Why there is no love for stick welders?

[lordbeezer]

America was built with a stick welder and hot rivets..I've been welding since I was 14..be 67 Sunday ..I use stick welder alot on trailers..mig on pig cookers and grills..tig on gun type stuff..I've seen a lot of people make a pretty bead with mig but drop on floor or tap with hammer it breaks..gotta have penatration regardless of welder

 

[Flyinfool]

A place that I used to work at was a heavy fabricator, they made booms for Harnischfeger cranes and many parts for Bucyrus-Erie giant mining equipment. It was almost all MIG welded. Most people do not turn the power up high enough when MIG welding for deep penetration. My MIG can butt weld 1/2" thick steel plate with a full penetration weld in a single pass.
My preferred welder is a MIG, it is fast and easy and looks good. I will still use stick if the weld has a lot of contaminates to burn thru, or TIG if it has to be really pretty and is on new clean metal, once in a great while I'll even still Oxy Act weld something, they all have their places.

 

[Buffalo21]

I run a stick welder almost everyday, the usual process for steam and gas piping

 

[pontiac428]

Horses for courses. SMAW for structural steel and hardfacing. GMAW for general purpose and production. GTAW for clean and close.

I hardly do stick anymore. I use FCAW with Praxair Stargold Ar/CO2/O2 mix for all things previously handled by E7018. The oxygen in the gas changes the arc profile for much more penetration, making your MIG welder suitable for heavier structural welds than plain ER70. Less spatter, too.

 

[Tim9]

I like stick. It’s quick and easy IMO. Also good penetration. For a small job easier than dragging out the mig for me.

 

[BGHansen]

Boy, I must be an oddball (obviously . . .), but found stick welding pretty easy to learn. I primarily use E6013 but use E6011 for verticals and rusty stuff. Have some E7018 also from my father-in-law who calls it "butter rod". Hardest part for me is getting the arc started without sticking the rod. An auto-darkening helmet has helped though I still scratch the surface to get the arc going. I have a Lincoln buzz box AC only welder and use it for 1/4" or thicker steel. I've used 1/16" rod on 1/8" steel without blowing holes, but usually go to the MIG for 1/8".

Have a Hobart 190 MIG which usually has flux core 0.023" wire in it. I use the MIG for 1/4" or thinner material.

Have an AHP AlphaTIG 200 too. I use it for sheet metal (0.016" - 0.062") and aluminum. I still suck at aluminum. Wish gas wasn't so expensive or I'd practice more.

Bruce

 

[Downunder Bob]

MIG wins most of the time. Like many others here I learned on stick using some pretty heavy industrial machines A3 PH lincoln and some pilot arc machines,( is that what you all call buzz box?)

I liked welding and took to it pretty quickly and easy. That was in the early to mid 60's never heard of MIG back then. but we were experimenting with TIG for welding 1 inch thick sections of Aluminium, it was a pretty impressive process.

When I finished my apprenticeship and left the trade, not that I didn't like it, just that other jobs paid much better, I realised that I enjoyed welding so bought myself a stick machine, with all the bits, and was able to make a bit on the side doing small welding jobs. It wa s a 240V single phase, 15A input with high and low volt range and choke for varying the Amps. With all copper wire transformer it was a pretty good machine. I only sold it a couple of years ago,about 3 years after buying a 3 way MIG TIG and stick machine so I had no further need for it.

It is true that that old stick machine could do a much heavier single pass weld than the MIG can, but there is nothing wrong with multi pass when and if needed. I never need to weld anything thicker than 10mm, and rarely more than 6, so MIG is good for me. I have not yet ventured into using mig for Aluminium, nor have I Tried TIG, The expense and learning curve put me off, and I'm not sure I need it. I do very little work in Aluminium or stainless If I can't stick it together with MIG or stick there is always oxy acetylene.

In fact I've even used oxy for welding Aluminium, looks pretty rough, but it works. I'm also interested in trying these new low temperature aluminium rods with a torch, I guess it's more of a brazing process, but I've heard its pretty strong, and some of the video's I've seen it looks pretty neat, but I guess that's just practice.

 

[NCjeeper]

I like burning some 7018's. Just depends on what I am fabbing up whether I grab the mig or the stick.

 

[markba633csi]

Stick is fun, challenging but fun. If you can do a decent ac stick weld, you're a welder
I have the world's most unusual transformer-in-a-box:

 

[RJSakowski]

I use stick mostly because it is convenient. I have two MIG machines and oxyacteylene as well but usually the bottles are empty. I do very little welding with oxyacetylene, mostly its for heating and cutting. I think the last time I gas welded was some aluminum sheet metal on my boat. I use the MIG in the basement shop, mostly because there are no obnoxious fumes although I still have my Miller buzzbox there. If I need to use it, I just open the door to the outside to vent the fumes.

I have toyed with the idea of making my own oxygen and hydrogen. A back of the envelope calculation shows I can generate the equivalent of my S tank for under $2 worth of electricity. I have an oxyhydrogen torch and I suspect that I can convert the OA torches over fairly easily.

I would like to add TIG and plasma to the arsenal. I keep eying the Everlast 265. It just gets increasingly more difficult to justify it as I get older.