Can You Hold the Electrode While Stick Welding? When and How To
It might have crossed your mind if it is OK to hold the welding electrode during stick welding (SMAW). Or you might have seen others do it. But when is it helpful, and how safe is it?
You can hold the electrode when stick welding (SMAW) for a short time to improve the electrode’s stability when striking the arc or making a few tack welds. When doing so, you must wear dry welding gloves in good condition.
If you think holding the rod can help you, let’s see when and how you can do it in more detail. Also, what are the dangers of doing that?
When is it helpful to hold the welding rod?
The most common case when it is helpful to hold the welding rod is to make an easier arc strike and start welding.
Before you start welding, the rod is cold. This makes striking the ark harder and increases the chances for the rod to stick to the workpiece. However, if you try to restart a used rod, the arc starts easier because it is hot.
If you don’t manage to strike the arc and start welding with the first try, you risk damaging the workpiece with misplaced arc strikes. This makes it ugly, and you will waste time correcting it if appearance is of importance.
If the steel has high hardenability, then arc strikes can cause cracks. Steels with high hardenability have a higher carbon content than ordinary mild steel, low alloy steels, and so on.
Furthermore, when a rod is a full length, the tip vibrates a lot when you are about to strike the arc. This is more noticeable with thinner rods, for example, 1/16″ (1.6mm). A trembling rod tip makes striking the arc more difficult.
If you have shaky hands or haven’t spent many hours welding on building good hand-eye coordination, a bad arc strike is more likely.
Another scenario when you can find it helpful to hold the welding rod is when you want to tack the workpiece, especially when using a thin rod at full length.
How to hold the welding rod
First, let’s see the scenario when you want a little help to start the arc with a new rod. For this case, you don’t actually need to hold or pinch the rod. Instead, you can touch the middle of the welding rod with your free hand.
If you need help restarting a recently used rod, just touching it is the only way to do it. A used rod is very hot.
If you find it difficult to restart a basic rod, scratch the flux at the tip with a rasp or sandpaper until it is the same length as the wire. Furthermore, scratch the wire if you see any flux on it.
Touching is enough to make the rod tip more stable and start the arc easier. You will have fewer chances to stick it to the workpiece or scarring it.
Now, if you want to tack your workpiece before you start welding it, you can actually hold the rod in the middle like a pen and tack. Keep in mind that this technique is only good for a few tacks and works when the rod is cold.
Dangers when holding the welding rod
Now let’s see the dangers that come when holding the welding rod.
Electrical shock
The most serious risk when touching or holding a welding rod is to get an electrical shock.
When the welding power supply is turned on, the rod is always “hot”. A low-voltage current waits at the rod’s tip and the base metal for you to strike the arc. This voltage is called Open-Circuit Voltage (OCV).
For security reasons, most welders have an upper limit of 85V. The higher the voltage, the easier it is for the current to pass your skin’s resistance and shock you. But a high enough voltage is necessary to start the arc.
After the arc starts, the voltage drops even lower between 17V and 25V, depending on the rod’s diameter.
When wearing welding gloves and all the other typical personal protective equipment in good condition, you are well protected against electrical shock from the welding process.
But, if your gloves are damaged, your skin can come in contact with the rod, and the chances of shock increase.
The worse case is if your skin and gloves are wet, for example, from sweating. That’s because the natural electrical resistance of your skin drops many times over when it is wet. So electrical current with lower voltage can pass through it.
Burns
The most common danger when touching or holding a welding rod is to burn your hand. Even If you wear very thick welding gloves.
When the arc is on, the rod will get extremely hot very quickly. It heats the flux around it so much that gloves soon will not be able to protect your hand from burning. The result will be from a damaged glove up to a painful burn on your fingers.
If you feel the heat, you better stop and quickly take off the glove. The heat is only starting to pass through it and won’t stop even if you let go of the rod.
Conclusion
While you can hold a stick welding rod to make arc striking or tacking easier, you increase the injury risks, most often burns from the high heat.
It would be better after frequent practice to weld without holding the rod for most jobs.
More Weldpundit articles
What Is the Easiest Stick Welding Rod to Use?
Do You Pull or Push With a Stick Welder? Beginner’s Guide.
Is Stick Welding Easy or Hard to Learn? And How Long It Takes.
Why Do Stick Welding Rods Keep Sticking? And What to Do About It.
