I used to hear old welders talk about when they used to weld with arc
"stick", bare rod. Well I tried it, by shaving the flux off of 6010, 7018,
and gas rod, rg-45. 1/8". on a/c and d/c, neg and pos. 80-110 amps.
I had a 4x8in.x 1/2in piece of hot rolled plate. I could hardly srike the arc as it stuck almost every time, then when I did get to run a so-called bead it was the worst weld I ever saw. all oxidized, burned up, I had to travel at 90 mph because the rod turned red and started to melt above the arc. I wounder if they used some shielding gas or ??? Anyone that
used to do this, let me know how it was done. thanks. Bill