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7018's forgot how good

Hi all Worked at a dry dock on a Dutch type barge. Hull plating - finishing a "Y" intersection of the overplating, under the barge presenting overhead with the barge on blocks. Switched to 7018's Bohler "EV50"'s - 3.2mm - ran at just under 140A to

140A ish. ie. top of recommended range. 2~1/2years since last used 7018's. Forgot how "nice" they are. Clean arc - could see so clearly. Lovely "fingernail" weld pool. Smooth stringering. Weld absolutely wanting to be done. Was able to stringer up to, in to and out of the intersection always with a constant ideally fluid weld pool. Weld I left in view delightfully smooth. Was smooth and placed exactly where I wanted it through the about 3 layers build-up too. I was left at a loss to understand why others had used 6013 wide-weave...?

I always remember the advice from late contributor here - 6013/Rutiles run-out at the rod length; 7018/Basics run-out at half the rod length. ie. you do half the weld length but twice the cross-sectional-area. Can result in different rod sizes for Rutiles and for Basics. I'd have felt the Rutiles had a fairer trial if I'd run big-dia. 6013's at high Amps to get the fluidity matching the plate thickness. But the

7018's - the so natural way they flow-in for heavy steel jobs...!

Anyone comment?

Reply to
Richard Smith
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2~1/2years since last used 7018's. Forgot how "nice" they are.

Anyone comment?

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In night class I was steered to 7018 after brief practice with the dirty-metal 'farmer' rods, perhaps because they knew I owned and would use an angle grinder for prep. The first instructor was experienced and certified on nuclear piping, the second on bridges. Eventually I could make a single pass 3/16" butt weld that could be folded double without cracking, and was judged ready to build my projects from square tubing. They were small enough to suspend and rotate to keep the welds horizontal.

I felt that 7014 was almost as nice and didn't have the hermetic storage requirement. I tried 7018 that had been left out and instantly found the reason for keeping it dry -- the coating exploded.

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Hydrogen embrittlement maybe? If its stored for an extended period after opening. I don't do much stick welding so I don't do a lot to protect my 7018. I have a few shop made PVC pipe tubes I store rod in to protect it from the worst of the environment. Then when its time to work I've got a toaster oven in the shop where I will dry a few rods before a project where I need them. I mostly use the oven for powder coating small items, but its handy for a variety of things. Its decent for tempering springs as well.

I don't know. Is 6013 subject to the same environmental issues? I really only remember people howling on about it with 7018.

My big liking for 7018 came on a trailer conversion project some years back turning a boat trailer into a flat bed trailer for hauling an electric scissor lift. We switched back and forth between using 7018 with a basic AC Lincoln cracker box, and using flux core wire with a Harbor Freight shit box. The fellow helping me insisted that 7018 was only intended for DC, but the box I bought was labeled E7018 and was marked AC/DC. It ran as well as anything with that old cracker box. It wasn't until years later that I found out that 7018 is pretty much all AC/DC. It didn't need a special version like E7018 or 7018AC. I have seen 7018 with both of those labels.

I sold the scissor lift 5-6 years ago. I still use the trailer.

I do admit I like the way it welds with DC so much better though. My first good looking welds were with an old gas powered Hobart DC welder my dad had. It made welding seem easy. Those were also my last good looking welds for a very very long time. LOL.

Reply to
Bob La Londe

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