Arc welding preparation, make sure you do it.

Preparation is the difference between getting a job done and getting a job done with and perfection. Your welding preparation is vital for success.

Think about it. If you are going to paint a car, what is the one thing that matters the most to the finish of the paint job?.....

It's not the colour....

It's not person spraying the paint....

But it is the preparation of the bodywork, which is the key to the final quality of the finished spray job, isn't it.......

You can have the world's best auto spray painter on the face of the earth. It would not matter how good or fancy his spray gun is, or how good and fancy his technique is. Or even if he had the worlds best paint.

If the preparation is not done correctly, and there are bits of flaky paint here and there, and the rust hasn't been cut out or the bog not sanded down properly..... It don't matter how good the bloke spraying the paint is or how good his spray gun is. Because if that preparation work is not done first, the rest of the job will be up to rubbish.

It is exactly the same when you are welding. If you are going to try to weld over rusty dirty bits of steel. Or if you are going to weld over painted bits of steel, how do you think the final weld quality will be?

You really want to learn how to weld the right way the first time so that you do not pick up any bad habits. It's easier to show you right now, the proper way how to arc weld.

This way you can eliminate any other possible entity that could hinder your first welding experience. You want to have the least amount of troubles when trying to do anything for the first time. By doing so will allow you to focus solely on how to weld correctly.

So, point number one when welding is:

Always work with clean materials

This doesn't mean that you can't use that piece of steel you had had outside in the garden for the last 12 months. It just means you are going to have to clean it up properly.

All you need to do here is hit the areas to be welded, with and angle grinder with either a grinding disc, sanding disc or flap disc. This abrasive action will clean up all the crap on the surface like, mill scale, dirt, rust and paint.

The pictures here show a 125mm (5") x 6mm (1/4") grinding disc. And a 125mm (5")flap disc.

Below is a before and after shot of some rusty and dirty steel that has been cleaned up ready to weld.

Once you have your metal cleaned up you will be well on your way to making some excellent arc welds.

Note: The edges have a bevel ground into them. This will allow deeper weld penetration.

Note: I would never usually weld steel that is so badly rusted. This is just a worse case scenario showing that you can arc weld rusty metal.  Just remember that you arc welding prepartaion must be done to weld successfully.

Step 3. Welding earth connection.