Technical Do you ever use your stickwelder anymore?

I have mig, oxy acetylene and an old Lincoln stick welder I bought used in 1968 ?? I use the mig a lot. I seldom use the gas and it's been more than a year since I used the arc. I wouldn't get rid of it, but if it died I wouldn't replace it.

 

never owned one but used one at work in the old days. seems like I learned how to cut with one but don't remember the details. that was many beers ago.

 

I used the stick many years at work , burning up my clothes and shoe laces was common occurene making pipeline and boiler repairs . Today it’s the Mig and maybe a Tig and even less is gas . Stick is dead as an AMC PACER at my place .

 

Yes.

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I call wire feed welders caulking guns. Many people can lay a good looking bead that just sits on top with no penetration. I seldom use my wire feed at home. Too big of a hassle to keep gas and the wire gets rusty if left on the machine. I keep rod in sealed containers so it's quicker to grab a few and weld than to set up the wire feed and take it apart again after welding.

 

Yes.... Easier to drag leads than to try to wrestle a 300 pound mig machine across a gravel yard/driveway....

LynnW

 

Not anymore, they stole it from my garage last month.....

 

I totally agree, but MIG isn't worth the effort to learn IMO, not when TIG is so much nicer. I could Heli arc aluminum bodywork, and really enjoyed doing it, just never had a chance to TIG steel. Bob

 

Not since 1985 when I got a mig.

 

Harbor Fright is good for welding rod, they sell it in small enough packages so I can use most of it before it gets stale.

 

Back in my stock car days, I'm getting home late after a day of working on the cars, my neighbor is outside in his driveway. He just got done building a little utility trailer and is standing around with his friends who helped him. So I take a look, he had a stick welder, forget what it was.

I asked him what he was welding at, he said 90 amps. I said, try something hotter like 130-140 amps. They all broke out laughing. I asked him if he had any scrap and is the welder still plugged in? I cranked it to 130 and joined a couple of pieces of scrap, then did one at 140. I think he was a believer in more is good. For an out and out strong weld that you know is going to be tested tough, I'll put bomber cars together with a stick welder any day.

 

Rather than a tig machine, why not a tig torch that you attach to your Miller lead. All you have to do is reverse the leads if you don't have a reversing switch on the machine.

That's all we ever used in the field. ​

Damn sight cheaper than buying a machine dedicated to just one operation. If you want to tig thin gauge material, get an add on high frequency unit and run it off of the AC side of your Miller.

 

No stick welder, its obsolete. Everything I do can be done with my mig.

 

Stick welding is in no way obsolete. A tool is specific to it's use. A 6 point socket is better used to remove or tighten nuts than an adjustable wrench. A welder is a tool and there are several varieties, all of which have functions specific to the work performed. I've seen pictures of welds on this forum that, had they been done on a job for which the weldor was getting paid, would have resulted in the weldor getting fired and another more qualified individual would have had to make repairs. Grinding off excess weld is not productive. It costs time and money.

 

Not even close.
On specific metals and applications it is the best option.
One application would be an X-ray requirement. Another would be a vertical up or overhead application.
I could list probably another ten more.
But hardly obsolete.

 

Stick is about as obsolete as oxygen/acetylene welding. Perhaps not the most popular welding methods today for various reasons, but they still work well and for some jobs they still are the best available method.

All I have is a O/A welder, a Dillon (a.k.a. Henrob, Cobra 2000 & DHC 2000) that I had 8 years and I got a more conventional AGA X11 torch a few weeks ago (great price, and you can't have too many tools...). I'd like a stick welder for more affordable welding of thicker metal, but so far the Dillon has been able to do everything I've needed it to do.

 

I'll tell the 15 field guys we have burning rod today that they are obsolete. that will go over well I'm sure!

We burn thousands of pounds of rod a year at work. Lots of mig too. Every tool has it's place.

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I still gas weld, silver solder and braze if I have to. Nice to have options and be able to carry out the task.

 

we had an ex iron worker on our crew building elevators who could stick weld and you would have thought it was mig or tig. never seen anything like it.

 

It seems to be a common misconception that you can't weld thin material with arc. While there is a lower limit on how thin you can go before you start burning holes in it (usually about 14 gauge if you're reasonably proficient, although I knew a guy who could do 16 gauge), 12 gauge and up can easily be arc welded. When I took welding calls in my trade, I was fabricating/installing stands, supports and brackets, many of which were built out of Unistrut which is 12 gauge (.105" thick). Virtually all of them were arc welded together, most were then welded to structural steel. You do have to watch out for warping on long beads though.

TIG has become some sort of status symbol. While it has it's place (exotic steel alloys, non-ferrous metals, and very thin material are the main uses), for much of the welding we do other than bodywork good old-fashioned arc will do the job just fine and for a lot less money and time. And if you want to get right down to it, arc IS the 'traditional' welding method...

 

High quality stick welding has become a lost art in our hobby. This Indy car was mostly stick welded in 1965, and is still capable of track action. Rolla Vollstedt's team chassis builder Harold Sperb, was Tig welding the car. He went to Rolla and said "Boss, time is running out, I want to stick weld weld it", and with Rolla's OK, he did just that, and they made the race on time. One thing I have found, if a stick weld looks good, you can depend on it, not always the case with Mig or Tig.

 

Started stick in the USN in 1951, still have my trusty old Miller on a portable unit, use my MIG in the garage.
Use the cutting outfit on the portable trailer. You can't beat the Victor equipt.

 

I haven't used my Forney welder for a while as there isn't room for it in my little 1 car garage with everything else since I got my mig but I built a lot of stuff with it and it has a 40 foot lead to weld with and a 15 ft ground lead letting me weld on something outside while not having to move it from where it sits. It will have it's "spot" just inside the big door of the shop. There are times when I would rather use the stick to weld something that is "non hotrod" And the stick lets me work out in the wind where the mig is useless in the wind.
I have my Lincoln mig and just bought a small tig for sheet metal that I haven't tried yet. It's a dual unit that says it can do stick too.
Still I have several friends and my son who can run a bead with a stick that matches anything that someone can do with a mig on heavier things like a frame. It might take a bit of chipping but I trust all four for being to weld up something that will never brake. One built my T bucket frame, Two are certified welders one of which works on the pipelines in Alaska and my son is a Maintenance supervisor in a big beef processing plant.

 

All my welding machines are old but I have several to choose from. The old Miller Dial Arc for aluminum and stainless, the 190 Lincoln mig for sheet metal, the 230 Hobart mig for frame and bracket work, the ancient 340 Century with 0.045 wire for such things about as thick as railroad track, and the even older Forney stick welder which is used quite often if working outside and it's windy. Each machine has a distinct personality that one has to dial into but would hate to think of having just one machine that had to be re-set for each job. If limited to just one I guess it would have to be the Miller since it is water cooled for continuous duty, can weld very thin material, and even has a/c-d/c stick lead lugs (never used) with a 240 amp capacity for thick stuff.

 

When the metal is thick I pull out my old idealarc that weighs about 600 lbs.

 

Probably learned from a Boilermaker

 

I was thinking about getting a little lunch box stick welder from Harbor Freight just to relearn stick welding. They can also be converted to a tig machine, and I could teach myself that too. I love these guys on here saying that stick welding is "obsolete." Guess what else is obsolete? Every single car on this forum, every vintage speed part, and every bit of knowledge to keep these old cars on the road. ITS ALL OBSOLETE! Sometimes the old ways aren't the fastest or easiest ways, but it shouldn't mean that the knowledge isn't worth knowing. I'm a lot younger than a lot of guys on here, and I run a MIG welder at work on a regular basis, but my goal is to master sticking metal together with every method known to man.


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I have four, all plugged in and ready to go. each in it's own spot so I can weld any where in two shops. and hiding in the dark corner of an old semi trailer, just waiting, the Lincoln SA-800. i'm obsolete! and I don't care!

 

Only at work, at home i use my tig


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