Arc welding tip ( Balance the stinger )
by Odin Nielsen
(Edmonton Canada)
My father taught me this trick, he is a welder of over 20 years.
Normally you would have your rod coming straight out of your stinger. When you take a step back and look at this it is very obvious that most of the weight will be at the rod end of the stinger. For some people this extra weight will make the rod seem heavy and harder to control for the nice 7018 uphill technique or even for 6010 flat. I was shown by my father to bend the rod back around the side of the stinger so it is now essentially coming out of the "back". This gives the rod an almost weightless feel and puts the center of gravity more over the center of your hand. Now i find this makes it a lot easier to make the very precise movements. Now this does come at a cost of wasted rod. When at home you might want to avoid it, but i personally work mostly up in the oil fields and dont have to worry about wasting rod as poor welders will waste ten times more from rod stick and bad restarts than i ever will.
I hope people find this easy to understand as well as useful.
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