Welding Tips and Tricks

Hey,

I fired up some second hand 7018s that i bought from a trailer/ hardware joint. They look good, but dont weld well at all. They must have been out in the rain or something, because i have used 7018s that have been out of the oven for ages and had no dramas. (bottom pic)


I got out some 4 mm devil rods and had a go on the same settings. (top pic)

Guess id better put the supposed "angel" rod into the oven for a while.

Mick

Yeah, something not right there.

Mick, if there's a thin layer of rust under the flux, no amount of oven time will fix them. The flux holds moisture really well. The morning dew is enough to do this if someone left them out at night.

My favorite is discovering 308/309 has been wet. Get about 2" of rod burned, and the trapped moisture boils. The flux "explodes" off the rod like popcorn popping...

Steve S

You have proved 1 point there Mick....
That you need to buy good rods, and take care of them....

Get some Cigweld Ferroweld 61....

We use the ferocraft 61 in school.
Those and the gp rods (6013)
Didn't know u could get cig in the USA
In oz they are like main staple (well as far as I know)

I believe ferrocraft 61 are E7018 rods not gp.

Sorry drifta, you never said 61's were gp. My bad. I've kinda gone off cigweld rods. Use wia rods these days when I stick (which is rare).

All good.
Yes I believe they are 7018
Much more difficult to use.
Spewing that they not have 6010 (think these are proper open root run rods)
Did all my prac with gp (6013) to get teqnique and then went to 7018 for test, but used gp for root.

My bad...
I meant ferrocraft....
They are some sweet 7018's....

I need to see if I can find some more....

These rods are made by the best company in AUS to make rods, they are just old as the hills.

Came from a second hand dealer, same as you did AK, with ya pallet.

Not rusty under the coating so maybe there is hope yet. Might just use them to make sculptures.

Mick

Where bouts in vic r u.
I could by mistake put some ferocraft 61's in my weld bag at Tafe.
Thy got 2.4 and 3.2
I'm in bayswater

Drifta-X wrote:All good.
Yes I believe they are 7018
Much more difficult to use.
Spewing that they not have 6010 (think these are proper open root run rods)
Did all my prac with gp (6013) to get teqnique and then went to 7018 for test, but used gp for root.

WTIA certification uses E7018 for open butt root passes only which explains why your tafe college don't keep 6010 rods. I don't understand why but there it is.

Interesting.
I just looked at my cig pocket book (need a large pocket) that the ferrocraft 11 (6011) are designed for high peno root pass applications.

Looks like something I will have to practice in my own time when I get more then just a soldering iron lol

Hey,

I dont need ya to find me some rods, thanks anyway. I just got these cheap, if i need some for a job i would go and get some 16tcs. They are about the top of the pile.

If your school doesnt have 6011s there is a serious problem. I knew it was bad, but not that bad.

Mick

Oh yeah it bad.
Ask instructor to help me with alloy tig
"I don't weld alloy"
I said your a boiler maker, u weld everything.

Even the blank looks I get when asking about wave forms

Lucky for me that this site exists

Where in vic r u mick?

weldin mike 27 wrote:These rods are made by the best company in AUS to make rods, they are just old as the hills.

Came from a second hand dealer, same as you did AK, with ya pallet.

Not rusty under the coating so maybe there is hope yet. Might just use them to make sculptures.

Mick

They were bought from Ak's number one welding supplier, weld air.
They cost $16 usd for the 11lbs of 1/8 e7018....prolly yrs ago.
I got them for free.
They do awesome 120amps on 1/2 in steel.
I've got pics.
Tomorrow.

Hey,

Drifta, Im in Bendigo. Out of my time, almost 9 years now. I was lucky enough to have tafe teachers that could sling a rod like it was nobodys business. These days they seem few and far between. Hope they know about square to rounds and stuff, or you;re gunna have a bad time.

Mick

Tafe is shocking these days they have no money now
And most the good teachers have left

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Sounds like when i started, at CVGT, they had a trailer load of scrap for us to dig through to get bits to weld and just about counted the elctodes they gave us.

Kick

If I have questions I usually just find the answers myself.
Wave form was an easy one lol.
One major prob is that I'm older then the teachers.
Myself being 33 and the best teacher there is 30
The other 2 are 26 and his younger brother.
Not to matter as with 2 trade Certs allready I can figure stuff out pretty easily.
Got to find out how many more vic members there are on here and maybe organise a BBQ weld crap day.

I'm in adelaide not sure how many are here

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One of our members, Anvil Jack comes from Adelaide.

Mick

Good stuff.
Must be old, $16 for 11lbs....

Hey,

Very nice.

We have some very good electrodes here in Aus.

As a side note, Bechtel corp are in charge of a massive gas plant construction here. They only spec Lincoln Excalibur 7018s, and have actually used the entire supply here on occasion, there fore the work shuts down.

They should bother to learn how good some of our others are, they might be suprised.

Mick