Welding Tips and Tricks

Hello everyone! A couple of weeks ago I found this website, as I was looking for a decent welding machine.
I will be welding outdoors, since I do not have a garage. Was thinking about a mig/mag machine anyway... But...

Picked up a Kemppi Minarc machine a couple of days ago, so I'll start my learning on this stick welder!

Ran my first beads ever yesterday, not all that pretty, continued today and it's getting better!
I have a pack of 2mm 6013 and 2,5mm 7018 rods and they seem good for learning the technique.

Oh, and my wife came out today as I was practicing. She wanted to try, and she got better results than I do and she loved it.

So, a real newbie here!

I will be really happy if I (with the right rods and many hours of practice) will be able to change a muffler on my cars exhaust. That's the idea anyway....

Welcome, PeterB,

I'm not surprise at your comment about your wife having a batter "first go"... Some of the most talented welders I've encountered were women.

You'll find any and all advice you may need here.

I'll start... Stick (MMA / SMAW) is absolutely the most difficult process to use for exhaust work such as changing a muffler. It's not impossible, but VERY challenging. If you can do it, you'll be amazed at what else you can do, with practice.

Steve S

Thank you for those kind words. Yup, I know that stick welding is difficult for working on an exhaust...but it's not impossible so I will give it a shot. Learning by burning... For now I will stick to padding beads and welding some thick plates together and take it from there.

Welcome
Good to see a fellow viking here .
Not too many of us here, or one too many some might think

Peter welcome to the forum.

Welcome Peter! I am a welding instructor, and it is typical for the women to do better than the men. Every female student I have had is in the top 20% of the class!

Congratulations to your wife! Maybe she should be the one learning!

LOL!

Peter,
Welcome to the forum.

I know as men we think if it's not impossible that we can do it, and that's mostly true. But the real question then becomes do we want to do extra work to get a less than ideal outcome, and you will. Stick welding exhaust pipes is not for a beginner to say the least and if it's on used exhaust pipe that has been annealed by years of heating and cooling it's almost always an act of futility.

Although women are more likely to become better welders than men, they are also more likely to admit that they can't weld exhaust pipes with a stick welder and buy new. And there's why they usually control the purse strings.

I'm not trying to discourage you in any way, we'll help you in any way we can while you progress in your learning, just trying to give you real life expectations.

Len

I really appreciate your comments, thanks guys!
Welding exhaust and getting it perfect is something I can only dream of, I realize that.

For me, welding will never be more than a hobby and hopefully I will manage to weld at a decent hobby level. Oh well. If it turns out to be mission impossible for me I'll move on to a mig later. Or let the wife do it

Interestingly, my experience is that the women I have met who operate big machines for instance trucks or tractors or big forklifts have all been very skilled and good at what they do.