Welding With No Shielding (Bare rod/wire)

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I am curious what people's experience are with arc welding with a bare rod or wire with no shielding gas.  I have heard stories about shipyards in WWII where they did this.  I also saw the results someone did with a MIG welder without gas.  Not pretty but functional (barely). What might be the deficiencies of such a weld?  Impurities, porosity, difficulty?  Embrittlement?Not that I plan on doing anything with this information, more just curiosity or something to file for the day when all I've got is car batteries, jumper cables and baling wire Birken
Reply:Impurities, porosity, difficulty? Embrittlement?
Reply:My old dad use to say you cant call yourself a welder untill you can weld with bailing wire useing a Guinness bottle as a screen RIP Dad
Reply:i'm tempted to try that... almost.  in high school we'd find rods that had lost their flux coating and we'd try and weld with those. it was pretty hard to get the weld going, they would stick like an industrial magnet. i cant remember if we ever succesfully welded anything together that wouldnt fall apart if you dropped it.
Reply:i seen that on  McGiver, didn t  Iyeah  fixed it with baling wire an duck tape
Reply:I know it was done, don't see HTF, need inert shielding.Found this on web:  In 1890, C.L. Coffin of Detroit was awarded the first U.S. patent for an arc welding process using a metal electrode. This was the first record of the metal melted from the electrode carried across the arc to deposit filler metal in the joint to make a weld. About the same time, N.G. Slavianoff, a Russian, presented the same idea of transferring metal across an arc, but to cast metal in a mold.Looks like the coated electrode was first invented around 1907.http://weldinghistory.org/history/welding/index.html
Reply:Call me crazy but seems to me we had a repair welder at work who was talking about welding with no gas and no nozzle. I'll check with him and see...I might have got too many paint fumes that day
Reply:That sounds like it may have been self shielded flux core.
Reply:It may sound odd, but you can TIG weld without using any torch gas flow.We have a couple mechanized welding systems that TIG weld within an inert gas filled glovebox, no other gas except the gas in the box.  In fact one of the systems simply has a tungsten clamped in a chunk of copper, attached to the (-) lead, and held on an insulated stand above the part being welded.No problem.
Reply:Sounds a lot like the carbon arc welding with a bit more gas.  We had to learn that in high school...It was scary.  I think the only reason we did it was to appreciate how easy gas and stick welding methods were in comparison.  I had surpressed that memory until you mentioned this...it must have been truamatic for me.Smithboy...if it ain't broke, you ain't tryin'.
Reply:Originally Posted by pulserIt may sound odd, but you can TIG weld without using any torch gas flow.We have a couple mechanized welding systems that TIG weld within an inert gas filled glovebox, no other gas except the gas in the box.  In fact one of the systems simply has a tungsten clamped in a chunk of copper, attached to the (-) lead, and held on an insulated stand above the part being welded.No problem.
Reply:A pretty standard thing to do is to challenge a welding class to try welding with flux knocked off a welding rod.  It is doable on a DC stick machine.  The weld is cold looking and oxidized but it is doable.  Young students are up to the challenge once a couple in the class have mastered an inch of weld bead.  There is an example of a building welded up in 1928 with bare wire electrode.  Look in the first chapter of Lincoln's Procedure Handbook.  The photo shows the partially constructed building.  It is four stories I might add.  There are many levels of quality required in a weld according to the application.  Nothing more need be said about these welds done in 1928.
Reply:Hey Pulser hit the nail on the head - checked with repair man today.
Reply:pulserthats not odd its done all the time with specilty metals that need more time in the gas wile cooling, rather than trying to back gas and adding a trailing cup to keep the gas on it till it cools its some times easyer to just fill the chamber with gas. but as said thats realy not the same as welding without gas as its compleatly inclosed in a gas chamber. here are some trailing options you could use but still only up to a point then ya need the chamber.http://www.arc-zone.com/catalog/web_...=6892375_53099FWIW; i think i'll stick with the tryed and true methode and keep the gas on, or flux witchever is the case. summer is here, plant a tree for mother earth. if you dont have time or space, sponcer some one else to plant one for you.feel free to shoot me a PM or e-mail me at [email][email protected] i got lots of time.