Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey guys, someone I work with told me about this website a couple days ago. Saw the forums and figured I join up and start asking some questions.

I started an industrial mechanic apprentice program a couple years ago (mostly machine repair stuff on high speed packaging equipment, but they want us to learn a little bit of everything) and started my welding classes in the spring (intro stick, out-of-position stick, and TIG). I'm currently in a TIG class, and the articles on the front page have been really helpful!

As I was scrolling around the different topics, a question occured to me from my stick intro class. Our teacher (Ironworker in his 50's) taught us to bend our electrodes at about a 45 degree angle (or more/less depending on if you're doing a fillet weld or something) before putting them in the stinger parallel to the handles of the stinger. I guess this is odd because guys gave me crap about it at work when I was doing a project in the summer ("you'd fail a certification test right away if you did that," you'd get fired from a job for breaking flux off the rod," "who the f*** taught you to weld like that," etc.) and I can't even find a picture on google of someone holding a rod like I was taught (so I drew one:)
So, I guess my question is: is this weird? Wrong? Has anyone ever seen other guys doing this? (Apprentices I work with had other teachers and they all hold the rod "normal.") WIll it give me trouble having learned to weld horizontal this way when I go to weld vertical and overhead joints? Or does it even matter, as welding seems to my inexperienced hands to be a lot about getting comfortable? Should I learn to weld holding the rod normally?

My class got decent results doing it this way--we all passed makeshift bend tests in the shop. FIllet welds were a bitch for me to learn (probably took me like 3-4 hours classes to finally get them at 45's and to lay on each other), but, other than that I came out ok in the end.

Anyways, if you read all that, any feedback would be appreciated!

Nothing weird about it.

bending the electrode to acheive your goal is "welding 101".

Steve S

I got a screw type stinger. The only way to adjust the angle of the rod in the stinger is to bend it.

Oh, and in the picture,

There's not a rod in the stinger.

It's a nice example of a 150A tweco, and a nice 250A ground, but there's no rod in the stinger. Just Photoshop.

Well in fairness the OP did say he could'nt find a suitable picture & so drew the rod in.

In the UK almost all rod holders are of the screw type ( except ones supplied on horrible freight type things ) so bending rods is quite normal - BUT only where necessary for access / suitable rod angle in a joint - with the alligator style having multiple angles built in usually you don't need to bend rods - you imply your teacher showed you to do this all the time / every rod - if so ask him why ? could be he was trying to help you achieve better sight of the puddle or easier to maintain rod angle while learning - but it's not something you do all the time without reason - if the guy had experience he must have had a reason but should have explained it.

Bottom line - if the part is accessible without bending the rod - don't ! though on one occasion I had to weld 2 rods together with a bend on the last 2" to get up inside a Volvo dumptruck axle to weld a bit of re-bar to the broken off axle shaft so it could be pulled out ! ( weird rod choice of the longest 7018 I had with a nickel rod on the end of that as they will still weld while part submerged in 90 weight gear oil )

Thanks for the juicy post! What, no rod in the house so you have to draw a picture? Have to say, that's a first.

In my humble opinion, the value of which I mostly entrust, but not all the time, and though it is not valued by all by any means, I have to say the practice of bending a rod when you don't need to is strange, odd, weird, and kooky. But in all fairness, it may be a symptom of OCD or some other psychological malady, otherwise it makes no sense.

There are occasions where bending the rod is the only way you can get the job done, and getting the job done is kind of important. Does it hurt to bend it? No, but really it is by exception.

So is it weird? Yes, but so is basketball.
Should you do exactly what your instructor directs you to do? Definitely.

At any rate, all of this is good practice for when you get out into the job market. Often times you will be working for someone that you may not agree with all the time, or worse, they haven't a clue of what they're talking about. Learning to work with imbeciles is an important job skill. Maybe this is what your instructor is trying to get across.

i never heard of anyone bending the rod before putting it in the holder before but you gotta do what works for you. in the picture in your original post the rod holder shown has rod adjustment grooves built in already. i also use the screw type holder so i bend the electrode always. btw, who's telling you that you're gonna get fired for spoiling a welding rod? another new fish learning to weld? maybe this will work for you maybe not. try different things till you find something that's comfortable and stick with it. like my friend esteban says that's welding 101

Never heard bending the electrode was a bad thing.

if you bend the rod right up at the stinger , and the bent section is not consumed, there is absolutely no problem

If it works in the slots in the stinger, use them. If you need to bend it, then bend it.

Yeah, I guess I could've run up to the shop and bent a rod real quick and took a picture haha. But, I'm stuck in the parts room on nights at my job cuz we're a little slow, so that means being stuck on a computer all night and photoshop it was!

I now bend the rod like this if I'm stick welding anything at work. I've only ever done project stuff in a flat position in a shop, so it hasn't tripped me up with getting the rod out of position. It's comfortable for me just because it's the way I've done it the most. If I get this guy again in my next stick welding class I'll have to ask him more about it.

I figured it was an Ironworker thing maybe, but a couple guys who came to my work from contractors who worked with Ironworkers a lot had never seen such a thing, either.

Oh well, whatever works....

jwmacawful wrote:btw, who's telling you that you're gonna get fired for spoiling a welding rod? another new fish learning to weld? maybe this will work for you maybe not. try different things till you find something that's comfortable and stick with it. like my friend esteban says that's welding 101

An old-timer who thinks he's the best stick welder in the house. Since he worked for 20 years outside of a candyland food plant welding on bridges and shit, he feels obligated to say that stuff. He was just busting my balls probably--I only listen to about half of what he says anyway. He's pretty good at it, though, for all the shit he talks haha.

I know a few jerks like that

jcurriv wrote:

jwmacawful wrote:btw, who's telling you that you're gonna get fired for spoiling a welding rod? another new fish learning to weld? maybe this will work for you maybe not. try different things till you find something that's comfortable and stick with it. like my friend esteban says that's welding 101

An old-timer who thinks he's the best stick welder in the house. Since he worked for 20 years outside of a candyland food plant welding on bridges and shit, he feels obligated to say that stuff. He was just busting my balls probably--I only listen to about half of what he says anyway. He's pretty good at it, though, for all the shit he talks haha.

sometimes you just gotta laff. i was a structural ironworker for 18 years and worked on a couple bridges so believe me when i tell you we had to get into some awkward places and had to not only bend the rod but attach the stinger to staves from the wooden bolt keg. today i'm a maint welder and work at a bench a lot of times and i bend every rod i burn. if you're a better than average welder no-one's going to even notice what you're doing with the rods, it's the results their looking at. tell him to blow it out his sea-bag lol.

I have always bent my electrode, I think it makes it easier to reach all postions without stopping and adjusting the angle in the holder. I have passed certs with bending the rod, so do what ever makes it easier for you to weld!!

Ive been welding for quite sometime and this isn't unusual at all. I too am in some welding classes mainly for the certifications, however. I use a "bent rod" technique on piping. if you ground out the 7018 rod and get it fairly warm u can actually bend it into a smiley face figure this will help when coming up the bottom side of the pipe( overhead to vertical). they may be getting mad at how much flux your knocking off and how much rod is being wasted. If they are using 7018 it must be a fairly important part.

I too have bent many a rod. Going into factories you never know what you will come up against.
I do know another business owner friend of mine that will write his employees up for not using this rod all the way to the end of the flux. I don't agree with this but its not my business. I tried to explain that doing this will burn up his rod holder but he brushed it off. I was at his place a month ago and guess what, his rod holder was destroyed. His theory is the holder is cheaper than the rod.
I say bend the rod for what ever your application.

Superiorwelding wrote:I too have bent many a rod. Going into factories you never know what you will come up against.
I do know another business owner friend of mine that will write his employees up for not using this rod all the way to the end of the flux. I don't agree with this but its not my business. I tried to explain that doing this will burn up his rod holder but he brushed it off. I was at his place a month ago and guess what, his rod holder was destroyed. His theory is the holder is cheaper than the rod.
I say bend the rod for what ever your application.

I know guys that work in oil factories that Carrie around their own stingers so others don't weld the rods to the jaws. I burn mine up to the numbers, no more.

Hey,

I understand this, i work in a factory where we are constantly moving around, and nothing broken gets fixed, or reported if its major. Unfortunately no time obviously...

Mick

I was shocked the first time I saw someone bend a rod at work. I worked oil fields for years and I was assisting an old welder and we were welding a collar on top of a tank that would be used to connect the in line from the well to the tank. It was about 3" pipe to a flat surface and he bent the rod like a c and started on the back side of the pipe away from himself and it straightened out by the time he got to the front of the pipe. I was surprised and every time I welded pipe to plate afterwards I bent the rod and had amazing results. I took a mandatory welding class here at college and we had to weld small pipe to plate and I naturally bent the rod and everyone around me was looking at me like I just broke a precious antique. After I got a perfect score on my pipe to plate and only had 1 restart, everyone around me was bending the rod. That is my go to technique for pipe to plate.

It's no wonder people in your class were telling you stuff they know absolutely nothing about. That's because your in a class full of welding STUDENTS.

When you seek professional advice about something, it's best to avoid an answer from a student. Go to a pro. Nothing wrong with bending an electrode for the task at hand.

Gotta agree with you guys, something I was told from day 1, if you need to bend it, bend it (just don't weld past the flux). I think in Jody's video on 2" pipe 6g (the stick portion), he talks about and shows choking up on the rod and bending it.

Great thread I bend the rod in the holder just to get an angle for a proper weld. I wouldn't have thought to actually put a curve in the rod to get to the back of a weld project. That is cool. I will have to give that a try.