also dropped it many times. it still works great!!!

i subbed to you about 5 years ago when i started welding job........just bought a dc inverter tig .....im back to learn

I really appreciate how you describe a lot of .how to and what not. In your videos, they're pretty great.

Love your videos, keep the videos coming. I learn a lot from you.

Today is my first time Doing Open Root 1G I’ve been in welding classes for almost 3 months now and I absolutely love it

Good stuff! I always look forward to your videos. Keep up the good work.

Thank you for this video and all the videos you make sir, I, myself, am a welder too even though I stopped welding a while ago. This video made me rethink going back to welding or at least perfect my technique, which I never did, I hope to be one day as good as you 🙌

Awesome weld! Just beautiful

I'm 66 now went to Vocational School in high school. First job I got was in a shop that manufactured blast furnaces and hot metal cars. If you didn't average 50 pounds of welding rod a day they considered you slacking off. They weighed your welding rod out and you had to turn your stubs in at the end of your shift. You're right you get to the point to where you don't even think about what you're doing, 7018 vertical up 8 hours straight and it was mind-numbing but it earned me a good living to have such a skill. I would recommend that any young man learn a skilled trade. Beautiful weld by the way.

At 60 I’m amazed at how the stories from my past seem to come to mind from time to time. I’ve always loved welding and even during my career as a physicist I spent as much time improving my bead as I possibly could. I use it all the time on my sheep farm now and it saves me many thousands of dollars every year!

Thxs for this video I stick weld with 3/16 and 1/4 7018 almost everyday I work in a repair shop at copper mine you are very good

I totally agree with everyone that said something along the line of: You, J.C., are so kind & thoughtful, always doing your best to help me and millions of other aspiring welders & fabricators!! Thank You So Very Much , J. Diresta said it first at Fab-Tech, you’re our very own GODFATHER of WELDING and I think I can speak for all of your fans/friends; We love and always appreciate you for everything you’ve given back!!!

Thanks Jody. Trying my best to learn good welding habits to use with my new powerarc stick welder.

You can look at those first few jobs as getting paid for training and experience. Great video as always Jody

Really enjoy watching your videos, brings back memories of my time in the pressure vessel industry especially this particular video with multi pass E7018 electrodes. The only issue i had with the Low Hydrogen electrodes was the final pass on a fillet would often leave you with a shoulder but I remember my charge-hand telling me that because of that shoulder and the increased chance of undercut being visible he would say use a general purpose electrode to finish it off. I remember saying but we have got to do ultrasonic tests on the fillets and the metallurgy of the weld would be compromised. How little I knew as he explained the dilution rate of the previous welds having a single pass from a E6010 would have no effect and with regards to undercut you just made it disappear plus the multi fillet pass was then a perfect mitre of equal leg length. Keep up the videos I enjoy watching them, I no longer am in the industry finishing some 26 years ago, but i keep my hand in as i retired 4 years early than my government retirement age in doing steel gates and panel fences along with flat truck floor repairs with my Thermal arc 3-1 Fabricator 181i invertor which i really enjoy using

Nice tips, learning 7018 up hill now at my union welding school. Uphill is a bit tricky. I'll get it though 👌

Your very humble Jody!

Great video Jody! . Been watching you so long I didn't know you had a "first welding job" ahah. Sure is a lot to learn when comes to the ole stick eh. Great series and really enjoy your videos and all the comments......cheers 2 ya and happy Holidays from East Coast Canada, NL.

I remember learning and working as an apprentice and doing the stick welding. Can not tell you how many times I got hit with a welding helmet for going to fast and not cleaning up the weild . Thanks that brought back old times

Thank you for wonderful video about welding.

Better than my first welding job! Short circuit mig welding mufflers😒 basically not even true welding. Lasted 6 months, total nightmare! Now I make transformer tanks which also sucks lol they tolerate all the undercut in the world. Good way to learn bad habits!

Hello!!, a fellow Acworth Resident !! Love the videos !

i enjoyed hearing your experience in the sweat shop job and how you recreated your whole past experience.

Great lessons, and excellent job!

Nice welds and advice Jody. I've been in the industry for about 3 years now and have had 5 different jobs. The first was mostly MIG welding auto parts. Tedious work and very repetitive, 60+ hours a week with low hourly pay and no benefits. From there I moved on to fabricating scissor lifts, which taught me a lot about measuring and layout, welding techniques, running saws, grinders, milling machines, etc. The pay wasn't great, but it was valuable experience that helped me get in the door at better companies. Where I'm at now I've run MIG, TIG, stick, flux core, and even a bit of oxy fuel. I also do some occasional machining and assembly. The crappy jobs I worked definitely helped me progress as a welder, and I got a lot of the really stupid rookie mistakes out of my system on non-critical jobs.

As always, great and informative video! I too have had a few "sweat shop" jobs. If nothing else, those jobs will teach a person where they don't want to work. 🙂👍

I find what you were saying very very helpful and just wanted to learn more from you if I can.

Brilliant video Jody. I’m coded in stick but still learn from these simple videos. I’ve also got both the A50 and A50 air fed screens brilliant bit of kit from esab

Marine Repair Service, S.I.,N.Y. Back in 1975, learned to weld and prepared us to deal with the rest of our lives in the real world.

👍thanks for another one. Happy holidays to you and yours.

Jody helped me get through first year, I’m now about to sit my red seal next week. 🙏

Thanks for sharing how u started off,very nice welds

Thanks Jody, I learn a lot from you.. You-da-man!

So I'm learning SAME at this place called Schenck Job Corps and I've been kinda moving slow in the program. Been here for about 7 months and having a hard time making efficient progress. Then this one man who comes here, who's only welding like 3 or 4 times in his life blows everyone out of the water, makes me and my peers look really slow. He's been here for like 2 months and he's starting is G3 V-Grooves in a few days. I kept asking him how he pulls this stuff off. He told me to look up this KZfaq channel

Thank you I’m self teaching and appreciate the tips!

Ótima aula,sou muito seu fã,obrigado por compartilhar seus conhecimentos.Saudações do Brasil.

Great information and video! 👍👍

What a wealth of knowledge you must have. What you`re doing with the videos is fantastic. Thank you for posting. PoSuM

Thanks , this is one of your best videos.

You are a good man - thanks for all the tips.

Great video missed you man

I know about sweat shops, my first welding job was at a foundry fixing castings, was burning rod for 10 hrs a day, 6 days a week. You had to stay in your "cell" as they called it until break was called or you were fired on the spot. Had the the 2am to 12:30pm shift and it was the roughest job I think I ever had. Did that for 3 months and moved on. Learned a lot in a very short time, it was truly a trial by fire.

Thank you for the short story in the beginning, love hearing real experiences on the job, nothing like being a new guy, on a new job. Great channel.

Thank you for sharing!

What we used to do is lightly tap the stick onto some clean concrete to freshen up that tip a bit. But the electrodes have to be nice and dry.

Love your work....👍

Terrific camera work. Super clear puddle great light filter.

Im about to start welding school this summer and i just came across your videos and they are really really and i mean really helpful. I have no idea where to start learning or the terminology and i saw your other videos earlier and feel confidence starting to grow and ill be a step ahead with the knowledge you have shared with your audience through your videos. Thank You Sir. 🙏👍