(Re)starting to learn stick - which rod?

[dex3361]

Here is a good cross reference for rods attached as a PDF.

 

[Highbeam]

Just burn some rods. What's the worst that could happen?

 

[dex3361]

Just burn some rods. What's the worst that could happen?

They would stick

 

[Hooked_on_HP]

I have always heard the saying that it should sound like bacon cooking. Either I am cooking my bacon wrong or I am welding wrong because they don't sound a bit alike. If you are welding flat 6013 or 7014 will be fine. 7018 if you are going verticle
Bill

 

[gauthier]

Bill,,Believe that old saying is for mig,,what rods would you chose for horazontal and over head???

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

That saying is for stick as well. I have found comparisons to either eggs or bacon frying in everything from old military welding manuals to modern class textbooks. The idea is to have a regular defined, but soft crackle to the arc. Modern migs tend to have more of a whine like a bee than crackle like bacon.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Learn on 6011. Once you can make a nice smooth bead with them you are doing pretty good. They are fairly easy to start an arc and make a bead with, pretty tough to make a 'nice' looking bead with. Once you master that move on to 7018. For 7018's your metal has to be clean, you have to have good, fresh (dry) rods, and you have to use the proper technique to prevent slag inclusions or porosity.They are probably one of the toughest rods to use properly, but once you figure them out they will be your favorite for most all fabrication projects (they are also amongst the strongest.) The only time I use 6013 is for light welding that requires shallow penetration, I never have found a need for 7014.

 

[gauthier]

Well,guess it depends on if your frying your bacon real hot or not so hot
I like jowel meat,its kinda like bacon,I believe it sounds more like a stick?

Now I have heard some migs sound like kinda a cross tween ripping paper and popcorn..

 

[easygo]

Last year I picked up a bunch of 7018, 7014, 6013 and 6011 rods at a yard sale for a fraction of the store cost. I dried out a handful of the 7018's and they ran fine. I ended up welding up a trailer using the 7014 for tacking as they are very easy to restart as opposed to the 7018 that requires a file to clean the glassy looking slag from the tip of the electrode. I finished welding the trailer with 7018 and used 6011 where I could not get a nice clean surface prepped.

I just tacked on the tail light holder brackets as I was not sure if I determined the final place for them yet. Recently I hauled a very green pine log for a friend that was about 16' long and 20" diameter on the small end. When we unloaded the log there was no option but to roll it off the tail light holder. I said let's do it the worst that can happen is that the bracket will brake and it will take me about 5 minutes to re-weld. It turned out that the bracket that I tacked on three points held quite well and we only broke one of them and I still had a road legal trailer on the way home. I was shocked how much weight that next to no weld held. As I said it was done with the low penetrating 7014 just to see if the light position is right.

edit: I'm sure the other two spots are severely weakened so I will just stitch the brackets on there for good.

I guess what I was trying to say that a reasonably done weld can hold quite a lot regardless of the electrode. I'm by no means a professional and could not even scratch the surface of doing code quality work, but my weds held so far and I have lots of fun doing it. Here is a pic of a 7018 horizontal weld. I mean it was done on a vertical surface in a horizontal direction. What do you call that?
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...55911-did-you-ever-see-one-7018-dcep-weld.jpg

 

[gauthier]

You must be left handed[or picture is left handed],don't look bad,you call that a horazontal weld made on a vertical surface