Welding Tips and Tricks

I am a hobby welder and have a question concerning a 1/8" rod I recently used on my AC stick welder. I have been using Lincoln 6011 rods and have had reasonable results but I found a box of rods recently that had been stored for no telling how long and I gave them a try. They were the best running rod I have ever used. The weld was really smooth, there was little spatter, and the flux just peeled off in one long strip. I only had a few rods so wasn't able to do a test on penetration, so don't know how it compared with the 6011. The welds looked 200% better than anything I had ever run with the 6011. I'd like to find out what this rod was so I can see if it could be used in place of the 6011.

The box has no information about the manufacturer, but the shipping label to the retailer(Builders Square) had a return address of Century Manufacturing. The label on the box says:'These Multi-purpose electrodes are designed to meet almost any need for welding mild or tempered steel. Can be used in place of AWS 6013, 6010, 6011, or 6012. Special flux coating and wire keep spatter to a minimum. Igniter tip assures easy arc starting. Welds on AC, DC reverse polarity-can by used on DC straight polarity for cutting. Runs at 70-160 amps'.

Anyone have an idea what these might have been?

The only rod i've ever used that the slag peels off in one big piece is a 7024 jet rod. They are preety big rods and the info i read about them said they needed to be ran between 100-150 amps. Also i've been told they're for the flat position only. they laid a wide bead and the weld looked great. this may of been what you had. i ran mine on DCEP. not sure if you can use them on AC. hope this may help

Thanks for the reply. I've heard of jet rod, and maybe that's what it was. But I did run some vertical welds and the rod did very well there also, so I don't think it was meant to be flat only. I'll check into the jet rod, but if anyone else has any additional ideas I'd appreciate hearing what they are.

It could have also been 7018, 0r 7014. If run really hot(normally I would run an 1/8 inch 7018 or 7014 rod on 115-135 amps) and the metal is clean, these rods can produce a slag coating that can come off in one clean peice also. both these rods can be run in the vertical position.

sounds a lot like Cronatron 338 to me. it used to be marketed as a maintenance rod and ran kind of like a 6013.
A lot of old timers raved about it but it was a lot more expensive than generic 6013's

jody