Shield Arc
Super Member
The rail car place locally has "disallowed" 6010 now, and they must do 7018 all the way out. I have found a lot of strange standards lately with this. They have cited "insurance" won't allow anything weaker than the strongest rod. Other customers have told me some strange stuff as well. But as far as I know it's still 6010/6011 root, and 7018 the rest of the way, ...What I may do, is do tig root, 7018 pass and cap, since my material may be limited.
Mark it's been ages since I did any 7018 open root welding. So this morning I grabbed some 4-inch sch 80 pipe. Placed a 1/16-inch land, and used a 5/64-inch drill bit for the gap. 3/32-inch 7018, DCEN at 60-amps. 5-G uphill. My tacks have a lot more reenforcement than the weld. Maybe because I make the tacks in the flat position, and gravity is helping more than it should.
The last picture is a 6-G I did years ago.