My 2 cents from a 40 year bridge welder. The whole reason to watching the puddle while welding is to regulate the speed at which you drag the rod across the plate. Too slow and the puddle gets wide and surrounds the rod then gets in front of the rod, and too fast and your puddle starts to separate.

Your my welding instructor. Can’t thank you enough .

Awesome video teacher, look forward to the rest of your classes. Best Education videos 2024 hands down!

Greg your a very good instructor, you take the time to explain details and problems that may actually accure, a lot better than what was taught when in shop class in the mid to late 60.

Thanks for putting out this series, Greg! For beginners like us, having tons of details is so helpful.

Your explanations are so clear and detailed so that the whole process now makes more sense - and I actually took welding in college! I never could figure out why my welds were one way or the other until now! Thank you so much for your ever so patiently delivered information! This changes everything. :)

Thanks for the plain spoken highly detailed tips. So many other pro welding instructors neglect to be this thorough, or maybe they just want us to sign up for their online courses where they will dish it out .

Best explanation of the weld puddle I have found thank

This is a Masterclass! A very rich and satisfying lesson. You are a good man Greg....thank you🎉

Best puddle vid I've seen! Thank you. I learned so much. Improved my welding so much.

Schools don't teach this well! Incredible detail! Explanations are superb and the tips and tricks are what we beginners need... Cannot thank you enough for this series!

Great aeries. I'm a fairly new Tig water. Never stick welded but I want to start doing it with my welder so this is great information.

YOU, SIR, ARE LIKE A BREATH OF FRESH AIR !!! Hopefully the third world countries watch your videos! Their whole beads are tacks! I've been arc welding since I was in the seventh grade in shop, in Junior High School. My Dad raised me in a machine shop. He taught me silver soldering, sillfoss, brazing, as well as welding steel with wire coat hanger. I was fluent with oxygen/acetelyn torch. I didn't know about electric welding nor cutting torch till junior high school. Dad had me fluent in all his equipment by the age of 10 years old. I took machine-shop in school and worked in machine job shops ending up in tool and diemaker/tool designer. My hobby has always been steel smith. My Mother told me that if your work is something you thoroughly enjoy, you'll never WORK another day in your life. That turned out to be true. I was volunteer fire and rescue from age 16 thru age 37. I stayed in God given Tool & Jig Design, aswell as Machinist. When I got a chance to get a job in a large company as an Electrician, I took the training and did that foralmost 40 years, keeping my machinist/ Steel-Smith, Sharpening, Leathersmith, Tool & Jig design and light fabricating tillI was in my sixties, and have slacked off a lot of all of it, now that I have retired, and are in my seventies, but I do enough to keep myself busy. I don't charge anybody anything...it's more hobby now and therapy to stay sane. I'm still designing tools and items for folks, just for the love of doing it !!! I'm telling you this to let you know, I appreciate what you're doing for people that JUST DON'T HOLD THE CONCEPT. If you will put a C-camp style Vice Grip on the log of your channel stock at an angle sticking up on the side toward your camera. You can just just hold down the vicegrip to the table to rock your channel surface toward the camera, without burning yourself or overheating your glove. I love your content and your ability to teach! Your knowledge of the craft is apparent. THANK YOU. I subbed. Bill, from Tn. 🇺🇸

I want to thank you for all your efforts to share your knowledge! I'm retired and am starting a new hobby and have been struggling. After watching your videos I'm making progress faster than I thought possible. Thanks again!

Thanks for "Sticking" around and showing how it done. Now I got to work on my starts and stops

Very excellent totorial!!! Step by step I now understand how to practice. Never seen any totorial this good!!!

I'm learning (always learning) and love burning rods, just starting to find small jobs. But if I don't get routine torch time in, then I notice mistakes repeating. So, this series is very much appreciated. 21:30, super instructive; thank you

I'm not in a welding class, but am trying to understand the process of welding. This is excellent! Very informative and clear. Thanks!

Another great video. The story behind the pitfalls and why they occur are worth everything. Thanks again and keep the videos coming

Awesome series! Thank you!

I have been struggling to weld. Thanks so much for video.

Excellent. Thank you

Brilliant series Greg so far

Grate video once again. Thank ypu.

Great instruction, thank you!!

Hey Greg. I'm nearly 75 and I just bought myself a stick welder. I've always got a project on but somehow never learned. Anyhow I just wanted to thank and congratulate you on your presentation style. I will have an opportunity to get some practical experience with a welding mate of mine but I will be doing my homework beforehand based on your lessons. 'Stick' to it mate - Pete from Australia

Thanks for the video. Good work!

This information is awesome!! Thank you so much!!

Oh my. I just rec'd a stick welder yesterday. This is EXACTLY what I need to get started.

Been wanting to get into welding for a number of years..but for 26 of them I was living in the woods living a very much off the grid life..living out my rucksack and with only my dog for companionship..I met my partner helene two years ago and have been living with her ever since..sad to say I had to say goodbye to my best friend (my dog fred)just before Christmas last year..so now I have a stable enough life style I would love to get into welding and finally get started..I thought stick welding would be a great place to get started..thanks for the great introduction helped me understand the basics of where I need to start...many thanks steve

Thank you for the pressantation. Very clear and very helpful.

Just came upon your channel and glad I did. great advice! Subscribed and will continue with the series. Thank you for putting this content online.

Love it!

Brilliant series on welding man. Have a cheap AC unit I bought for the farm a while back but never had the time to pull it out, and neither of my folks know how to, so this has been an incredible start to a crash course.

Thank you for this video God bless

Love the eye on the stinger!

good stuff, keep going

i love it

Thank you for your great content. Admire your teaching capabilities

I didn't even know u had this Course On Here till now...... I'll Watch...

Just started watching this video series, lots of great info that others don’t have. Makes me want to get the welder out and try again . I’m understanding the process better on to the next video

Thanks for the informative videos! I was getting frustrated until watching your videos several times and realized I had a death grip on the stinger and my travel speed was way too fast. Please keep adding more.

Thank you..inspiring...and really well exsplained

Hi! I would suggest to also try another thing with 6013 - arc control by microregulating arc length. This is important to understand how the arc behaves and what one can do with it. Use one hand to hold an electrode as a pen* (well, not exactly, just as if you try to support a rod at a point about 2-4 inches away from the tip) and other hand to hold a stinger so that it takes away almost the whole weight thus allowing the first hand to easily make fine movements with fingers. Touch the base metal with clean rod tip, it will probably not start immediately and will try to stick. Lift the electrode tip slowly. If you're careful enough, at a small distance the arc will be trying to start multiple times by individual current bursts. At a certain distance the arc will start to burn continuously, but before that, it is possible to regulate the frequency of bursts or kill it entirely and start again just by precisely changing the distance from the electrode tip to base metal with sub-millimiter movements of the electrode. Hopefully this excercise would help to feel the scale of movements necessary to regulate arc length afterwards in continuous burn mode.

very good explanation easy to understand thanks

I’m learning a lot from you, much appreciated

thanks for the tips and I have never ran 6013 on DC I have all ways used AC 6013

I mostly don't like 6013, with it's sneaky slag, but it's not a bad choice for learning. Thanks for your stick welding series, it is our most misunderestimated process. You are doing a really good job of giving people access to a very useful set of skills. There is one case where I do like it, as 1/16" stick on top of sheet metal. Harbor Freight has been keeping it in stock, so it's availabe. Also the mostly ceramic flux seems to have an almost infinite shelf life. The small 6013 bonds to the base metal OK, but it likes to sit on top, not burn in. To join two pieces of sheet metal, I would use small 6011, building up a bead of spot welds (slowly to control the heat). But, to build a reinforcing/decorative rib on top of sheet metal, that is strongly bonded to the base metal, 6013 with a dab-dab technique works well. Apparently in some of the poor tropical countries, 6013 3/32" (and larger) is about all they can get. The ceramic flux can survive tropical conditions. Also they can get thin square tubing. So they have developed a dab-dab method to control the heat. You strike the arc, create the puddle, and break the arc. You lean the stick about 45deg. in the direction of travel, so the arc force pushes back the slag. Then, before the metal fades to black, you strike the arc, and add the next bead. It's easy to restrike while everything is still hot. You create a continuous bead, one puddle at a time. There will be distortion, but you could hammer and dolly to counter that. (As the weld cools it shrinks so you hold a dolly (hand-anvil) under the metal, and tap on it from above with a hammer, and this stretches it out again.) You don't need a fancy set, the face of a 3 or 5 lb. sledge from a yard sale can be your dolly, with any hammer. (This is a skill you build by doing, just keep working at it.) As an example project, I have wheel barrow that is made of thin metal. It is starting to get a bit rusty, so it needs a tune-up (clean and paint). I want to weld in some 1/8" steel where the bucket bolts to the frame. But I know the thin steel will crack at the weld because it will flex, and the thicker plate will not. If I run some 6013 ribs out from the corners and maybe the middle of the plate I can eliminate that issue. You do this underneath, so the inside can be smooth. You could make it as decorative as you want, add your initials, etc., etc. Just some thoughts. I'm looking forward to watching the rest of the stick welding series. These are the kind of video you can watch more than once. Thanks again.

Only in 1.5 and im hooked

I for some reason love me some 6013, most people don’t care for it but it works great for me. Even better than 7018 sometimes

Thanks

Be nice to see the welding through the helmet. Subscribed and learning. HOOAH!!!

🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Yes this is the kind of detail I need to know how to adjust from the errors and know what is happening, Thanks.

Since you have provided us with great tips on welding. I should probably drop a few on videography. You mentioned using ND filters, did you try to lower your aperture and exposure in combo with using an ND filter? I myself am able to get arc shots with a ND512.

What brand of rods? (They look like, uh, Hobart. Are they?) Reason why I asked is that the Lincoln rods (straight rutile, supposedly) have less bite and more slag, while Hobart rods supposedly are similar to the “fabled Rutile-Cellulose” rods that are common in much of Europe. Those have less slag and more “bite” (penetration) - and can “sorta-substitute” for 6011s if your welder *really* dislikes cellulosic rods, like my now-defunct inverter stick welder - the much-missed “toaster.” Want another “toaster” (more the portable size than anything else) - but going “Swedish” (ESAB - couldn’t recall the name) means lengthy saving up for near $900+!

Im seriously relieved seeing a serious like this. I'm a guy who lives in apartment and I have my welding stuff at my parents. And I'm building things for my apartment to level up and stick and flux is i feel all i need. Though for welding aluminum like small shelves...i havent done the research.. for utility shelves out of thin scrap aluminum (for trays) do you recommend i get aluminum stick rods or go to something else??? Again i have junk think aluminum im going to bend and make organizers for a toolbox. I thought about just riveting the corners together still I want to learn a bew skill. Thsbks in advance if you reply!!! Subbbed!!!

Did you say art camera or arc camera?

Do you have multiple channels? Like an airgunning channel for instance?

Is there a particular rod you recommend for a first time stick welder to practice with?

I am struggling to get a weld started because I can't see until the arc appears and this could be anywhere except where I want it.

Can you hold the actual stick for more control?

I have a problem with porosity in the beginning of my welds using 7018. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to fix?

28:24 … I’ve heard AC welding, when the voltage flips it clears impurities out of the weld … apparently, that explains using AC on aluminum, but not DC. neat that an AC welder can work better on rusty surfaces. … When I’m ready to upgrade, AC / DC multi-mode unit, and maybe HF start seem most interesting. 😮 ooooh, the foot pedal is super interesting, but *way* too expensive. 😆

Try bending your rod, or if you insist on using those garbage stingers, put your rod in the holder with the handle up, not down where it can interfere with the weld

My slag does not lift like yours , all Sam as yours but have to really hammer to chip away why is this

i love it

Thanks