Heard a foreman say stick welding is dying, got me thinking

I was sitting in the break room at the union hall in Gary last Thursday and this old timer said stick welding is basically a dead art for new builds. He claimed MIG and flux-core are taking over everything except the really tight spots. Do you guys still see a lot of stick work on big boiler jobs or is he right?

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faith124mo ago

Depends who you ask honestly. Ive seen guys swear stick is dying since the 90s and theyre still burning rod on big pressure vessel jobs right now. Schools dropping stick is about what employers want right now but that changes every 5-10 years when somebody remembers stick is cheaper and works better in wind and rain. Not gonna lose sleep over it.

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ryanh774mo ago

Read a article in Welding Journal last month that said half the country's welding schools are barely teaching stick anymore. They focus on MIG and TIG because that's what shops want. But for boiler work and pipeline, stick is still alive and well. The old foreman might be right about new construction but he's wrong if he thinks stick is dead everywhere.

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