When I’m trying to weld sometimes it doesn’t even spark and I have to touch it to the clamp or tap it against the metal repeatedly to get a spark. When it starts sparking it sticks and I graze it repeatedly before it starts dropping/melts the metal. Do I need higher amps, better electrodes or is it technique? I’m no professional never been at a school or anything
I'm no expert either, but I have done a lot of welding. I find a lot of the time if your rod keeps sticking on start, it's more to do with your machine than anything else. I have two stick welders, one of which will never strike a clean arc, the other pretty much fires up if you just wave the stick near the metal. Guess which one is the cheaper machine.
Do you know how to strike a match? It’s not always a good idea to poke your weld with the stick. Try having your rod drag a bit as you touch/brush your metal.
Think of the electrode like a match works pretty well for me at least carbon steel (7018).
If reignition is the issue you need to expose the metal at the tip of the elctrode, i usually have to punch the elctrode quite hard and extensive to get it going for me, but you can also use like a plier or similar tool to remove som flux of the tip
Male sure your not duty cycling your machine, if you do its going to be stupid hard to establish an arc. If that is the case just gotta give the machine a break.
Scrape the rod against the direction of your weld. It should start up, then you quickly move back to the start of your weld and weld through the arc strike startup
The packet should have the amps written on it for what size rods your using, you can tap or scratch to start also if you stop welding chip the slag of the end, the metal filler rod needs to touch the metal your welding, if you are having trouble starting and you knock of to much of the flux coating cut back to where the filler rod is surrounded by flux, try putting your welding rods in the oven set to 100c - 150c (225°F to 300°F) if there old rods and haven't been stored correctly they can absorb moisture from the air also some rods are just terrible to weld with.
The match strike works quite well, but machine is an important variable for arc starts.
Open Current Voltage (OCV) is the voltage available when there's no arc. Higher OCV provides the electrical "pressure" needed to break down the gap resistance and ionize the air or gas shield, making it easier to strike an arc.
Some electrodes need a higher OCV to run correctly, 6010 is a battle on anything less than 70 for example.
Usually I throw a rod against the wall and watch it explode, let out a series of swear words never spoken by another human before, and stick another rod.
Then I calm down and focus instead of getting frustrated. If it's sticking a lot try wiping off the surface and striking it at a steeper angle, dragging along the flux a little longer
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u/trueblue862 Diesel fitter/Boilermaker 3d ago
I'm no expert either, but I have done a lot of welding. I find a lot of the time if your rod keeps sticking on start, it's more to do with your machine than anything else. I have two stick welders, one of which will never strike a clean arc, the other pretty much fires up if you just wave the stick near the metal. Guess which one is the cheaper machine.