Drying E7018 and hardfacing welding rod

I did not wait long enough to measure the temperature. The temp rose to 870 degrees.

i

You should not need a high temperature, just enough to evaporate moisture.

You could dry one or two rods to constant weight and then see if a higher temperature decreased their weight.

The fumes from the burning gas contain water vapor.

jsw

This is not true.

The "moisture" in the rod is in chemical combination with the flux. It needs high temperature to break that chemical bond.

i i

I just measured the temperature in the grill again. It is now 930 degrees. Much hotter than I expected.

It is true that burning gas produces water vapor, but at 930 degrees, it should not matter, it is hot enough to release water from the chemical bond on electrode flux.

i

Are you shittin' me - 910F?? My grill never gets over 500 or so, measured by a thermometer that passes through the hood. What are you pointing your thermometer at?

Bob

Be careful. I'd say that fifteen minutes would be enough to get the water out. Longer might affect the ability of the flux to stick to the rod, or the glue holding it on if there is any. And cooling from that temperature could create cracked flux. Just thoughts, I'm not really sure. I knew when you bought all those rods that you were going to have moisture storage issues.

Steve

Remember at that high a temperature the water will change to steam a lot faster than on a slow heat increase, and the steam could pop off the flux or cause cracking.

Steve

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Check this out:

It looks like the flux stayed on the rods. I only heated four or so, just to compare and learn something.

i

Here is what Lincoln Electric recommends (from Stick Electrode Product Catalog):

============================================

One hour at the listed final temperature (for E7018/E7028: 650F-750F) is satisfactory. DO NOT dry electrodes at higher temperatures. Several hours at lower temperatures is not equivalent to using the specified requirements.

Any low hydrogen electrode should be discarded if excessive redrying causes the coating to become fragile and flake or break off while welding, or if there is a noticeable difference in handling or arc characteristics, such as insufficient arc force.

Electrodes to be re-dried should be removed from the can and spread out in the oven because each electrode must reach the drying temperature.

============================================

Jon

Thanks.

OK, so I should be good then, it looks like.

I do not really need that, I will give this 7018 away to someone for welding practice. If I need to weld something and it requires 7018, I would rather use something known good. At $2 a pound, it is not too expensive.

I have a 50 lb oven where I keep welding rod.

But it would be a good thing to learn about.

i

Here's a little update. Better measured at electrodes (and not just pointing the infrared thermometer at the lava stones), the electrodes get heated to 650 degrees inside the grill.

I did some comparisons of welds by dried and undried electrodes.

There is little visible difference with 7018 electrodes, great looking welds at 70 amps in both cases. Just two little tiny voids in a weld with an undried electrode. Might be random. These are Lincoln 7018 H4R electrodes and R stands for moisture resistance. So, perhaps, these rods did not pick up that much moisture in the first place.

I also compared the Stoody 21 hardfacing rods. Here, there is a huge difference and where I had voids surfacing with unbaked hardfacing rods, there are NO voids at all when I used a baked electrode. Just really great results.

I will rebake all my hardfacing rod.

i

Ig, you're a hands-on kind of guy, right? How would you like to do an experiment? Dry a few at 750, and a few at, say, 250 - 300, and see which works best? And, just for us noobs, it might also help to say what happens with moist electrodes. I never knew there was a difference until just a couple of years ago.

Just another sidenote - after they've been dried, how long is it before they absorb moisture again?

Thanks! Rich

7018 that I've stored 5+ years in the basement in these still runs smoothly, without cracking or spitting like stubs that have been outdoors for a day: 'm not welding anything critical with it, just old scrap mild steel. I buy fresh rod to weld major projects.

jsw

I use my heat treating for drying welding rod. The oven has precise temp. control and enough room to spread out the rods. Buy rods in the smallest sealed package that they have .

John

John, for my own rod, I have a rod oven. Actually two, I use the small one as a foot warmer under my desk, in winter. I have my feet on it right now. This questionable rod, I got from a local community college closing.

i

Did you hear the difference too?

John