Routy, you bring up an excellent point. Which leads me to again recommend the book, New lessons in Arc Welding by Lincoln Electric.
It has a lot of advice, correct advice, that will cover what I cannot possibly cover here.
It is the best book that I have found on arc welding for someone new to welding.
I have seen a lot beginning welding books in past, lots of errors in most of them. The one carried at both Lowe's and Home Depot, errors throughout.
The book I am recommending is a resource you will use as long as you weld.
Routy's point is
"7014....same as 7024 can be just plain dangerous in the hands of the less than experienced, as it can leave a groove right down the middle of the weld that is exactly identical to welding 2 beads next to each other, neither of which touches one another,.....exactly the same as if it had never been welded at all"
The problem, incorrect procedure. Go to page 8 and 9 to view why this happens.
http://www.lincolnelectric.com/assets/en_US/Products/Consumable_StickElectrod...On a high speed iron coated rod, you need more rod angle, you need to drag the rod, and you need to be hauling a..,.
In a production enviroment welding manually, what is faster, mig or stick? Often times, stick is faster. I don't want to go into a lot of detail, but,,,, If I need to put down a lot of pounds of weld metal the 7014, 7024, 27, 18, 28 will out weld a mig. High production rates are always done with ac, not dc, when stick welding.
Welding at home, entry level setup. Simple steel to steel welding. Maybe even a little stainless steel.
Stick is the most economical. dollar for dollar. Not too hard to learn.
Mig, dollar for dollar, what about 3 times the cost for the same power level? Better for the real thin stuff for a new weldor, 14 gauge and lighter.
Welding straight down, lets talk sheet metal, 16 gauge and under.
These are not tips.
This is how it has to be done, mig or stick.
Tack every 1"
Fit. must be perfect.
I need a picture, I don't have one, the metal must be tacked so that both exposed edges are clearly exposed at the joint.
On thin steel, 16 gauge and less, this perfectly aligned joint is tough to do with stick. It takes a lot of practice with mig.
The weld itself, there is no forgiveness, you cannot veer from the exact center of the weld 1/64 of an inch or you will burn through, stick or mig. When you burn through, well again, mig will fix the hole easier.
If this metal is not tacked perfect, the weld will look like, well, not to good. And you will burn through.
Mig tacks better than stick,,
The weld itself is no more difficult, stick or mig.
Post weld clean up is easier with mig.
If your welding is'nt to hot, you will be grinding this weld to make it look good, which eliminates the mig advantage on post weld cleanup.
To clarify the use of the 7014. I use the 7014 almost exclusively on my 220 volt ac 225 amp lincoln tombstone style welder. It welds wonderfully on this machine.
Practice with the 6011 first, imo, the 6011 is easier to learn with.
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