Would I be wrong to use 6013 over 7018 on this?

[BrooklynBravest]

Looks good.

Break the tip off in your gloved palm.

As in just crack the flux off?

[12345678910]

Had a motivated bunch working today. The guys chipped in helping to cut the pieces up.

Unfortunately a few poor cuts I had to spend time fixing but overall got it together.

Side note, whats the best move for relighting an electrode? I'm using 7018 now not 7018AC and it sure likes to stick more. The first strike works fine, its going in again. Tried scraping some flux off etc it just seems stubborn to relight. Eventually it goes with some tapping and scraping.

Plasma cutting the feet for the tower tomorrow out of 3/8 plate.

I keep a brick on the bench.

A solid tap or two on the brick, the glass flux on the tips breaks.
That's not true. I tap three times, always three.


Sticking ? Up the amperage five or ten.


Were your rods tennis can sealed ?
If not read the package inserts
600 F degree bake to dry, then keep in a sealed rod tube with silica dry inserts.

I use a toaster oven as a rod oven.

There is a noticeable difference on rods that are properly predryed and warmed.
Easier start, less spatter, less porosity,

[12V71]

As in just crack the flux off?

He's talking about wiping the dot of melted flux off the end of the wire while its hot. It works sometimes. Me, I just give it a hard tap on the work unless it's pipe work where you can't leave turkey tracks.

[tapwelder]

Yeah. A twist in your glove breaks the flux.

[farmersammm]

While I was practicing yesterday, I ran some 7018AC. Mainly to show that, if you get some porosity, it's not that you're necessarily doing something wrong. These rods tend towards surface porosity.

I'm at 135amps AC, running maybe a Lincoln rod. I was just grabbing rods, and didn't pay attention to the manufacturer, but by the looks of the markings, it is a Lincoln rod.



You can see little bits of porosity through the length of the weld. I'd wager a grindout would show that the porosity does not extend beyond the surface of the weld. This is with the rod jammed into the metal so tight, that you can feel the flux scraping. These rods have changed over the years I'm thinking. They used to run pretty sweet.

Just thought I'd throw it up there so that people don't feel too bad when someone tells them they're long arcing, or some other thing, and this is the reason they're getting porosity. These things don't run like the DC variety.

[Willie B]

It's been at least twenty years since I tried 7018 on AC. I blamed myself it wasn't a perfect weld.

[BrooklynBravest]

The forney 7018 NON ac i picked up burn MUCH better than the lincoln 7018 AC. No porosity issues. (both welded on DC)

[smithdoor]

You find slight difference in makers of rod.
I the worst rod I used was in early 1970's.
We had rod shortage so suppliers had Japanese rod about the same as E7014 , ok not the same got job done.

Today I can use any rod with test pass first-time.

Dave

The forney 7018 NON ac i picked up burn MUCH better than the lincoln 7018 AC. No porosity issues. (both welded on DC)

[BrooklynBravest]

3/8” Feet ready to weld on Monday.

Putting 3/4” Hilti wedge anchors into the slab. Somewhere 5000-9000 lb load each

[smithdoor]

DATA
https://www.thruway.ny.gov/business/.../appendixf.pdf

The wire and rod I used was E71-T1 and E7018.
In the PDF it shows 4 types I only 2 types.
This was to reduced my inventory.

You find after the North Ridge earthquake that made more laws for welders to follow. The state discovered shops where not following the AWS and other standards.

The good news for my shop as I did follow all the AWS rules and used the correct wire and rod

Dave

[Welder Dave]

I keep a brick on the bench.

A solid tap or two on the brick, the glass flux on the tips breaks.
That's not true. I tap three times, always three.


Sticking ? Up the amperage five or ten.


Were your rods tennis can sealed ?
If not read the package inserts
600 F degree bake to dry, then keep in a sealed rod tube with silica dry inserts.

I use a toaster oven as a rod oven.

There is a noticeable difference on rods that are properly predryed and warmed.
Easier start, less spatter, less porosity,

New rods don't need a 600* rebake. Rebake is only required if the rods have been out for a long time and are used on critical work. Vessel shops usually have the ovens in the 250 deg. range. Some real critical work will call for portable rod ovens at the site so rods come directly from the oven to the stinger. Rods out of the oven are generally good for up to 4 hours in a shop environment. I think most would just get new rods unless it was a large quantity that got wet. Any decent 7018 will come in hermetically sealed packaging. 95% of general welding won't require a rod oven and is on mild steel. Here's a good right up from Lincoln.

https://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-a...es-detail.aspx

[BrooklynBravest]

Few hours of jackhammering and we struck land. Now we just have to dig it, tower welding on hold until there’s somewhere to put it. Had to pull the truck

[Sberry]

You find after the North Ridge earthquake that made more laws for welders to follow. The state discovered shops where not following the AWS and other standards.

I heard there was an incident around here with a dick lick local contractor welded a column short circuit to a base plate and it fell over. I am not really sure of the details.

[smithdoor]

I take it was mig (short circuit)
In construction they do not like solid wire welding.

Dave

I heard there was an incident around here with a dick lick local contractor welded a column short circuit to a base plate and it fell over. I am not really sure of the details.

[BrooklynBravest]

Feet are on.
3 passes on each weld. 3/8” plate to 3/8” iron.

I’d like to say I’m prouder of the welds but i had some issues with the rods dying out during the weld, it wasn’t amps related.

I kept spinning it to be in position obviously.

That vertical edge too i have to improve my undercut on, i ended up dropping 10 amps and using a real low rod angle which helped but not 100%

Pay no mind to the dead body.

[Ruark]

7018. As you can see, it was previously welded with 6010/6011. I can't believe they didn't weld the vertical joint, so be sure and cover that as well. Be sure and clean the metal first with an angle grinder and knotted wire wheel. If for some reason you don't want to clean it, just use freaking 6011.

Contrary to popular belief (and there are a lot of popular beliefs in welding), you don't have to scrape the bb off the end of a 7018 rod with a file or brick or whatever to relight it. What you do is lightly tap the rod against something the INSTANT you stop running a bead, while the rod tip is still molten. Just tap it, don't slam it and throw molten metal halfway to China. The molten tip will fall completely off. If there's a little flux sticking out over it, you can easily crumble it with your glove, and you're good to go.

[whtbaron]

Yea... not gonna ask about the Crash Test Dumbie... they haven't recorded much lately...

[smithdoor]

There on strick for better working conditions.

Dave

Yea... not gonna ask about the Crash Test Dumbie... they haven't recorded much lately...

[Sberry]

Thats funny.

[BrooklynBravest]

Hopefully we get some concrete next week after the holiday is over.

Built this structure that will go on the top deck. This will be the high point for rigging our ropes which would often be the basket of fire truck or something structural on a building. The hand rail is acting as a gusset for the post but I think the base needs a stringback of some kind because its angle iron not tube. I will likely sister it up to the piece of angle below it.

The pipe is 1/4 x 4" its an old fence post. Shaved off the galvanizing to weld it and perform grinder notching surgery. Had to use saw horses and a level to get everything parallel worked out great. Welded 3 passes with 7018.

[Sberry]

Fif it better than some of us would, would have been a 1 pass weld if I did it.

[smithdoor]

I would not try that in one pass in field.
Also I found heavy one pass welds likes to warp.

Dave

Fif it better than some of us would, would have been a 1 pass weld if I did it.

[Sberry]

It wouldnt be a "try". I would run a big ole fat bead around it. 4 rods to the joint.

[BrooklynBravest]

I would not try that in one pass in field.
Also I found heavy one pass welds likes to warp.

Dave

One pass didnt seem like enough. I did two and then a weave to make it pretty for the most part.

The end cap is one pass since it isn't load bearing, the large plate is just to stop a sling from being able to slide off the end.

[smithdoor]

I agree
Looks great too

Dave

One pass didnt seem like enough. I did two and then a weave to make it pretty for the most part.

The end cap is one pass since it isn't load bearing, the large plate is just to stop a sling from being able to slide off the end.