Stick / MMA Welders

Hi,

An odd question for the gardening forum, but so much rubbish on the web just thought some real folk here might have bought or used one of these basic types of Stick welders and say if they are any good ?

Had a few little jobs recenly that would have been so much easier if we could have welded the parts rather than drilling and bolting with brackets etc

just two examples of whats around , sub £100 -

 

Do you know how to weld?

 

Nope... but we are willing to learn

 

Depends on what you want to weld. Okay for ploughshares and bulldozers. No good for cars.

 

Watch out for ark eye, you don't want to get that, ark eye is when you look at the light from welding when you first strike the stick and in use, get a good welding glass/helmit

Don't look at the light as the strong light will burn the layer of your eye and it like you've have lots of sand thrown in your eye's, had it once and never agian just a warning

 

A mate of mine went on a welding course, I presume it was a basic one which obviously would contain all health and safety.
Not sure if local technology colleges still do this kind of thing.
My mates course was like a long weekend.

 

Thanks all,

Food for thought there, though the welders are cheap enough it needs double that for all the safety gear etc.

Its just for the odd job, eg a few months ago we needed to attach some brackets and blank the ends of a 3mm thick 50x50mm box section.

Will soon be needing to repostion a 12mm bar to a backplate; could all be done with bolts or screws but a simple weld would seem easier and stronger.

 

On reflection of the above helpful comments, think the real problem for us is the potential risk of damage to our eyes, though we already have some minor problems with them, certainly would not wish to risk any needless injury.

 

I did a welding and steel fabrication course a lot of years ago. I thoroughly enjoyed it and learned enough to be trusted to do paid work under supervision. That was a lot of years ago so things might have changed.

In terms of safety, as has already been mentioned, you need to be aware of:

Welding flashes - basically don't look at the light without proper eye protection, ever. It's basically high energy ultraviolet. It sunburns your eyes, instantly. Like really instantly. Like just the flash of it starting is enough, then you're in a world of pain the next day when the dead eye skin dries out and peels and you can barely open them, and even if you can, your vision is all blurry. It passes after a few days but it's really not nice.

Sunburn - that same light will rapidly cause sunburn like effects on any exposed skin in close proximity.

Actual burns - there's the obvious, your work gets hot enough to melt, so it's certainly hot enough to burn. But the less obvious is if your current is set too high, you get splatters of molten steel flying back at you.

Fires - see above.

All of the above can be mitigated with a bit of due care and attention, and of course proper safety gear. Keeping a CO2 fire extinguisher handy is also prudent, as is making sure someone else is about, who knows how to cut the power if things get exciting.

Safety aside, I'd say mig welders are far easier to use than stick welders. I've only used the big commercial ones so can't comment on the DIY ones. But a consideration there is the gauge of the wire feed. Too thick and you'll need enough current to blow a hole through your work. Too thin and your weld will be weak. I'd imagine the DIY ones are limited in their power, dictating how deep you can weld.

There's also technique. Lots of people sorts of drag the nozzle. You're supposed to sort of push into it. Hard to explain, but imagine it like this. A right handed person pulls a pen across the page as they right. A lefty has to push it. With mig welding, you push it so that the gas is always blowing over the weld. If you pull it, air will just mix with the weld, resulting in what we used to call bird sh..poo because of its appearance. The result is a weak weld prone to failure.

Warnings aside, I'm sure there's plenty of tutorials on YouTube, and plenty of DIYers do light welding without training, so I'm sure if you're careful you'll be fine.

 

Thanks @Clueless 1 v2 you just confirmed what @Jiffy and others said earlier its just not worth all the risks of diy welding for our limited needs, particularly as our eyes already have minor problems which we need to ensure we do not damage any more; welding flashes unprotected sound very nasty.