Keep your welding projects running smoothly with our expert guides on troubleshooting and equipment maintenance. This category helps you identify and fix common welding issues—from porosity and spatter to arc instability and poor penetration—across MIG, TIG, and Stick processes. You’ll also find essential maintenance tips to extend the life of your tools and machines, ensuring safe, consistent performance in every weld.
If you’ve ever run a bead and noticed those pesky grooves along the edges of your weld, you’re dealing with undercut. Figuring out how to prevent undercut in welding is a game-changer, whether you’re a DIYer fixing up a trailer…
One of the most frustrating moments I’ve had in the shop was running a clean bead on a piece of sheet metal when my Hobart welder’s wire feed suddenly started sputtering and surging. Everything was prepped—the joint was clean, the…
When I first started flux core welding, one of the biggest headaches I ran into was dealing with spatter—tiny molten sparks flying everywhere, sticking to the weld joint, table, and even my gear. It didn’t take long to realize that…
I can’t count how many times I’ve set up for a quick job, only to find my MIG welder not working the way it should. Sometimes the arc sputters like it’s starving for wire, other times the bead looks more…
One of the first lessons I learned with stick welding was that arc welding machines don’t always play nice—sometimes the electrode sticks, the arc cuts out, or the bead looks messy instead of smooth and strong. These arc welding machine…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve run into that frustrating moment when the MIG welder wire feeds but no arc fires up. The first time it happened to me, I was in the middle of tacking some mild…
If you’ve ever pulled off your hood to find tiny holes pockmarking your weld bead, you’ve likely encountered porosity in arc welding. It’s one of those frustrating defects that can turn a solid weld into a weak, unreliable joint. As…
I can’t count how many times I’ve been in the middle of a MIG weld, thinking everything was set up right, only to run into spatter everywhere, poor penetration, or that dreaded bird-nesting at the wire feed. One of my…