Stick Welding: How to Read the Puddle

Let's look at what to look at when you're stick welding.

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****Additional Description****
Shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), also known as stick welding or rod welding is a great process because of its simplicity. Once you have learned to run a basic weld bead, knowing how to watch the puddle and respond to the clues it's giving you will help you to lay down a nice consistent bead.

Intro: 0:00
Puddle vs electrode type: 0:38
Where to put your head: 1:22
How the puddle should look: 2:42
Improper angle: 2:59
Travel speed matters: 3:59
Arc length overkill: 4:37

[christalw]

I'm a welding student, and I watch your videos before class (and sometimes after) to give myself a better understanding. Thank you for these videos, they're very appreciated. 🙏

[dannylg]

Man, I never get over your trait of being a naturally good instructor. Tone of voice, explanations, demonstrations. Great vids man!

[CraigHollabaugh]

Tim, you're doing great with these videos. They're simple, short, to the point and well produced with excellent weld pool camera lighting, editing and audio. Every time I watch one one at home, I want to head over to my shop and apply what you've taught me.

[amangoduses]

Love it. I bought a Welding kit earlier this year for my birthday basically because of your channel. I never had the opportunity to learn Welding in high school, so I always thought Welding was expensive and complicated. Thanks for the tips, they do make a difference for the people who feel like they're flying blind

[TheManamba]

Happy new year to you sir. I've been welding for 3 years now, as a hobbyist / artist. I have developed an intuitive grasp of the different factors affecting the welding. I've watched any number of youtube tutorials, which have all been very instructive. What distinguishes your videos is that you fill perfectly the gap where I stand : no longer beginner - still far from professional. Your pragmatic advice is precious because immediately applicable. Thank you very much.

[thespartan]

I’m glad I found your channel. I’ve been working as a welders helper the past month for an oil field company. Weldings something I’ve recently been taking an interest in. I’ve only ran a little bit of mig but the guy I was with said I did pretty well never having done it before. Being a welders helper and watching the things you teach here make me think I’m getting a pretty good head start before trying for an apprenticeship. Thanks for the help I’ve gotten some pretty good pointers off you

[godseal]

These videos are still relevant! And helps with remembering the basics are what really matters!

[rickardo]

I just wanted to say that I have taken instruction, read books and watched videos, but after reviewing your videos and running a few practice beads following your guides, I finally found the keys that I needed to actually take my welding to the next level. Up to this point I have been welding inconsistently and the angle grinder was my best friend. Thanks for doing a great job of making these informative videos. Keep up the good work!!

[ironmain]

Teaching, same as welding... IS AN, ART!!
Not everyone can do it.
I appreciate that you do them BOTH very well. Thanks bro! 👍👍

[waiakalulu]

One of the best explained arc pool videos I've ever seen. You should be real proud of what you did here. Appreciate you dropping scholarship on the subject and helping those of us just starting out.

[juanverrette]

✌️ Tim, I’m a true beginner in the field. However, your videos are well articulated and has assisted me much!! ALL PRAISE BE TO THE 🤜🏼🤛🏿🙏🏿☝️✌️

[ezzaster]

Of all the welding teachers on You Tube, you're the one who actually joins the ideas together. Just what beginners like me need most I think. Great stuff.

[SeldomFales]

One of the very best welding videos I’ve watched as a journeyman welder since 1970. Seldom if ever do instructors tell students to not only watch the puddle but learn to understand the puddle no matter what the welding process!

[RichardSmith-mshh]

Another spot -on video making what's real the highlighted subject. It's so good seeing exactly what you know as a commercial welder.
I've just been running lots of pad-weld exactly to get back that weld-pool control. Make it automatic. After a two year break.
So for anyone reading - from all I know doing heavy structures on projects to Billions of US$ - Tim is not only showing you how it's done but also what's most important.

[carloseduardoperez]

as soon as i start to do a weld the first thing that comes to my mind is "reed the puddel" as you teach, it has been very helpful for me, thanks Tim

[tjrassat]

I can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge. I've been learning/practicing stick welding and it's one thing to look at my splatterfest and try different things, but you're a huge help in helping me understand what I'm actually screwing up and what things are worth trying. Thank you!

[hnqgqmo]

E7018 can be ran well by lightly dragging the flux (outer covering) at the end of the rod against the plate as you move down the length of the bead. The end of the rod will slowly burn back and shorten, which is why it's good to keep a very very light pressure on the rod in order to keep the flux touching the plate at all times throughout the length of the bead. Just allow the flux to gently scrape across the plate as you move down the length of the bead.

[Macs_Fab]

I’ve been watching all your videos for the past 3 days, I got pushed farther into the smaller pool of people for a welding job involving getting my own welding rig from them, but never stick welded 😂. I’ve been MIGHT welding 4 years and got extremely good at it, so I’m sure I can pick this up easy, since I also already know all the book knowledge for it, my instructor gave us run downs every day on stick welding after our daily classroom time before we’d weld.

[bobhunt]

I'm passing your videos on to my friends granddaughter who wants to be a welder, she practices in my shop, but your the teacher. I weld but can't teach, thanks.

[kurtilingus]

I'm **very** new to welding (hobbyist) but have done lots of due diligence so far in trying to educate myself in trying to go about this process & welding in general as properly as I can (meaning keeping my half-assing to a respectable minimum), so after having watched countless hours of YT instructional vids on welding at this point: this is the FIRST video I've found dealing **exclusively** with the thing I am both *entirely* putting my attention towards improving while simultaneously lacking the supplemental guidance to help me not only improve, but what all I'm looking at in the first place! Very frustrating since I know I've put at least as much effort into sourcing quality educational material in order approach what a student at a good welding school would have available to them as a reference base in the absence of an instructor, so this is very much appreciated!!! You're definitely setting your instructional material as a cut above your contemporaries' offerings by "zooming in" on aspects like this, as this is a perfect example of how people learning a skill like this need to "learn how to crawl" before tackling other rudimentary basics that any master welder instructor could easily lump in with too many other things when a particular aspect deserves it's own dedicated lesson purely to that one specific thing, just like you've done here. Apologies for a rambly-comment, but I figure there's a usually a decent chance that people in the business of helping others learn benefit from and/or prefer some granular detail in their feedback. Anyway, thanks again!