Welding Rods for beginners

[MinnesotaDaveChalmers]

7014 and 6011 are two of the best rods to have around, 7014 is a strong rod, great for tacking, welding on clean-ish steel. 6011 is a good rod to have for welding over crap, rust etc, and best for filling gaps, it can weld down beads or up, also good for cutting steel if no torch. When my last stick welder burnt up I was in the mist of trying to find out what's the difference between 6010 and 6011 rods, what little I used 6010, I didn't notice much difference, when I buy another stick machine I'll re-test the two.

Now a ? for the welder extraordinaire on here, what do the numbers mean in 6011 and 7014 or which number means All Position?

The second to last being a "1" is all position (but not necessarily vertical down)
A "2" in that position is flat/horizontal only, such as a 7024.

This chart from AWS may be helpful as well:

 

[Whatswrong]

I guess everyone develops their own comfort zone ,I don't find 7014 any more all position than 7024 but I like plenty of heat for penetration ,maybe if I went a lot colder it would be different . I use 7014 almost always and go out of my way to get in a horizontal position .
Back to the original post as I said in the "farm weld thread ",practice ,practice , practice . I'm soon 70 ,shake a bit and poorer vision make it testing. You will get the knack of it .

 

[daugen]

I lined up my practice pieces ready to go, been sidetracked on a big delivery of trees to be planted.
Plus it just recently warmed up enough. I hope to be practice welding next week. Thanks for all advice.

 

[Pixguy]

I lined up my practice pieces ready to go, been sidetracked on a big delivery of trees to be planted. Plus it just recently warmed up enough. I hope to be practice welding next week. Thanks for all advice.

Good luck Drew, I'm starting about the same time as you but all I've done 90% of the time is stick my rod to the steel using both 6011 & 7018. It may be my weak 80a welder or my bad skills....

 

[bigtiller]

I gave up trying to start 6011. Now I tack everything with 7014 then weld with 6011. I just bought an auto darkening hood, I'm hoping will reduce my stuck starts also.

 

[PJSprog]

I lined up my practice pieces ready to go, been sidetracked on a big delivery of trees to be planted.
Plus it just recently warmed up enough. I hope to be practice welding next week. Thanks for all advice.

I've been gathering scrap pieces at work, and need to bring them home for practice as well. Working for a tube fabrication company has been very beneficial for this new learning process. Not to mention the two dozen welders we have on staff whose brains I get to pick. Taking full advantage of that, I am.

 

[spursjingles]

7014 is best. 6013 I call candle wax. Great for sheetmetal due to low amps

 

[stihlman]

I would also suggest using 7014 to get the feel of starting the arc and getting used to holding correct arc length and travel speed. It is a forgiving rod for beginners and is a good rod to have around, better than 6013 IMHO. Then move on to 6010 or 6011 and learn the aggressive nature of these high penetration rods. If you can make good welds with these the 7018 will be no problem. Good luck and have fun

 

[Oldpath05]

Before I had mig, I tack all my stuff with 3/32 7014, just lay it on the work and it starts. Then I went to 1/8 or 3/16 7014, it's not a penetrating rod but still makes a strong/fast low spatter weld.

 

[daugen]

finished a lot of the grunt work cleaning up my mower deck. I am left with about half a dozen one to three inch long cracks in the deck top
similar to this pic. In some cases a heavy reinforcing steel plate goes on top so I suppose I don't have to fix the cracks underneath but...

so...on a crack like this, suggestions? I ground the metal down around the cracks but still a dirty area, rust inside no matter what how much I clean the top.
I figured I would just run a bead down the length of the crack. Anything more complicated than that???

fun pic of the metal shavings when I was done cutting.