First Time Welder

[@isaal-magyari9203]

Nice,having a welder opens the door to so many more projects

[@a-k-jun-1]

Welcome to the world of gluing metal together Mr Allen. Keep practicing and you'll be able to lay those weld beads down like they were molded in place. Try to keep the rod as close to the metal as possible and move the rod in small circles about 6 or 8 mm in diameter. Move the rod slow enough to allow the molten metal to fill in the weld puddle and overlap each circle by about 50%

[@StormHerald3D]

For your first welds they don't look bad, but for farther welding you will want to get a jacket or sleeves of some sort welding will give any bare skin one hell of a sunburn. Also when the manual said earth and ground lead, in welding the clamp that gets attached to the bench or work piece is called the ground so I think you have the set up backwards unless you changed them and didn't show it stick welding is usually electrode positive. If you have any questions I'm StormHerald in the Varga Discord and would be happy to try and answer I hope you have fun learning to weld.

[@Revoku]

I remember playing with my first arc welder, was trying to arc weld sheet steel, it went as well as you'd expect(poorly) because I didn't have a mig/tig welder or gas for said mig/tig welder that I didn't have.

[@kfoltman]

Sheet steel with stick is a nightmare! Self-shielded flux core ("gasless MIG") is a poor-man's alternative that works a fair bit better.