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.
I can’t count how many times I’ve set up for a quick job, pulled the trigger, and found my MIG welder not working the way it should. The machine may be completely dead, feed wire without making an arc, sputter…
Undercut is the narrow groove that can form beside a weld toe or along a weld root when the arc melts base metal faster than the weld pool fills it. It may look small, but it reduces the effective section…
One of the most frustrating moments I have had in the shop was laying down a clean bead on sheet metal when my Hobart welder suddenly began feeding wire in fits and starts. The joint was clean and the arc…
I can’t count how many times I’ve been in the middle of a MIG weld, thinking everything was set up correctly, only to see spatter everywhere, weak fusion, or a birdnest forming at the wire feeder. One of my earliest…
When your MIG welder wire feeds but no arc forms, the trigger and feed motor are doing part of their job, but welding current is not completing the circuit through the wire and workpiece. The fastest checks are the work…
Flux core spatter can turn a short weld into a long cleanup job. A small amount is normal, but heavy spatter, loud popping, wire stubbing, or an erratic arc usually points to a setup, feeding, or technique problem. You can…
One of the first lessons I learned with stick welding was that arc welding machines do not always behave the way you expect. An electrode may stick, the arc may cut out, the wire may feed unevenly, or a bead…
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…