7018 rods question

Should be fine on your "tombstone" welder. It's plugged into 220 VAC and is a "real" welder from that point of view. The "small" welders in question are 110V supply buzzboxes, which lack sufficient open current voltage for proper operation, if I recall the reason correctly.

The ideal rod depends, as usual, on what you are doing. If you need

With your welding experience, I would just use any rod. Any polarity. Any size. Results will be the same.

Steve

Cold Dude...really cold...

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

I agree Steve's response might not be the best encouragement to a newcomer to welding, but stryped is talking about building a trailer, presumably to be used on the public roads.

His skill level doesn't appear to be anywhere near adequate to attempt that project. It's not only his life, health, or safety that are at stake.

Steve's reply might be cold, but it's accurate at this time. stryped would be far better off buying a trailer. For that matter, so would I.

Most all of my experience is short welds on small stock, wheelchair and mobility aids parts where I _have_ to practice a few beads before I even start on the workpiece because there's no room or material to mess up and do over. I've never had one of my welds fail, but I'd know just enough to be dangerous, building a trailer.

A man's gotta know his limitations. :)

_Then_ he can to learn to extend them.

Not sure about the optimum, but I have used 7018 3/32 with a 225 AC Lincoln a lot. Seem to get good results. However, most any rod seems easier to run on AC than 7018. That might be the only reason Lincoln doesn't recommend it.

True enough. Indeed.

Gunner

Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.

Thank you ever so much. I have not really decided whether stryped is an actual welder or a troll. The questions he has asked have been all over the map, but then, I must confess to the same thing. So, I'm still not sure where the man's coming from. If he's for real, he just needs to spend a couple of thousand hours on the issue like the rest of us, and I'm willing to help him. If he's a troll, then he's just a troll.

The way the questions keep coming from all different directions, it makes me lean towards a troll. At first, I thought Iggy was a troll. Iggy has undertaken some wild projects and asked some wild questions, but has always followed up with results and pictures and evidence that he's out there doing the deed. Now, I know Iggy's a guy I'd be pleased to work beside and call friend. Iggy's real because he's had some successes and some flops, like all of us.

I'm waiting for stryped's equivalent.

Steve

Thank you. I do have a trollish streak in me. But as you noted, I actually do stuff and sometimes even learn something useful. I would be honored to have you as my friend. I wish you lived nearby.

I share your confusion, and further am reluctant to facilitate his current project which is so obviously beyond his ability, experience and skill set and will be used to haul heavy and potentially dangerous goods on public roads exposing innocent third parties to unnecessary risk of injury or death.

Just my .02, I wish him luck.

The weld photos that were referenced were documented as taken in 2003 -FWIW. Would seem to be a troll.

m...

Theweld photos say 2003 because i did not set the calander in my camera.

Trust me, I am not a troll, I just have alot of questions. I am trying to learn, I have wleded on other projects. I posted some of my welds. I know I need work. I am not sure if I will ever build the thing, I am just looking for advice. I may partially weld it up then take it to a local shop and have them weld it the rest of the way.

On Apr 30, 11:47=A0am, stryped wrote: =2E..

If a high school or voc-tech near you teaches welding, ask about evening classes.

I was thinking of doing same. I have some welding experience, but very little. Has anyone tried those schools?

We have a community college nearby that is very good and very cheap.

You want to know if any of us has ever taken a welding class at a CC? I sure have. Ernie used to teach at South Seattle Community College (for like 12 years) and I took a couple of quarters there. Got my welding cert too.

Grant

I took one machining and 3 welding night classes at local high schools. They let me concentrate on MIG one term, aluminum TIG the second and 7018 the third. Professional weldors taught the courses with help from the regular staff. As the school had only one working TIG machine I brought mine in each night, using the pickup truck crane to unload and load it. Much of the equipment had suffered from student handling and low budgets. YMMV, but I'd bring at least a helmet and gloves.

Jim Wilkins

Why does everyone think 7018 is so hard to run? Other than being a bit of a pain to start it's dead easy to get beautiful welds with it. Just the other day welded up a busted spring shank with it and so far is holding up quite well.

Just curious what the difficulty supposedly is?

JW

That's mostly the issue. It also requires a decent power supply to run it well, and it doesn't like being damp. It's not that it's really hard to run, just that there are some other rods that are really easy to run, and work well with an inexpensive AC supply.

Just my observations.

Pete

You're probably running 7018 on DC. His AC-only buzzbox might have a hard time with it, however he could use 7018-AC.

GWE

Could be then. I guess I have never really tried to run it on AC.

Yes I was on DC. Somewhere around 130A (paint has long since worn off the dial..., just crank it till it runs well) On an old Lincoln. Dad's welder actually. I have one of those new fangled multiprocess machines, that I love, but his was closer at the moment of need.

JW