Welding Tips and Tricks

been playing with the weld pro at work I think I mentioned in another post and was rocking along pretty good, getting motivated so I fired up the sw 200 for a little project I have been wanting to start for a couple of weeks and the wheels fell slam off. the welds were full of worm holes and that rust stain look just out from the cup, pretty sad. after changing out the cup, guts and tungsten and verifying gas volume and flow there was no improvement so being on a self imposed time line I went to stick and karma got me. after all the times I have professed to never had a problem with Xcaliber 7018's due to moisture I was catching mortal hell. I have never seen sparklers off of a rod so bad in my life, lousy start and restart and really hard to control. after a few rods I realized how faded they looked and popped open a plastic electrode storage tube of the same rods and they ran fine but by then I was beside myself and should have just backed off and went on to another project but instead I went right on with it and made the worst looking welds that I have made in a long time. another day like that may kill me. I have way to many rods to keep them all in a oven but I may buy a little toaster oven to dry rods out overnight when I know I will need them. I know some guys have never experienced this and I hope they never do because it is sure no fun, I guess my luck ran slam out.

I have a heat treat furnace at work so I don't really need a rod oven.

What I don't understand is, you can buy a toaster oven for $29, but when you go to buy a rod oven they are often equivalent money to a new gas range for your kitchen. Am I missing something? I mean seriously, every welder would own one if they weren't so ridiculous.

Just remember that "drying" 7018 rods is 650 to 750°F.

The chemical bond must be broken, it's not really drying in the standard sense.

Longer periods at lower temperatures is not equivalent according to Lincoln.

I always thought rod ovens are overpriced as well. Likely just the economy of scale. Way more kitchen ovens get made than rod ovens.

MinnesotaDave wrote:Just remember that "drying" 7018 rods is 650 to 750°F.

The chemical bond must be broken, it's not really drying in the standard sense.

Longer periods at lower temperatures is not equivalent according to Lincoln.

I always thought rod ovens are overpriced as well. Likely just the economy of scale. Way more kitchen ovens get made than rod ovens.

Fair enough, I didn't know they required that much heat. Learn something new every day. I've seen guys pulling the rods out of the ovens by hand, you know sorta flick their finger in and drag one out quick... so I figured they were relatively low temp.

Keeping them dry takes much less heat that actually trying to "dry" them once they've been out of an oven for a certain time. Is how i was told anyways.

I've ran some fairly old 7018s, but never had near the problems you're describing. But that don't mean it won't happen im sure!

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BugHunter wrote:

MinnesotaDave wrote:Just remember that "drying" 7018 rods is 650 to 750°F.

The chemical bond must be broken, it's not really drying in the standard sense.

Longer periods at lower temperatures is not equivalent according to Lincoln.

I always thought rod ovens are overpriced as well. Likely just the economy of scale. Way more kitchen ovens get made than rod ovens.

Fair enough, I didn't know they required that much heat. Learn something new every day. I've seen guys pulling the rods out of the ovens by hand, you know sorta flick their finger in and drag one out quick... so I figured they were relatively low temp.

For just storage, only about 225 - 250 °F.

That's for taking them out of a sealed can and putting them in soon after.

I'll have to give that a try someday when things slow down. I rarely, and I mean really rarely stick weld. I've got old 7018s here I could throw in the heat treat oven and in 10 min they'd be up to 750. Might be fun to try with oven rods and old sit'n out rods, side by side.

Cabinet insulation is thicker on a rod oven as well as overall construction. Designed to hold the weight.