Welding Tips and Tricks

hey ive done this countless times on the expesive dc machines in school. but at the house with my ac only lincoln tombstone im having trouble running vertical up. i can run em side to side no problem. i have some 7018 ac rods and some 6013's both kinda suck for uphill.
is that common for ac or do i need more practice.
Thanks guys.

well i'm not a big fan of 6013, i wont use it. the 7018AC does run a little different than DC, but i've never had a problem runniing it on a vert. are you running stringers of weaving? if weaving i always use a tight z. which is just going from side to side with a mini pause on the sides. dont pause in the middle, the faster you can get to the other side the better. keep the rod at 90 degees, or as close as you can to the plate, or to the center of the pipe. if your running stringers, just maintain your arc length at about an 1\8" and go up just lke you would on a flat or horz stringer bead. you just have to remember that AC is alot more violent and it wont look as smooth as DC but it will be close. also remember that when running vertical weaves that your amps will be lower because your not going as far in length that you would on a bead on one rod. you might need to play with your amps. hope this helps

helps alot. thanks. ive been messing with both, stringers and beads. hey, what rods would you think would work best other than the 7018ac i dont have a rod oven so i was thinking that could be my problem with the 7018's. I keep em sealed and dry but ive been told for them to run right they need to be hot. the ones i have dont run good at all.
Thanks again.

scarface;
unless you're using 3/32" diameter electrodes, stay away from low hydrogen rods with that little buzzbox. your machine is good for running 6011 on ac. if you have the ac/dc model try 6010. the duty cycle is low on that machine. i prefer the miller topcrank thunderbolt .