Thanks for the kind words. I haven’t been around making videos for long so everything will come with time. I never really set a goal with sharing knowledge, I just focus on answering questions and making content to help people understand how things work. It’s a definite challenge but I enjoy it and it gives me purpose 😀

Thanks for the kind words. It’s all about simplifying things so everyone understands, and then giving the common things to avoid to reduce frustration. Having gone from not being able to weld anything to fixing everything, the mistakes I made help me to share what not to do lol.

Thanks for the kind words. I am all about helping people out and sharing knowledge, glad you found some useful stuff 😀.

Thanks for you very kind comment 😀. I am glad I could make a difference in your journey of learning to weld. It makes me happy to think that people can become better at something (and maybe believe in themselves a bit more) via a video or two I made. It’s definitely worth the effort on my part 😀

You are correct. It’s very common for people learning to weld to produce good looking 6013,7014, and even 7018 welds. Then when they get to 6010 they struggle with very inconsistent welds. Every flaw in technique and every inconsistency in movement and arc gap is captured in a 6010 weld. It is possible to learn to weld with 6010, the only downside is if a person doesn’t have a high resistance to frustration they can give up before they get good. If you do learn with it, then other rods will be far easier.

Thanks for the kind words 😀. My goal is to give people some knowledge and the motivation to better themselves. That’s what makes it worth while making the videos, knowing I made a (small) bit of difference for someone 😀

Once people get used to them more will find 6010/11 useful for projects 😀

You're entirely welcome 😀

Thanks for the kind comment. I am Glad your learning a lot 😀. I have a ton more to share 😃

Great idea. No doubt welding thin stuff with stick is a challenge. I welded in a shock tower on a ford escape with 1/16th rods, and never swore so much in my life 😂. I have 1/16th 7018s, 7014s, 6011s, and 6013s. I also have 5/64 7014s. Sometime soon I will have to give it a go again, atleast on sheet metal thicker than rusty auto body lol.

They will totally apply to 6011. To me 6011 welds like a more fluid 6010. 6011 does seem to take a pinch more amperage to get it to equal 6010 for bead flatness, so don’t be afraid to add 5-10 more amps with it 😀

Can confirm. When I last ran 6011, I used the techniques described regarding 6010 - whip and pause, hold a tight arc, etc - *once I found a 6011 that didn’t scare the daylights out of me!* I first tried Lincolns - they were intimidating! Tried Forney, and it was tamer enough that could recall the instruction.

I did do some mini stick rod videos, but no doubt they are difficult to use. The best solution to thin material welding is either flux core or short circuit Mig besides tig. I will be doing some thin material videos with mig shortly 😀

100% 6011 and weld it vertical down. Welding downhill limits penetration which is a problem on thicker steel. On thin stuff penetration isn’t a issue. Depending on how thin switching to 1/16th rods over 3/32 might be desirable. Running 1/16th 6013s may also help. I won’t sugar coat it, there becomes a point where stick is impossibly difficult to weld, I would say anything thinner than 1/16th material in a vertical position will be very difficult. Switching to flux core wire makes it significantly easier.

The first pass I made I lost the reference point of the edge of the plate. In the case of the video, it was likely caused by the plate and the welding table being the same bright/shiny metal finish. At the right angle of viewing it will be very difficult to determine where the plate edge is and what is straight. Had I started the bead directly on the edge, scribed a line to follow, or done something to improve visibility, I could have made a bead that was more parallel to the plate edge. Sometimes if a welding shade is too dark it can make it hard to see as well.

The main benefits to 6010 is it has more penetration and it’s even faster to freeze. I have a tendency to use red rod 6010 which produces a very rough bead and stupid good penetration. It is very difficult to use for someone without very consistent hand movement. It also produces non stop undercut that you have to be very careful to move slow enough to fill. 6011 is a much easier to control rod, and for most things produces a far better looking bead. 6010 red rod is pretty amazing at making garbage metal somehow solid. As long as the metal has enough mass that the 6010 red rod doesn’t just blow through it, whatever trash is present it will weld right through and make it all solid metal. Just don’t attempt to weld thin material with it lol.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg yea I made some Swiss cheese 🧀 tonight using 1/8” red rod 6010, beads looked like ass, and it kept burning out it burns so fast, I kept having to restart it, not sticking just the arc was hauling ass, maybe I was just running her too hot but dang my 6011 runs good up there around 100 tho

Haha 😂. Only until the moral improves

@@makingmistakeswithgreg that's the pause 😉

Thats very common lol. With 6010 and 6011 the hardest part to get down is feeding the rod when it comes to welding t-joints. Because the rod doesnt deposit much metal, you must move slower on a t joint than a flat plate. Moving slower requires feeding more rod in per inch. If you simply feed 10-15% more rod per inch of weld on a t-joint, keep the arc gap tight, and you try to be smooth, it should go much better for you. I wont sugar coat it, learning 6010 is rough for a while lol.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg yeah im getting more of a hang of it. I started using two hands now so my wrist doesn’t move like a paint brush as i move further along lol

Couple things: 1) I never claim to be a professor, or a welding institution. 2) you are comparing other peoples opinions to mine, and you don’t have a understand of what you’re talking about yourself. This is a problem because you don’t understand why certain things are done a certain way. Let me explain some things so you understand. 1) what is done on pipe is not what’s done in other trades. You will not see iron workers doing multiple pass 6010 on anything structural. Welding pipe is a very small part of welding and what they do cannot be used as a gold standard for everything, they are a small exception. 2) Every pipe welder owns a grinder with a wire wheel and uses it. They don’t just “barely clean the slag” you are mistaken. They buff it off the best they can. They may go back and angle grind the toe to clean it out better if it needs it. Yes you can run over unclean toes with a hot pass with 6010, however let’s see you run over a 6010 pass with a 7018 with minimal cleaning like you’re suggesting, and pass X-ray. It won’t happen. I say a lot of things like “I think” and “I assume”because there are certain things you should do, and you can make a opinion on how to do them. Those are my opinions, as is everything on the internet. I am sharing my opinion on what you should do, and the video is geared for beginners, which is why I am not sure why you are comparing a beginner video to high level pipe welding. From face value think of what your literal argument against my video is: you are literally saying you barely need to clean the slag between passes and just burn it out. Show me one welding school that has that opinion, that’s not what is taught. No, minimal slag on the toes in the weld are not a issue if you run 6010 over the top of it, but under no circumstances do you “barely clean it”. You can do whatever you want with welding. The truth is every weld you should do your best to prep before, and after. If you want to run 6010 all day and do no prep, that’s your opinion. I don’t teach that because your average person can’t run 6010 well and telling them “just burn through it” instead of prepping is asking for failures. You also must understand that comparing people who get paid to do a job and make more money doing it fast has no relation to what the average person should be doing. In no way shape or form is more prep a bad thing. So I am not sure what factual basis your argument stands on, or why you feel I am wrong. We have a disagreement on how much prep is needed it seems. I can spend more time prepping things to assure success, and teach that good habit to others. You can do the minimal, and gain nothing but increased risk. Atleast that’s how I see it

Honestly it’s a far better option than a lot of the schools out there that are charging kids over 20k for a few month program.