Tool Reviews

Choosing the Right Process for Heavy Equipment Repairs Heavy equipment repairs are rarely clean, convenient jobs. You may be welding a cracked bucket, a loader frame, a trailer hitch, or…

Outdoor sheet-metal repairs are awkward because the work is thin, often rusty or painted, and exposed to wind. MIG welding can make neat, fast repairs, but its shielding gas is…

Cast iron is repairable, but it is less forgiving than mild steel. It contains a high amount of carbon, and rapid, uneven heating can create hard, brittle areas beside the…

Heat input is the energy put into the workpiece as you weld. In multi-pass stick welding, it affects penetration, distortion, cooling rate and the chance of defects such as undercut…

Undercut is a groove melted into the base metal alongside the weld toe that the filler metal does not completely fill. It reduces the effective thickness of the joint and…

What a drag angle means with a 6011 rod A drag angle is the angle between the electrode and the direction of travel. With a 6011 stick electrode, you generally…

What porosity in a stick weld looks like Porosity is gas trapped in solidifying weld metal. On a stick weld, it may show up as pinholes on the bead surface,…

Why Rod Storage Temperature Matters Welding rod storage temperature mainly matters because moisture changes how an electrode behaves in the arc. Damp flux can cause porosity, excessive spatter, arc instability,…

A stick arc that keeps lengthening and shortening makes it hard to control bead width, heat, and penetration. The target is a short, steady arc: usually about the diameter of…

Root Pass Basics: Fit-Up Comes First An open-root joint has a deliberate gap between the parts, so the first weld bead must bridge that gap and fuse both edges without…