Welding Electrodes

[Scot Clark]

wondering if HF welding electrodes are any good or not.
E6011, E6013 , E7014 and such for stick welding and gas.

[MicroZone]

From reading other posts on the HF tungstens, I would probably steer away from their consumables. In a pinch I buy the Forney welding stuff at your local ACE Hardware. They've been in the business a long time and their stuff is good quality.

http://www.acehardware.com/search/index.jsp?kwCatId=&kw=forney&origkw=forney&sr=1

[smyrna5]

Nothing like a time delay on the response, but I bought some of the little 1/16" 7014s and they are great. I push em at about 60 amps with my Miller Thunderbolt DCEP. They worked great on 16ga 1" tubing.

[stevinator]

The ones in the square tubes 2# size work ok for me.

[808APP]

The ones in the square tubes 2# size work ok for me.

but the ones in the cardboard box, suck. try northern tool and tractor supply, they both sell Hobart rods in the 5# plastic container. they work pretty good for me.

[weldbead]

all the hobart rod i buy at tractor supply burns good, and cheaper than my lws wants for lincoln rod.

[Scot Clark]

Wow... what a blast from the past! Too funny.
Just last night I actually used some for the first time I got from HF like a year ago
and they did ok. Had to repair my lawn mower deck.

First attempt had amps too high - used a Lincoln 225 Arc.
Blew a hole thru it. Then toned it down and did ok. Not too pretty
but funtional.

Once I get going more at it will take the advice and buy better ones.

Thanks !

[CDG]

To a guy like me, I keep a fair stock of rods around so I prefer to buy from a welding supply. If you know "old Ron" than he'll give you the newest and driest stock he has, and let you inspect the rods for moisture damage before bringing 'em home.

Aside from that, a rod is a rod man. They're all about the same. I'm glad these ones worked out for you. I've found that careful selection of what you buy from Harbor Freight yields some good bargains.

[Rick V]

Hmmm interesting!
I have a small AC welder (modified to output ~90 amps AC) and I was normally using 3/32 Lincoln 7018AC. However, I was doing some welds on 3/16 C channel (boat trailer) and felt I didn't have quite enough amps for the rod. I did some experimenting and tried some 3/32 Hyundi 6011 - not a nice looking weld (frozen chunks look). I tried smaller diameter rod - some 5/64 Lincoln 6013; my welder handled that better and I had a somewhat better (lower profile bead) looking weld with easier restarts too. Then, I tried some 3/32 Forney 6013 - wow, what a smooth running rod! It had a low profile (wetted out) bead that was better that I got with the smaller diameter 5/64th Lincoln 6013. Geez, I like that Forney rod for my welder! Trouble is - I've only seen it in 1 Lb plastic bags; I'd like a 10 Lb box.. Rick V

[farmersamm]

Forney is good stuff. You can get a 50lb. box at my ag supply for around $65. That's some pretty cheap weldin'.

I guess a lot depends on your particular machine, but I found that Lincoln, and Weldmark rods have a tendancy to run cool as you burn down to the end. The Forney seems to stay at the same temp. clear to the stub.

I use their 6013, and 7018AC. They seem to do a really good job.