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Even so, the expertise required for stick welding has become less demanding than in the past. "Stick is so much easier to use today than it was even 10 years ago," says Leisner. "It is not like you have to be an expert."

The material costs also favor stick welding. "When you go to buy materials, generally you pay less on a cost per pound basis for stick electrode than for wire," says Snyder.

Larger repair jobs, however, may favor the use of self-shielded, flux-cored, wire welding. "You are definitely going to put down more weld metal in a given period of time with GMAW or flux-cored vs. stick," says Leisner.

When choosing between the two methods, factor in the quicker setup time of the stick welding process vs. the speed of the wire welding process. "You start up your machine, you weld with stick and you are done in an hour," says Snyder. "Now, if you are looking at an eight-hour job, you would probably like to switch to wire. For bigger jobs, you are going to have more productivity with wire."

When wire welding, you will generally need a higher-output machine. "This does depend on the diameter of the welding wire," notes Snyder. "People sometimes want to go to a bigger diameter welding wire because that also improves productivity."