FREE guide on how to arc weld here. Blokes always like to work out in their workshops and garages all the time. Often you might need to know how to arc weld for that next big project you have planned. Here in this guide to stick welding you can pick up some tip, tricks and pointers on how to get you started.

FREE guide on how to arc weld here. Blokes always like to work out in their workshops and garages all the time. Often you might need to know how to arc weld for that next big project you have planned. Here in this guide to stick welding you can pick up some tip, tricks and pointers on how to get you started.

Arc welding can hurt you and you must always wear the right personal protective equipment. You are going to need to wear a long sleeved shirt preferably with at collar that you can put up around your neck. Wear long pants made from thick materials, overalls or jeans are good. Get some thick leather welding gloves that will protect your fingers, hands, arms and forearms.

The hot sparks that are made from arc welding tend to shoot off in every direction. If you are welding on a workbench in particular, the little hot balls of slag will land on your feet. So make sure you wear shoes, better still leather workbooks are best. Protective eye wear will also be needed as you will be doing lots of grinding. Welding and grinding are like pen and paper, always together. Get some earmuffs to save you from going deaf from the grinder.

To get the best possible start I highly recommend going out and getting an auto darkening welding helmet because it will make learning how to arc weld so much easier. If you already have the standard type flip up helmet this will be more than adequate, these are usually picked up really cheap as well.

You must and I can't stress this enough, clean up the material you are going to weld. It needs to be shiny clean to get the best possible chance of doing a successful weld. Quite often people will weld on top of rust, mud, oil and paint. This is a big no no, as it will cause weld contamination and porosity, but ultimately it will make welding for you so much harder.

Welding rod selection. The best rod for a beginner to use is a standard type general purpose electrode. These can be bought anywhere and you don't have to go to any specialist welding shop to get them. They are marked as a GP rod and have the AWS marking of 6013. They are easy to strike and hold an arc, with the capabilities to weld in all positions. There will be a description on the packet telling you how many amps to run these particular rods at.

Now we can connect the earth clamp to the metal you plan on welding. For the best chance of getting a good arc started grab some metal clamps so that you can hold down the metal you are going to weld to your bench. This will stop it from moving around when you are striking the arc.

I recommend you use the scratch technique to get the arc started. This is just like striking a match except you are using a dirty great big long welding electrode. The idea is to drag or scratch the plate until the arc starts. Keep doing this over and over again until you can start it all the time. Once you master this you should be able to start the arc and hold it burning in the one spot.

Stringer bead. The next step is to make a stringer bead, which is simply just a continuous weld bead in a straight line. Follow on from striking the arc in the one spot by leaning the electrode over about 15-16 degrees towards the way you want to make the bead. Then slowly move along, keeping the rod about 1/8 of an inch above the base metal (3mm). Do this until you have burnt up a stack of rods. You need to be confident with this.

Hopefully this quick little guide will get you up and arc welding in next to no time. How to arc weld at home is very easy once you learn the proper methods of doing it.