On Dec 30, 11:50*am, "SteveB" toquerville@zionvistas wrote:
"redalpha" wrote in message
...
I am just a weekend welder and I can not seem to make my welds stick
to these spikes. I have a low end stick welder unit I bough for 150.00
from Northern Tool. Any ideas?

Also I have a "Bensomatic" oxy torch for heating rebar to bend and
form and Was thinking about using it to try to gas weld these
spikes... would that be better?

Thanks for the help

You are a new welder, and have already learned one of the most basic lessons
in welding. *That you get what you pay for. *You could have bought a Lincoln
Tombstone used for what you want to do, and paid about the same or less.
Return the welder and get a real one.

Steve

Here are my pearls of wisdom. First, you "get what you pay for" only
if you're lucky and/or astute. Otherwise, it's more like "you pay for
what you get".

Second, if you want to try again to get a weld with the machine you've
got, in addition to all the other good advice (clean and shiny!) you
might try to pre-heat with your propane burner. Even better, get it
really hot in a charcoal fire and then weld it. After you weld it put
it back in the charcoal fire, cover it, and let the fire die
naturally. The standard recipe for welding high carbon steel (which
spikes barely are) is "pre and post heat". V