Is Stick Welding Easy or Hard to Learn? And How Long It Takes
Stick welding or SMAW is often the first process someone learns, but is it easy or hard to learn how to use it?
Because stick welding is a manual process, it is not very easy to learn. It requires focus and steady electrode manipulation by hand. Stick welding requires many hours of practice to get good-looking beads and sound joints.
Now let’s see in more detail why stick welding is hard, how difficult it is compared to other processes, and how long it takes to learn it.
Why is stick welding hard to learn?
Stick welding is hard to learn because you must manipulate by hand the electrode holder (or stinger) that holds the electrode. While doing so, you must prevent sticking the rod. Furthermore, you must keep steady the correct electrode angle, travel speed, and arc length.
Prevent sticking the welding rod
Stick welding is hard from the beginning when you try to strike the arc. You must do it with the least amount of effort to avoid sticking the rod and avoid scarring the workpiece’s surface. It takes a lot of practice to start the arc without mistakes.
To ensure a good arc strike, you need to set a high enough amperage for the rod you selected. Furthermore, some inverter welders have the hot-start feature that helps a lot with the arc-striking step.
Another difficulty is sticking the rod to the workpiece when passing the bead. It is one of the most common problems, causing frustration and delays.
It occurs when there is not enough heat, and the electrode solidifies on the workpiece. This happens when the amperage is set too low, or the arc length gets too short from bad handling and extinguishes.
Always set enough amperage, so you can keep a short arc that will not extinguish.
Keep a constant arc length
One of the most important things to do when stick welding is to keep a constant arc length. Arc length is the distance between the rod’s tip and the workpiece. It must be no more than the rod’s wire diameter. To do this, you need good hand-eye coordination.
If the arc length gets longer, the arc will become unstable and produce more sparks, spatter, fumes, and a weak bead. If the arc length is too short, then the rod can stick to the workpiece.
A unique difficulty of stick welding is that the rod shortens as it burns. That makes it even harder to keep a steady arc length, as you must continuously compensate for the rod’s length reduction.
It takes a lot of focus and many hours of practice to keep the arc length consistently steady.
Drag the rod at the correct rod angle
Stick welding also has the difficulty of the slag inclusion defect. Except for molten metal, the puddle also has slag material in it. The slag comes from the rod’s flux covering.
If you don’t handle the rod the right way, then the slag gets trapped in the solidified metal. A rod angle that is too small or too big in relation to the workpiece is one of the main reasons. The result is a weak and ugly joint.
With the correct rod angle, you ensure that the slag goes back and on top, without solidifying in the bead.
The correct travel angle is between 10 – 30 degrees, depending on the rod type and welding position. Rutile rods need a higher angle than cellulosic and basic rods. Out-of-position welding requires a lower angle compared to the flat position.
Maintain a steady traveling speed
To receive good results, you must drag the rod at the correct speed.
If the traveling speed is too slow, the heat that goes into the metal is too much, and you might blow through it. You will also end up with a warped workpiece.
If the speed is too fast, the bead will be too narrow, without deep root penetration and overall fusion. Furthermore, the weld metal will not fill the bead, leaving undercuts at the sides.
The correct traveling speed is when the arc points to the leading 1/3 of the puddle.
Apart from manual electrode handling, stick welding is not hard. Most power supplies are simple, with an on/off button and a control to set the amperage.
Some modern inverter welders might have controls to set functions such as hot-start and arc-force (or dig). Others may have a Lift-TIG switch for basic TIG welding.
There are no shielding gas cylinders or complex torches to set up or maintain.
Is stick welding harder than MIG?
Stick welding is definitely harder than MIG welding. MIG is a semi-automatic process, and the handling of the MIG torch is far easier than that of an electrode holder.
The MIG filler metal is a wire that also acts as the electrode and is continuously fed by a mechanism at a steady rate. This makes things easier because you always keep the torch at a steady length from the workpiece.
The feeding mechanism allows MIG to have a power supply that has the special ability to keep the arc length constant.
If you accidentally shorten the arc length, the wire is going to melt faster. If you increase the arc length, the wire will melt slower. This behavior autocorrects the arc length.
As a result, MIG has a much easier torch handling that helps beginners a lot.
But the MIG power supply is a bit harder to set it up before you start welding. You must know how to:
- Select different shielding gases depending on the metals and the arc transfer mode you need.
- Set up the wire in the feeding mechanism and fix it if it jams.
- Set the correct wire speed, voltage, and perhaps inductance.
Many home welders prefer MIG because they can start making fabrications after a short training time.
Flux-Cored Arc Welding (FCAW) is like MIG but does not use external gas shielding. Instead, the FCAW wire is tubular and has flux material inside it. You can use FCAW wire with MIG equipment. As a result, FCAW is easier than stick welding.
Is stick welding harder than TIG?
No, stick welding is much easier than TIG. TIG is intended for professional high-precision welding of expensive metals and requires a lot of knowledge and experience.
TIG is the process with the highest manual control. For most jobs, it requires both hands. One to handle the torch and one to feed the separate filler metal.
Moreover, you can control the amperage with a foot pedal while welding for heat manipulation.
To receive good results with TIG, you must coordinate both hands and one foot flawlessly.
Furthermore, TIG has a complex power supply with many functions.
On the control panel of a TIG machine, you set many variables, for example:
- Gas pre-flow.
- Starting amperage.
- Upslope.
- Welding amperage.
- Pulse amperage.
- Pulse ratio.
- Pulse frequency.
- Downslope.
- Ending amperage.
- Gas post-flow.
If you weld aluminum, with an AC machine, you also set AC balance and AC frequency.
All these make TIG much more difficult than stick welding.
How long does it take to learn stick welding?
If you want to learn stick welding for home improvements, and you are good at working with your hands, you can learn the basics in a short period of time.
While practicing is the most important thing to do, you must also have solid theoretical knowledge. You practice what you know, and if you have knowledge gaps, you will make mistakes without understanding why.
If you don’t have someone to show you, you can teach yourself with the help of online content. Read a lot of online articles and watch video tutorials about stick welding basics.
After that, practice the basic stuff you learned, for example, butt and tee joints on mild steel for a few weeks.
With repetition, you will develop good hand-eye coordination and embed the rod motions into your muscle memory. You will familiarize yourself with the correct appearance of the puddle and the sound of the arc under the most common welding situations.
This will give you the basic skills to maintain various equipment and fabricate various projects such as welding carts, tables, other home improvements, and so on.
Weldpundit has an article about learning stick welding on your own and another one about if you can weld at home to help you make an easier start.
But if you have professional intent, stick welding requires a lot of theoretical knowledge. You must have in-depth knowledge about heat manipulation, metallurgy, safety, legal stuff, and much more. Ideally, you must go to a well-known welding school and then get certifications.
After that, the hard part comes when you have to apply what you learned under real working conditions. You will find yourself using unfamiliar equipment in stressful situations. As a very rough estimation, for most people, that would take at least 3.5 years of persistent effort.
In a nutshell
- Stick welding is a manual process and needs a lot of practice to manipulate the rod with efficiency.
- Stick is harder than MIG but easier than TIG.
- With some practice, you can make decent beads for home or hobby welding.
- If you want to weld professionally, you must spend years welding, depending on the skill level you wish to obtain.
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