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Basic Welding Safety

Unlike many other trades where safety is preached and where accidents and injuries may happen, mishaps in welding are basically unavoidable if safety isn’t followed to the letter! Welding without proper safety equipment will seriously mess you up without exception… And it can even kill you! Take this seriously! I’ve seen it myself too many times.

The first thing you will need to do is get the proper clothes and protective equipment. Also, you may need a ventilation fan if you will be in a confined area. Welding fumes are toxic!

After welding for many years, I can tell you first hand that welding is very dangerous if you are unsafe or reckless. The most common injury is called “flash”. I am yet to meet a welder who has not gotten a flash burn. Flash comes from the ultra violet light that the welding rod creates. Technically flash is UV radiation. It’s like getting sun burned on the exposed areas of your body that are not protected.

The worst part is getting flashed from the welding arc light directly into your eyes. It feels like there is sand in your eyes, but in reality it is blisters on your eyeballs, just like the sunburn blisters you get on your skin.

The best part of flash is you don’t know it until later that night or day that you got it. Remember going to the beach and that night you realize you will be looking like a lobster tomorrow! Yeah that’s it.

Third degree burns happen also and if you get too wet from sweating or rainy weather you will likely get shocked. Additionally, don’t weld near anything flammable or you may have a fire or explosion.  It is quite common for welders to set their clothes on fire from either sparks or heat. Read the warning labels on your equipment and do as it says!

Joint Preparation

Next is joint preparation. The area that is to be welded should be free and clear of rust, oil, water, and paint at bare minimum. Even the best welders who have these substances present will have a weak and terrible looking weld.

I have welded outside, after a rainfall, to finish a job that was moved outside of the shop, and I could not figure out why my weld looked so bad and was so porous. The weld had spots that looked like bubbles poking out! I dried the area, ground it, and thought it was fine. What I did not expect was the heat from welding attracted the water that was hidden below.

So, I poured some water next to where I was going to weld.  I was thinking the heat would evaporate the water on the sides and keep the weld area dry. Sounded logical right? Absolutely wrong! I could not believe my eyes!  The water on the side was getting sucked into the weld and when I flipped up my helmet the water was going uphill on top of the hot weld!

Lesson learned!  Joint preparation is a must and it can literally make or break a weld. In the end, it broke the weld and I had to grind out the weld and start all over.

How Welding Works

Welding works like this. First you have the metal and you need to join it. You hook up the ground clamp from the welder to the metal and then you take the welding rod and strike the area like a match where you want to start to weld.

What happens here is the electricity from the welder passes through the rod and arcs at the point of contact creating a temperature of up to 7,000° F. Now the rod begins to melt and the coating around the rod creates a shield from any oxygen that will contaminate the weld. This is why stick welding is technically called SMAW / shielded metal arc welding. It’s a shield around the metal electrode that is arcing. As you move the rod over the joint it keeps melting (more like a spray of metal transferring to the joint) by creating a crater and filling the joint.

Before you begin to weld your project, you need to set your welding machine to the proper setting for the rod you are going to use. This is the most important part. The best welders with a machine that is set incorrectly won’t be able to weld right and a less experienced welder with the right settings will do just fine. A good clean joint and a well set machine make a real nice looking and solid weld.

Basic Stick Welding Electrode Selection

Welding rod selection for stick welding is pretty straight forward. For the purpose of steel machinery repair, a 6011 will do. A 6011 is a good general maintenance rod. It does well in all positions and tolerates a less-than- perfect joint. Some other commonly used rods used for welding steel are.

• 6010 deep penetration works well in all positions and is excellent on dirtier metals.
• 6011 deep penetration works well in all positions and is excellent on dirtier metals.
• 6013 mild penetration works well in all positions and needs a cleaner joint.
• 7018 mild penetration works well in all positions and works best on clean metals.
• 7024 mild penetration works well in the flat positions and needs a clean joint.

A good example of what the strength of a weld is the rod numbers themselves. A 6011 rod using the first two digits (60XX) stands for a minimum of 60,000 pounds of tensile strength per square inch of weld. A 7018 is 70,000 pounds of tensile strength per square inch. In comparison, typical steel, which is graded A36 steel, has 36,000 pounds of tensile strength per square inch. The weld is usually two times stronger than the steel it is welding!

If you were wondering what the last two digits refer to, it’s the flux or shielding on the rod. The higher the number the more shielding, flux, and or metal is deposited. A (XX11) has a lot less coating then a (XX24).

Basic Stick Welding Machine Set-Up

The first steps in welding machine setup is selecting your rod, then set the polarity according to the manufactures recommendation, and finally set the welding machine to the amperage range that the manufactures recommend.

For this project the 6011 rod is an excellent candidate for polarity selection. Most 6011 welding rods work with A/C (alternating current) and D/C (direct current). So no matter what type of stick welding machine you have this rod should do fine. Again, always read and follow the manufactures recommendations.

Now you are ready to fine-tune your welding machine to the metal you will be welding. Get some scrap metal that is as close as possible to the thickness of the metal you will be welding. This is important because welding different thickness metals requires different setting. You can compare setting your machine to lighting a match. A match burning will easily heat up a piece of tin foil to make a drop of water sizzle but that same match has no chance of heating up a frying pan to do the same. In this case it’s not a match but amperage settings!

When it comes to setting a welding machine from an experienced welder’s point of view (not some text book) I can speak for most of the experienced welders besides the deaf. The trick is to learn to listen to the crackle of the rod burning without looking at it and knowing if the amperage is set right. The sound of the crackle like eggs frying on a pan that tells you all you need to know. The welding machine should be set hot enough to burn the rod smoothly without sticking, and the rod should not turn cherry red, otherwise the settings are too high.

Most welding shop foreman who interview welders give them a weld test and know from half way across the shop by the sound of the weld if that welder will pass the test. Yes! I did say most welders, not all. I did say the deaf. Outside the scope of what most people think of proper welding settings, I would like to mention a welder who has been welding for 20 plus years and is an excellent welder. He is totally deaf! He sets his machine by visually seeing the weld and knows if the settings are right by the feel and vibrations of the handle. Absolutely remarkable how we as people learn to adapt to challenges! Welding, although it is a science, is also in no small way art. There are many welders that can bend the rules and do what the manufactures say is impossible. However, in the beginning, follow the manufactures recommendations and take it from there!

Basic Stick Welding Technique

Before you get started welding – and this is very important – get comfortable, use two hands to hold the handle, and brace yourself in any and every possible way to make sure you are in a comfortable position. This is one of the biggest secrets journeyman welders use all of the time. I had to go to a very expensive welding school to learn this. I was originally thought to weld with one hand and all that means for you is less control. Control is the biggest factor when it comes to welding technique!

Finally there is . Literally meaning welding over your head. It’s just like welding flat or horizontal, but with way more sparks hitting you!

Typically, setting your machine for flat will allow you to weld flat, horizontal, vertical down, and overhead depending on the rod type. Vertical up usually required less amperage. What happens with vertical up is that when you weld, the rods arc gouges a crater into the metal and then fills the joint with filler metal. That is why the weld is so strong even though the setting are lower.

Welding position basics rod angles are as follows and are just a guideline. These are not set in stone!

• Flat or 1G you drag the rod between 10 to 30 degrees in the direction of your movement. Use either a whip or circular motion.
• Horizontal or 2G you point the rod upward at 45 degrees and drag it toward your direction of travel with a side tilt of 10 to 30 degrees. Also use a whip or circular motion.
• Vertical up or 3G point the rod up at 45 degrees and use a tight side to side motion or a weave depending on the width of the weld you need.
• Over head or 4G is the same as flat or 1G except the rod is pointed up.

Summary of Basic Techniques

The rundown of welding techniques in flat, horizontal, vertical down and overhead is that they use the same settings and techniques. Whip for 6010 and 6011, circles and weaves for anything else although circles can be applied to 6010 and 6011 as well. The ultimate goal is to fuse the metal and fill the gap of the joint with a solid weld. It comes down to your comfort level and how the weld looks. Also, your weld should be twice the width of the rod you are using. If you are using a 1/8 rod, the minimum weld should be one quarter inch wide. The smaller the rod diameter the easier to weld!

Vertical up is more of a weave and a side-to-side motion with a lower amperage setting on the welder. The weld itself is wider most of the time than the other positions for less experienced welders. The reason for this when welding vertical up is that you need to build a platform of weld to build on upward, otherwise the weld will want to fall. Vertical up is done on larger joints where the weld is critical and vertical down is done on thinner metal like sheet metals. The best technique to do a weave is count how long you hold the side (an example is to say 1001 and move to the other side) of the joint and move to the other side when that side is filled.

The conclusion to basic welding is:

• Get the proper safety equipment.
• Clean your joint properly.
• Set your machine right on scrap metal.
• Weld using the right technique!

It’s not hard, but take away one of these steps and you will find yourself struggling or perhaps even seriously injured.

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