Small welding rods

[Jules The Great]

Hello all,

I was using some 1/16 welding rods on some 22 gauge but they are just a tad big.

I tried to find some 1/32 stick rods and they are non existant but it seems to me if you could get them they would be great for sheet metal.

I was actually able to weld the 22 guage with the 1/16 rods at really low amperage.

Anyone know where such tiny rods may be available?

Jules

[CGCINC]

Do you have a MIG welder? You could use some wire from it...

[sportbike]

Do you have a MIG welder? You could use some wire from it...

But then there would be no flux and it would just melt and make a mess... This is the stick welding forum, not tig :-)

[CGCINC]

But then there would be no flux and it would just melt and make a mess... This is the stick welding forum, not tig :-)

lol.... I just clicked on "what's new" up top ^ and I'm always in TIG mode.... Sorry bout that!

[bobwills]

You should be able to weld it with the 1/16 rods. One thing you could do is take some mig wire or another 1/16 rod and use it as a filler rod while welding. Ive done that before and it dont work too bad.

[Jules The Great]

I use them all the time, I was trying to use them for 22 gauge sheet metal. I even used the foot pedal to start the arc and try to control the arc and lower the current to help prevent blowing thru.

I decided to go with a MIG welder also as I have wanted one for a while. Ordered the Everlast 140 on Friday.

[Rodsmachineshop]

have you tried using the pulse controls with out pedal , thats what i use when welding thin body panels since not fast enough with foot pedal to control heat on thin stuff . a mig is a lot more easy on thin stuff its hard welding stuff just under .030 really thin stuff aww remember the good old days when we used wire coat hangers they was the perfect size for welding thin stuff . suck all you see is plastic coat hangers these days

[Jules The Great]

Pulse with a stick electrode? When I said I was using the foot pedal I meant I used the foot pedal to control the stick electrode. It did work but was still too big hence the desire for smaller stick electrodes.

I can do the body panels well with just tig and no pulse but I was trying to see if I could use the stick electrodes in some hard to get to areas that I will be using my mig for when I get it Wednesday.

[Rodsmachineshop]

so sorta confused from all the posts are you just stick welding not tig welding if stick welding and dc welder here some good information when welding real thin stuff , What You Need is

A DC ARC welder that can go as low as 20-25 amps (if yours doesn't you may consider getting a current limiting diode, or get the Stitchwelder that has one)
E6018 (aka. farmer rods) or better E7018 1/16" welding rods (which need to be baked before use)
Thin sheet metal, 0.021" was what I used
Lots and lots of practice (described below)

Practice, Practice, Practice
The first thing you should get used to is to strike the arc at very low amps and avoiding burning holes into the sheet. That can best be practiced by padding. Padding refers to adding more material on a sheet of base metal. You are basically burning the rods down on top of the metal in straight lines.

Set up your arc welder to straight polarity (DCEN) that will keep the heat on the rod and not on the base metal,
Dial down to 20-30 amps,
Set up the sheet, preferably over two bricks so that the bottom of the sheet is hanging in the air.

The rationale of the last point is to make it harder (or more realistic for auto body welding). If you use a backing plate or even a heat sink (a block of brass or copper) it will make it very easy.

[Jules The Great]

Ok I have the 200 DX TIG I have been welding thin stuff for only the last few months. I do not find it that hard to do. The problem arrises because I am doing some of the welding on the car some of the positions I need to get into do not lend themselves to TIG. I have TIG torch in the right output (-) and the ground in the left output (+), is this right for steel I have been using it like this for everything?

As for the stick question, welding of sheet metal you can't really get a stable arc at such low current settings. So with my 200 DX in TIG mode with a stick electrode in the torch I used the pedal to strick and arc and ramp back the current to see if it may be easier, it did not really help.

I agree that practice is great but that does not help when I need to do a T joint in the car and can not get at the back of the weld to pad/back it with copper or something similar.

This was all just me playing around while I decided which mig welder to get.