Learning to weld.

Learning to weld with my buddys stick (MIG??) welder. Not as easy as i thought, now i know why there is a college course on it, haha.
Im pretty good at making holes with it.
Do hey sell diffirent gauge stcks for diffirent thicknesses of steel?
If I were to patch my bed, its got a half dozen holes, what kind of metal would i use and sticks for the welder? same with the voltage, what would that be set on?
That dude with the Caddy front end and the 5.0 looks like hes got a hang of it, maybe give me some hints and tips, sure would appreciate it.
Thanks

-Sergio

welding is a great skill to learn man good luck with it, if you go to your local hardware store like home depot, lowes they have a basic selection of different size metals and some now even carry small tubing, you don't need to go to schooling for it but that def helps be patient to it takes lots of practice

i was practicing welding an exhaust pipe after my muffler and i ended up making a ole in it, good thing its the part after the muffler, i'll try and fix it later, haha. I will practice on stuff, i just dont have much to practice on. And that new metal is so hard to grind, any special disks out there? i bought one at home depot that was for metal, and its doing a poor job grinding.

the ones at home depot should be fine lol. I like to use the flap disks the most, they are the disc that looks like a bunch of over lapping pieces of sandpaper

what settings are you trying to weld on. Cause you dont want to be on a setting thats for 1/2 steel and your trying to weld sheetmetal

bro i think you are using a stick/arc welder, typically called "stick" welder...its like a clamp at the end and you shove a rod in it right?

if it is that one, try to get some 6010 rods, they are small rods and are easier to start an arc with, the bigger rods are a bit of a challenge to get started for a beginner


but man, SMAW(stick welding) is not the best type of welding to use on sheetmetal, it burns really hot, thus why you are burning holes all over the place lol, but if you can do it, thats great man...stick is ideal for welding thicker metal

agreed with these guys.. its harder to get started.. go take your bed off its metal frame and pop them on the floor.. cut up the metal and get some pratice swings in.. make a big block of crap.. thats what i did to learn ARC welding.. and only use it when i'm in a pinch or out of gas on the MIG. The smell of the ARC welder kinda gives me a headache.. but i jsut love the smell lol.

I used 1/8 sticks and at 65 setting.
It does run really hot and metal fies everywhere and leaves countless little burn marks, haha.
Its the only welder I can get my hands on right now, so I will have to make it work. I will try to find some smaller sticks, i only use the ones that came with it.

ya stick welding is pretty messy shit. I personally would only use it on thicker metals. To me it seems like to much time and work to try and use it for body work. If you got a tech school near you they might have a pile of metal left over from welding class. Go ask if you can have some then go do what mullet said. Weld a big ass block of something

A stick welder works great for steel 1/8" and up. For sheet metal if this is all you have you can do it with some practice. I found some 1/16" 7014 rods at Walmart one time. Get some of these and try welding down at 35 amps.