How to weld with electrodes. Basic arc welding course

Another of the disciplines that, if you like to learn and try new techniques, you will face sooner or later, is arc welding.

In this article we are going to teach you the most basic of welding, so that you can take your first steps and get started in this technique, which is as exciting or more than others.

We will show you all the preparations to start welding, how to make three different types of welds, several basic principles and some other tricks.

A few years ago we published an article, more theoretical than practical, that talked about the general aspects of different kinds of welding. You can see it in the following link types of welds. However, today we will focus on one of them, arc welding. In addition, this article, unlike the other, is eminently practical.

To begin with, I want to make it clear to you that, at first and until you get the hang of it, welding is not very easy. However, with the advice that we will give you and a little practice, it will not take long to make more than decent welds, both from an aesthetic point of view and from a resistance point of view.

Therefore, today we are going to dedicate this monographic tutorial to arc welding or, what is the same, we will teach you how to weld with electrodes.

Introduction to the course of how to weld with electrodes

In this basic course we will see how to perform three types of welding:

• Spot welding.
• Continuous welding.
• And the invisible welding.

In addition we will deal with a series of basic aspects, and some concept that another.

As I was saying, we are going to see some of the welds that are most commonly used and that are not too complex.

To do this, we will use a 175 Amp Solter welder.

It incorporates a digital screen, and has invert technology, as well as a fan. The latter makes it possible to carry out long welding processes, without uncomfortable and inopportune interruptions.

It is small in size, and quite garter belt. His weight does not reach 4 Kg.

Therefore, the characteristics of this machine place it in a semi-professional segment.

We will use 8mm thick steel profiles. To achieve very robust welds, on the one hand, we will use 3.25mm diameter electrodes and, on the other, we will describe a half-moon movement when welding. As shown in the video tutorial.

There are other types of trajectories that can be used, but this one works very well.

Video tutorial on how to solder

To follow and get the most out of this tutorial, viewing this video is very important.

Basic security measures

There are not many basic rules to take into account, but we must keep them in mind in order to avoid unpleasant accidents.

• Clean and isolated area. The area in which we will carry out the welding must be wide and clean and isolated from the rest, without the existence of combustible materials (cardboard, wood, etc.), or explosives (butane cylinders, aerosols, etc.). It must also be ventilated.
• Protective clothing. Before we start, we must protect our entire body well. Although there are special clothes for this activity, it is enough to wear a jacket, sweatshirt or long-sleeved polo shirt, long pants, leather gloves and, of course, a splash protection mask, as well as to protect your eyes. Regarding clothing, you should not wear synthetic clothing that can burn on contact with sparks. You must bear in mind that the sparks that are released during the welding process are incandescent metal.

Getting everything ready for welding

The choice of electrode

First of all, we must have at hand the electrodes that we will use to carry out the welding.

To acquire the appropriate electrode, we must take into account two aspects. On the one hand, the type of material to be welded, such as steel, stainless steel, etc. Here we must take into account the material with which the electrode contains, since not all of them are suitable for all metals.

And, on the other, the thickness of the pieces that we will weld. This aspect affects the diameter of the electrode.

In case of doubt, you can ask the store where you buy the electrodes, for advice on this.

Preparing the welding equipment

Well, at this point we must start by preparing the equipment.

We connect the terminal of the clamp-ground to the negative pole, and the terminal of the electrode holder to the positive. And we install the electrode in place.

We plug the machine into the network, and connect it.

For the welding to be good, we have to select the correct amperage. And you may ask, how can I know this?

Well, it’s as easy as performing a simple multiplication. You just have to multiply the diameter of the electrode by 35. The result is the amps at which an electrode of this diameter melts under normal conditions.

In the case of the 3.25mm electrodes, which we have used in this tutorial, we get 113.75, so we will round to 115 amps.

You must be careful not to exceed the diameter of the electrode and, therefore, in the selection of the amperage, especially when welding thin metals, since we could melt it, producing bites in the pieces to be welded.

There are many ways and accessories to position and immobilize the pieces to be welded, however we will use a very fast and effective system, a powerful magnet. And we secure them to the workbench.

Now we take the clamp to the piece to be welded. And we start…

Preparing the parts to be welded

The metal pieces that we are going to weld must be clean. If it’s new metal, you can skip this step. Otherwise, you should check it and remove any traces of paint, grease, oil, rust, etc.

Types of welds

How to solder. spot welding

Now we start to weld. We’ll start with spot welding.

We bring the electrode closer to the parts to be welded. And with a slight movement, as if we were going to light a match, we touch again and again until the spark comes out. So we start moving it as if we were drawing little crescents.

The indication that we leave below depends on the size of the piece to be welded, and the resistance that we need to give it. In a small piece, like the one in this tutorial, we have welded about 2cm, raised it, left a space, and repeated the process. So until we finish with the profile.

Once we have finished, with the pickaxe we hit the welding points to eliminate the slag that has been produced during the process. Slag is a kind of scale that forms with the waste material.

How to solder. continuous welding

Now we will proceed to continuous welding.

The process is identical to the previous one, but we must weld continuously from the beginning to the end of the metal profile. This modality is also known as seam welding.

In this type of welding, many more electrodes are used than in the previous one, but the joint is much more robust and resistant.

As before, at the end, we must remove the slag.

How to solder. blind welding

Finally, it is the turn of the invisible welding. Yes, you read that right, invisible welding.

To carry it out and before starting to weld, we must bevel the two parts to be joined, making a kind of “V” groove. This roughing is usually done with the radial. This channel is where we will introduce the solder.

Therefore, we position the two pieces and start welding exactly as we did in continuous welding.

Once finished, we have to remove the excess welding with the radial, leaving it flush with the welded pieces.

As you can see in the picture, the weld is literally hidden from view.

Well, here we have the three types of welding that we have done: spot welding, continuous welding, and invisible welding.

In future videos we will see other types of somewhat more complex welds.

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