1/16" welding rod

Sheet metal, boxes, body panels and the like. 6013 is generally considered a thin material rod, gives a nice looking bead with relatively low penetration compared to 6011 or 6010. You should be able to do butt welds on 24 ga material with no problems. Thinner stock may need an overlap.

Try 30 or 35 amps for a start. You want the amperage as low as possible but keep> While visiting Harbor Freight yesterday, I bought some 1/16" 6013

Roy, thank you, this is great.

Set up a test strip of some THIN material (.049" or thinner) Run some 4" beads at various amperages, keep track of the amperages. I've found that these 1/16" rods have a fairly narrow 'sweet spot' that varies with each welder. I've run a bead so cold that it never even attached itself to the base metal, and so hot that the rod turned red and flamed out. Only

Ignoramus21673 wrote:

I was once told that 6013 is the equivalent of an AC 6010 or P5 type rod. Is 6013 an oscillating rod? Or is it a 'dragger' like 7018? . . . thanks.

Iggie,

They pretty well covered it. I bought some of that very rod recently at HF. But have not used it yet.

DC+ at even 25 amps seems to work for me with a Maxstar 140 for 1/16" rod. But I've never yet tried this particular HF rod.

If you attempt to weld metal that's too thick with 1/16" rod, it'll tend to just puddle up but not bond. That's the only situation where I've ever stick welded and didn't get a strong bond. I recently repaired a neighbor's mower deck with 3/32" 6013 rod at about 60 amps.

For pretty thin stuff I generally try 3/32" first. Then, if it burns through I go to the 1/16" rod.

Works for me.

Three main classes of rod

• basic - eg. 7018

• rutile - eg. 6013

• cellulosic - the xx10's and xx11's eg. 6010, 6011

They handle very differently

That is obvious to a beginner if you try all three - it isn't a "subtle difference" we are talking of.

Look up past posts on s.e.j.w. - perhaps using the Google news compilation.

Richard Smith

Sheet metal.

Vernon, thanks, I bought this rod mostly out of curiosity and will give it a try. The price was very attractive (compared to McMaster).