Electrode moisture

Is there a way to get you to use Google before posting here every trivial question that pops into your brain?

stryped fired this volley in news:d1d97e66-554c-49f0- snipped-for-privacy@z8g2000yqz.googlegroups.com:

Is there a way you'll ever be self-sufficient in the EASY things? Did you try welding with it? Did it work well? (well... THAT was a useless question -- you wouldn't know if it did or not).

LLoyd

The traditional way to determine moisture content is to weigh the item. Then heat the item to about 250 degrees for an hour or so. Then reweigh the item. The reduction in weight will be because the water has been driven out of the item.

=20 Dan

Is there any way he could build a scale accurate enough to weigh the? Why?

cavedweller fired this volley in news:533a8fc7- snipped-for-privacy@z8g2000yqz.googlegroups.com:

First of all, the method recommended doesn't even come close to assaying the percentage of moisture contained in the flux. It measures the amount of moisture lost from drying, yes. But when you compare that against the total weight of the rods, it's an almost meaninglessly small percentage. The wire doesn't absorb moisture, only the flux coating. In addition, some coatings (like iron particle or iron oxide-based fluxes) absorb water and oxygen, and permanently bind them up in the form of corrosion of the particles -- so the method won't work for them, at all.

Wet-weight/Dry-weight comparisons are only accurate for materials not sullied by an extreme offset in weight of some more dense component.

You could weigh a wet then dry bag of (say) cornmeal and determine the percentage of moisture. But you couldn't weigh a semi with ten bags of wet cornmeal of unknown weight, then dry them and weigh the whole rig again and come up with anything meaningful.

So... with welding rods... the ONLY way to know how much moisture they have in them is to KEEP them dry at all times in a rod oven, and not ever allow them to absorb moisture -- or you may ruin them permanently.

LLoyd

I was not seriously recommending that he actually measure the moisture content. If he did the next question would be how much moisture makes them unusable. And that of course depends on whether he is welding high strength steel where hydrogen is a problem. He never did say what kind of electrode he was concerned about or what he was thinking of welding.

But if you want the moisture content, weighing , heating, and reweighing would be the first thing I would try.

Dan

Errr, Lloyd, I believe you missed my feeble attempt at sarcasm. It just seemed he'd want to know how to weigh the stuff, and how to do the calculation, and on, and on........:)

Sure, but who cares. You know that the 60 series can have moisture and the 70 series usually can't so bake the 70 series. I've been on jobs where the owner inspected and made sure that your rods were actually hot from the oven, a little overboard I thought but it was his job after all.

Why worry, just bake them.

Just like not welding on wet pipe. It is usually considered a no-no and I don't care. If it is the monsoon season I'll gladly supply tents and Ace-Oxy rigs to dry it out and charge an appropriate fee of course.

Cheers,

John D. Slocomb (jdslocombatgmail)

cavedweller fired this volley in news:d50de336- snipped-for-privacy@z10g2000yqb.googlegroups.com:

OK... Uncle! I see too many people seriously trying to help Stryped solve problems an 8-year-old could solve un-aided. I drew my gun too fast.

LLoyd