Stick Welding Diagram Explained: A Complete Visual Guide to SMAW Parts, Electrodes, Polarity & Settings

Electrode Classification Diagram: Decoding E6010, E6011, E6013, E7018 and More

Stand in the supply aisle and you’ll see a wall of electrode boxes printed with codes that look like washing machine part numbers. E6010. E6011. E6013. E7018. E7024. They all look alike until you realize each character is a label, and the whole string is a small diagram written in letters and numbers. Read it and you know the rod’s strength, position capability, coating type, and current before you strike an arc.

The AWS Decoder Diagram, Character by Character

Picture a four-slot diagram running left to right. Every standard covered electrode classification fills those slots in the same order. Take E7018 as the example.

• Slot 1 — the letter “E.” A covered electrode for arc welding. “R” alone is a bare rod; “ER” is a filler wire.
• Slot 2 — the first two digits, “70.” Minimum tensile strength in thousands of psi, so 70 means 70,000 psi minimum. The scale runs 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110, 120. Higher numbers mean a stronger deposit — critical on structural work, irrelevant on a garden gate.
• Slot 3 — the third digit, “1.” Welding position and coating/current family. A “1” means all-position (flat, horizontal, vertical, overhead), “2” is flat and horizontal fillet only, “3” is flat only.
• Slot 4 — the fourth digit, “8.” Coating and current code. “8” is the good one: low-hydrogen, iron-powder coating, AC or DC.

Two details most beginners miss. First, some rods carry suffix letters — E7018M, where the M marks a military-grade specification with tighter moisture-resistance requirements. You’ll also see H4 or H8 on low-hydrogen rods, marking maximum diffusible hydrogen in the deposit (4 or 8 ml per 100 g of weld metal). Lower is better for crack resistance.

Second, the “-1/8” printed after the classification is not part of the code. It’s the bare core wire diameter — one-eighth of an inch here. Diameter lives outside the diagram because it’s a size choice, not a performance spec.

The Common Electrodes, Side by Side

The fourth digit is where each rod’s personality lives. Here’s how the six you’ll actually encounter compare. For a deeper look at one low-hydrogen rod and its settings, see the guide to 3/16 E7018 amperage, polarity and technique.

E6011 is the repair world’s workhorse. It runs on AC or direct current electrode positive (DCEP), making it first choice on a farm, in a service truck, or anywhere DC equipment isn’t available. Its cellulose coating burns off shielding gas and drives a forceful, deeply penetrating arc through rust and paint.

E7018 is the quality rod. Lincoln Electric’s AWS classification reference lists it as low-hydrogen, usually DC, all-position — the one you reach for when weld quality matters or the base metal is hard to weld. Its iron-powder flux lays a smooth bead with easy slag removal. Two rules: keep it dry (wet 7018 is a porosity factory), and remember it does not work vertical-down.

E7024 is the production machine. A high-deposition iron-powder electrode designed for flat and horizontal fillet only. Try it overhead and you’ll see why the code limits it.

Still deciding where to start? The best welding rod for beginners conversation almost always lands on E6013 for practice, then E6011 or E7018 for real work.

A Quick Word on Iron Powder and Deposition

“Iron powder” keeps showing up in the fourth-digit explanations for 7014, 7018, and 7024. That’s not marketing language. The coating literally contains iron powder that melts into the puddle, boosting how much weld metal you deposit per minute — fewer electrodes burned, less time on the job. The tradeoff: those rods want more current and run best in flatter positions.

That’s the whole decoder: four slots, a few optional suffixes, and a diameter stamped on the end. Read it once and the wall of boxes becomes a labeled diagram you can shop from.

Polarity and Circuit Diagram: AC vs DC, DCEP vs DCEN Explained

Polarity trips up more new stick welders than any other setting. You have two terminals, a positive and a negative, and a pile of conflicting advice about which lead goes where. But hang polarity on a circuit diagram and it stops being mysterious. You can follow the current right out of the machine, through the rod, across the arc, into the plate, and back home through the ground clamp.

Tracing the Circuit Diagram First

Every polarity diagram starts with the same loop. Current leaves a terminal inside the power source, runs down the electrode lead to the stinger, passes through the electrode, jumps the arc gap, enters the workpiece, and returns through the ground clamp and work lead. The arrows on the diagram show conventional current; the electrons are actually moving the opposite way, but for setting up a machine that detail doesn’t matter.

What matters is which terminal the stinger is plugged into. That single choice flips the entire heat balance at the arc. Note that 29 CFR 1910.254 governs arc welding and cutting equipment, including installation and safety requirements for the terminals and connections you’ll be handling. Read the picture as: terminal label → lead → holder or clamp. That’s the whole trick.

DCEP (Reverse Polarity): Heat at the Tip, Deeper Penetration

With electrode positive, also called DCEP or reverse polarity, the stinger goes to the positive terminal and the ground clamp to negative. This concentrates more heat at the electrode tip and drives deeper penetration into the base metal. The arc feels focused and bites hard. Beads come out with solid fusion and a visible finger of penetration beneath them. Most covered electrodes run this way, and it’s the default on the box for rods like E7018.

DCEN (Straight Polarity): Heat Spread Into the Plate

Electrode negative, or DCEN (straight polarity), reverses the swap: stinger to negative, ground to positive. Now more heat shifts into the workpiece surface rather than the rod tip. Penetration is shallower, the arc feels softer, and the deposit sits a little higher. That gentler heat profile is exactly why DCEN suits thin sheet and some specialty electrodes that would otherwise burn straight through.

AC: The Polarity That Bounces

Alternating current doesn’t pick a side. In North America it reverses direction 60 times a second (50 Hz in many other regions), so the arc is constantly swapping between electrode positive and negative. That nonstop flip helps break up arc blow and gives a stable, forgiving arc on basic transformer machines. The trade-off is less focused penetration and a slightly rougher feel than clean DC.

Practical rule of thumb: run DCEP for most covered electrodes and deeper penetration, DCEN for thin material and specialty rods, and AC when arc blow is fighting you or your machine only offers AC.

Open-Circuit Voltage and Restart

Open-circuit voltage (OCV) is the voltage sitting at the terminals before the arc is struck. Stick machines typically idle somewhere in the 50 to 80 volt range, well above the roughly 20 to 30 volts an arc needs to sustain itself. That headroom matters at restart: a higher OCV pushes through the resistance of a cold, flux-coated tip and re-establishes the arc faster. It’s why low-OCV budget machines feel stubborn when you try to restart a stuck rod, and why AC transformers need enough OCV to reignite the arc on every half-cycle.

If you’re shopping or dialing in a machine, the way polarity and heat interact is worth seeing on a real rod. Our breakdown of 3/16 E7018 amperage, polarity, and technique shows terminal choice and settings working together. Get the polarity right first, then dial the rest in from there.

Joint and Weld Position Diagrams: Butt, Lap, T, Corner, Edge, 1G to 4G

Most beginners mix up two very different things: the shape the two pieces of metal make when you bring them together, and the direction your torch travels across them. A stick welding diagram separates these cleanly. The joint type is what the plates look like, while the position is where in space you’re welding. Get both straight and a fabrication drawing suddenly reads like a map instead of a puzzle.

The Five Basic Joint Types

Every weldable connection, from a fence post to a bridge beam, starts as one of five joints. On any diagram they’re drawn in cross-section, so you’re looking at the edge of the plates.

• Butt joint — two pieces edge to edge in the same plane. The most common structural joint and the one that carries the most load.
• Lap joint — one plate overlapping another, welded along the edge. Forgiving on fit-up and popular for repairs.
• T joint — one plate standing on another to form a “T” shape. Almost always welded with a fillet.
• Corner joint — two pieces meeting at roughly 90 degrees like an “L”. Common on frames and boxes.
• Edge joint — two parallel plates welded along their edges. Used on thin sheet and flange stiffeners.

Diagrams also show the prep variations. A square butt needs no bevel and suits thin material. A V-groove opens the root so the arc reaches full depth on thick plate. A U-groove does the same job with less filler metal and less distortion on very heavy sections. A fillet is the triangular weld that sits in the corner of a T or lap joint, and a plug is a hole filled with weld to tie two plates together.

Weld Positions: 1G to 4G and 1F to 4F

Position is written with a number and a letter. The letter tells you the weld type — G is groove, F is fillet — and the number tells you where the weld sits in space.

A 1G groove weld is flat, so gravity pulls the puddle into the joint and you can run hot. By 4G you’re overhead, fighting gravity the whole time. Fillet welds use the matching 1F, 2F, 3F and 4F designations, and the numbering logic is identical.

Why Position Changes Your Settings

This is where the diagram earns its keep. As you move from flat to overhead, you generally reduce amperage to stop the puddle from dropping out, tighten your electrode angle to push the arc where you want it, and adjust travel speed to keep bead size consistent. Vertical work splits in two directions: vertical-down is generally used with fast-freeze cellulose electrodes on thin material and root passes, while vertical-up is used for maximum penetration and bead control.

Notice how much of this is technique, not equipment. That’s why deliberate practice on scrap matters more than buying a bigger machine — our guide on building real welding skills walks through how to drill each position systematically.

5G and 6G: The Pipe Welder’s Benchmark

Pipe positions add two numbers. 5G is a pipe fixed horizontally that you weld around; 6G is a pipe fixed at 45 degrees. The 6G position on a fixed 45-degree pipe is widely used as the most difficult test position because it combines vertical, overhead, and flat welding in one joint. Pass a 6G test in the field and you’ve proven you can weld in every orientation a pipeline will ask of you.

Those acceptance criteria don’t come from thin air. AWS D1.1/D1.1M, the structural welding code for steel, defines the requirements referenced across construction and fabrication, including how positions are qualified. If you ever wonder why an inspector is so specific about position on a procedure, this code is usually the reason.

Here’s the takeaway: read the joint type to know your fit-up and groove prep, then read the position number to know your amperage, drag angle, and travel speed. Those two pieces of information, taken together, tell you almost everything about how the weld in front of you is going to behave.

Settings Diagram: Amperage, Duty Cycle, Arc Force and Remote Control

The front panel of a stick welder is a diagram in disguise. Every dial, terminal, and indicator light answers a question you will ask yourself mid-weld: how hot is the arc, which way is the current flowing, and is the machine about to shut itself down? Read the panel like a labeled drawing and the settings stop feeling like guesswork.

Reading the Front Panel, Label by Label

A typical SMAW machine gives you the same handful of controls, arranged roughly like this:

• Power switch — the master on/off. Nothing downstream matters until this is flipped.
• Amperage dial or digital display — the single most important setting. It sets heat output, electrode melt-off rate, and penetration.
• AC/DC selector — picks the current type. Basic transformer machines may be AC only; rectifier and inverter units let you run DCEN or DCEP too.
• Electrode holder terminal (+ or −) — where the stinger lead attaches. Swapping this terminal with the work lead is exactly how you change polarity, which is why it is the easiest setting to get backward.
• Work lead terminal — always the opposite polarity from the holder.
• Thermal overload light — glows when the machine has exceeded its duty cycle and cut power to protect itself.
• Arc force / dig / hot start — found on better machines, these circuits manipulate current at the moment the arc starts or shortens.

Choosing Amperage by Electrode Diameter

Thinner electrode, less current. A starting reference chart for common rods looks like this:

Treat those numbers as a launch pad, not law. Joint type, material thickness, and welding position all shift the right setting up or down. A 1/8 in. rod that runs clean at 110 A flat will often want the lower end of the range overhead. For a deeper dive into rod-specific numbers, see our breakdown of 3/16 E7018 amperage settings and technique.

Duty Cycle in Plain Language

Duty cycle is expressed as a percentage of a 10-minute period at a specified amperage. A 20% duty cycle at 100 amps means roughly 2 minutes of actual welding followed by 8 minutes of rest. Exceed it and the thermal protection circuit trips the machine until it cools. Manufacturers publish these ratings, and they matter more on budget machines than the marketing wattage suggests.

Open-Circuit Voltage, Hot Start, and Arc Force

Open-circuit voltage (OCV) is the voltage sitting at the terminals with the machine on but no arc struck. It is what lets you restart an arc on a hot, previously used electrode. Higher OCV generally makes restarting easier, though it also raises shock exposure — the OSHA arc welding standard 1910.254 sets limits on the voltages these machines may present.

Hot start briefly boosts current at arc initiation so the electrode does not stick to cold plate. Arc force, sometimes labeled dig or arc control, increases current as arc length shortens, which stabilizes the arc when you push into a tight root.

What Wrong Amperage Looks Like

Set the machine, strike an arc, and let the puddle tell you which side of the range you landed on. Then adjust by feel, not by the dial alone.

Defect Diagram: Common Stick Welding Mistakes and How to Read Them

Every welding textbook has the same page: a cross-section of a bad weld, sliced like a cake so you can see inside it. That drawing is worth more than a hundred forum arguments. It shows you exactly where the metal fused, where it didn’t, and where foreign material got locked in, which are the three questions that decide whether your weld holds or fails.

How to Read a Defect Cross-Section

On a defect diagram you’re looking at the base metal on both sides, the weld bead sitting on top or between them, the toes where the bead meets the plate, and the root at the bottom. Around the weld sits the heat-affected zone (HAZ). Labels then point at anything that shouldn’t be there: a dark line of slag, a cluster of round pores, a notch cut into the parent metal.

Trace it in this order: toes first (surface defects), then the bead interior (inclusions and porosity), then the root (penetration and fusion). Nine out of ten beginner problems announce themselves at the toes or the root.

The Nine Defects, Decoded

• Slag inclusion — molten slag trapped inside the weld metal, usually from skipped cleaning between passes or a travel angle that pushes flux ahead of the puddle. Fix: chip and brush every pass, and hold a slight drag angle.
• Porosity — gas bubbles frozen into the bead. Nearly always a long arc, moisture on the electrode, or oil, rust, and paint on the plate. Fix: shorten the arc, use dry rods, grind down to clean steel.
• Undercut — a groove melted into the base metal at the toe and left unfilled. It acts as a stress riser, which is why inspectors care so much about it. Fix: reduce amperage, slow the travel, and pause at the edges.
• Overlap — metal rolled over the toe without fusing to it. Too much current combined with too slow a travel, or a drag angle that’s too flat. Fix: raise travel speed and steepen the angle slightly. Our guide to the overlap welding defect walks through detection and repair in detail.
• Incomplete fusion — the filler sat on top without melting into the sidewall. A cold weld: too little amperage, too fast a travel, or the arc aimed at the joint center instead of the edges.
• Incomplete penetration — the root never melted through. Usually a gap that’s too tight, too little current, or a rod too large for the joint.
• Spatter — BBs stuck around the bead. Long arcs and excess amperage cause it; correct arc length and anti-spatter spray prevent it.
• Cracking — hot cracks form as the weld solidifies, while hydrogen-assisted cold cracks can appear hours or days later. Moisture in electrode coatings is the classic culprit, which is why low-hydrogen rods live in heated rod ovens.
• Arc strikes — stray arcs outside the weld zone. They leave hard, brittle spots that can seed a crack. Strike inside the joint or on a runoff tab, never on the finished surface.

Quick Troubleshooting Table

Why Visual Inspection Comes First

Before anyone cuts a coupon or pays for ultrasonic testing, a trained eye catches most of these problems. Weld acceptance criteria are defined by codes such as the AWS welding codes and standards, which set limits on porosity size, undercut depth, and crack tolerance. Learn the diagram, then learn to look at your own beads with that same cold eye. It’s a habit built through deliberate welding practice, and it’s what turns a hobbyist into a welder.

Safety Diagram: PPE, Ventilation and Fire Watch for Stick Welding

Every other diagram in this guide teaches you to lay a better bead. This one teaches you to walk away from the bench with the same number of fingers, lungs, and eyebrows you started with. Picture a stick welding station drawn from above: the machine on the left, the steel on the bench, and a ring of gear, airflow, and clear space around it. Read it as a map of everything that must be in place before you strike an arc.

Reading the Safety Diagram: What Gets Labeled

Start at your head and work outward. On a proper annotated safety diagram, every arrow points to something doing a job.

• Welding helmet with the correct shade lens, plus safety glasses worn underneath so your eyes stay covered when you flip the hood up to chip slag.
• Leather jacket or sleeves; cotton offers almost nothing against spatter and UV.
• Welding gloves, leather boots, and no cuffs or open pockets to catch sparks.
• Hearing and respiratory protection. Arc noise, chipping, and grinding add up, and fume is the invisible hazard.
• Welding screens or curtains that block arc flash from bystanders; anyone within sight of the arc needs eye protection, not just you. For a deeper breakdown, see our guide to protective eyewear for welding.
• Fume extraction or a movable exhaust hood positioned close to the arc.
• Fire extinguisher within arm’s reach, and a cleared 35-foot combustible-free zone around the work.

Shade Lens Selection: Match the Darkness to the Amps

Your lens shade is not a preference. It scales with amperage, because a 200-amp arc throws far more visible and infrared energy than a 70-amp one. OSHA’s filter shade guidance for shielded metal arc welding looks like this:

If you squint at the puddle or your eyes feel gritty a few hours later, go darker. If you genuinely cannot see the joint, go lighter or add task lighting. That “sand in the eyes” feeling is arc flash, and it shows up hours after the damage is done.

Ventilation: The Fume You Can’t See

Stick welding burns its own flux coating, so fume is baked into the process. The CDC/NIOSH welding fume resource notes that some studies show welders exposed to low levels of manganese — below 0.2 mg/m³ — perform more poorly on tests of brain function and motor skills, with effects on mood, short-term memory, and hand-eye coordination. Staying under the exposure limit is not the same as staying safe.

On stainless, think about hexavalent chromium. OSHA regulates it under 29 CFR 1910.1026 and 1926.1126, with a permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 5 micrograms per cubic meter of air as an 8-hour time-weighted average. That is a small number, and it is why stainless fume control matters even on short jobs.

For construction welding in enclosed spaces, OSHA 1926.353 requires local exhaust ventilation using freely movable hoods placed as close as practicable to the work. In practice, that means a hood within a foot or so of the arc, not a fan blowing fumes across the shop. If you are setting up the rest of the space, our article on planning and setting up a safe shop walks through layout and airflow.

Fire Watch: The Part of the Diagram People Skip

Sparks from a stick welder travel far and hide well. They nestle into sawdust, rags, cardboard, and the pallet you forgot was under the bench, then smolder for twenty minutes after you have gone inside.

• Clear combustibles 35 feet from the arc, or cover them with fire-resistant blankets.
• Keep a charged fire extinguisher and a spotter watching for smoke whenever the work is hot or confined.
• Stay in the area at least 30 minutes after the last spark, and re-check the surrounding surfaces.
• Never weld on or near closed containers or drums that have held fuel.

Turning the Diagram Into a Routine

A safety diagram is only useful if you actually run through it. Before every session, do a 60-second walkthrough: hood down with the right shade, glasses on underneath, screen up, fume extraction on, extinguisher charged, floor clear to 35 feet. It sounds fussy until the day it isn’t.

If you are still building out your gear, work from a written setup and safety checklist rather than memory. The diagram tells you what belongs on the list; the list makes sure you never skip it. Now that the shop is safe, the next section compares how stick, MIG, and TIG look side by side in diagram form.

Stick vs MIG vs TIG Diagrams Compared — and How to Use a Diagram the Right Way

You’ve now seen how a stick welding diagram breaks down the parts, the arc zone, the electrode code, the polarity, the joints, the settings, the defects, and the safety setup. But a fair question lingers: why stick? Let’s put the three big arc processes side by side so you can pick the right one for the job in front of you.

Three Processes, Three Diagrams, One Quick Look

Each process draws a little differently, and those differences tell the whole story.

• SMAW (stick): One consumable, flux-coated electrode clamped in a holder. The coating burns to create its own shielding gas and slag. No gas cylinder anywhere on the diagram. That’s why stick is the most practical arc process for outdoor and remote repair work, where wind would blow away gas shielding.
• GMAW (MIG): A consumable wire spool feeding through a gun, plus a separate shielding gas cylinder and regulator. The diagram shows a wire feeder and a contact tip guiding current into the wire. Fast and clean, but less forgiving outdoors and on rusty steel.
• GTAW (TIG): A non-consumable tungsten electrode, a separate filler rod added by hand, and shielding gas. The cleanest, most controlled arc of the three, and the standard for thin stainless and aluminum — but it’s slower and demands real hand coordination.

Which Process Should You Actually Choose?

Choose stick for outdoor repairs, farm and ranch work, dirty or rusty steel, thick plate, and low-budget entry. One machine, one lead, one rod — and it’ll run off a generator in a field.

Choose MIG for thin sheet, high-production work, and body panels where speed and a fast learning curve matter. See our complete MIG welding at home guide for the full setup walkthrough. Choose TIG for thin stainless, aluminum, and cosmetic welds that need to look like jewelry. Our TIG polarity guide explains the current choices that make those welds possible.

How to Study Any Welding Diagram (The 4-Step Method)

1. Trace the circuit. Follow current from the machine, through the lead, into the electrode, across the arc, into the workpiece, and back through the ground clamp. If the loop makes sense, everything else follows.
2. Label the electrode variables. Note diameter, coating type, and class. A 1/8 in. E7018 tells you strength, position, current type, and coating all at once.
3. Identify the joint and position. Is that a fillet or a V-groove? Flat or overhead? The diagram’s geometry sets your angle and travel speed before you touch the machine.
4. Convert the picture into settings and body position. Transfer the recommended amperage to the dial, match polarity to the electrode, and get your body where you can actually see the puddle.

Bookmark These Five Diagrams

The full setup diagram, the arc-zone cross-section, the electrode classification decoder, the polarity circuit, and the defect cross-section. Those five cover 90% of the questions you’ll face in the shop. For context on how deep this subject runs, AWS has authored more than 350 standards covering practices, procedures, and qualification.

Practice on Scrap First

Now go make a mess on purpose. Run beads on scrap flat bar, change one variable at a time, and compare your bead to the diagrams. Our welding practice guide gives you structured drills that turn theoretical knowledge into muscle memory.

Scroll back to the top and pick one diagram. Study it until you can redraw it from memory. That’s how Dale finally got his gate hinge to hold — no new machine, no magic rod, just a picture in his head. Grab some scrap, trace the loop, and strike an arc. You’ve got this.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a stick welding diagram actually showing me?

A stick welding diagram is a labeled picture of the shielded metal arc welding (SMAW) circuit and arc zone. It shows the power source, leads, electrode holder, the coated electrode, the arc, the molten weld pool, the slag layer, the base metal, and the heat-affected zone. Once you can read it, you can connect the picture to real machine settings and hand position.

What does the number on a stick electrode like E7018 mean?

The ‘E’ means electrode, the first two digits (70) give the minimum tensile strength in thousands of psi, the third digit (1) indicates the welding positions allowed, and the fourth digit (8) identifies the coating type and current characteristics. So E7018 is a 70,000 psi, all-position, low-hydrogen electrode.

Should I use DCEP or DCEN for stick welding?

Most covered electrodes, including E6010, E6011, and E7018, run best on DCEP (electrode positive), which gives deeper penetration and a stable arc. DCEN is used for some specialty electrodes and thin material, and AC is a good option for fighting arc blow or running on a basic transformer machine.

Why does my stick weld keep sticking to the plate?

The most common causes are amperage set too low, arc length too short, a damp or damaged electrode, or poor work lead contact. Turn the amperage up slightly, hold a slightly longer arc, and check that your ground clamp is on clean bare metal.

Can you tell a good stick weld just by looking at it?

Visual inspection catches a lot — undercut, overlap, spatter, porosity at the surface, and excessive reinforcement are all visible after chipping slag. But internal defects like slag inclusion and incomplete fusion can hide beneath a good-looking bead, which is why code work requires qualified procedures and inspection.

Is stick welding dangerous for your health?

Yes, welding fume is a real hazard. CDC/NIOSH notes that welding fume contains metals such as manganese, and studies suggest neurological and neurobehavioral effects can occur even at low manganese exposure levels. Use local exhaust ventilation or fume extraction, wear appropriate respiratory protection, and follow OSHA ventilation rules.

What is the difference between a groove weld and a fillet weld?

A groove weld is made in a gap or bevel between two pieces of metal, such as a V-groove butt joint, and usually needs full penetration for structural work. A fillet weld is a triangular weld placed in the corner where two surfaces meet, such as a T-joint, and is the most common weld seen in everyday fabrication.

How long does it take to learn stick welding?

Most people can strike and maintain an arc within a few hours and lay a passable bead within a week of regular practice. Producing consistent, code-quality welds in all positions typically takes months of supervised practice, and passing a 6G pipe test is a multi-year benchmark for many welders.