Blue Demon 7018?

[metalmelter2021]

Anyone with exprience using Blue Demon 7018 rods? The rods I’ve used to date are either Hobart or Lincoln. I’m stocking up on rods for my upcoming welding classes, so I can practice at home. Any difference in the amperage or the way they burn from other brands I’ve mentioned?

[Oscar]

I have or had a 5lb pack of 3/32". I haven't ran them in a while, but from what I remember the slag was just a little bit harder to remove compared to say Lincoln Excalibur. I'll double check when I get home later today. I meant to do a comparison between those and the other brand 7018s I have, but I never got around to it.

[BillE.Dee]

I grabbed some hobart 7018 for a quick finish of a job I did. Had some trouble removing slag. IF this helps.

[smithdoor]

When buying a lot of E7018 I purchased whatever was best price.
I like Hobart but most it was to high of price.
I did find using different in E7018 rods They all work a little different from brand to brand.

Today I use Blue Demon E71T-11 fluxcore and I like wire.
But even Fluxcore I found a little different from brand to brand.

Some here only use Lincoln rods but they work by hour.
All my work was QUOTE so I was always looking for best price for greater profit.

If not doing a lot of rod burning get the rod you enjoy.

Dave

Anyone with exprience using Blue Demon 7018 rods? The rods I’ve used to date are either Hobart or Lincoln. I’m stocking up on rods for my upcoming welding classes, so I can practice at home. Any difference in the amperage or the way they burn from other brands I’ve mentioned?

[Freebirdwelds]

I bought 500lbs of them a couple years back, they are a good rod. Slag doesn't like to come off as Oscar said. But I can buy Lincoln rods that are just as good but substantially cheaper. Even by the hour contractors watch cost.

I use 7018 with a H4R designation.

Blue Demon, Esab Atom Arc and Lincoln is all I run. Lincoln is my preferred and go to because of quality and cost.

Lincolns Buy America Campaign is the cheapest and best quality money can buy.

[Freebirdwelds]

Some here only use Lincoln rods but they work by hour.

Dave

By the hour people like to save money too, money saved is money earned. And then you have the obligation to avoid liability and give the client a good quality product for the money they are paying you. I'm not charging what I charge and then pull out Hobart or Harbor Freight rod. I might as well slap my clients across the face and fuk their wives.

[Welder Dave]

What rods does the school you're going to use? There can be differences between brands so it might be a good idea to use the same rods the school uses. I don't know about where you're at but the tech. schools here use the best rods on the market which are also the most common. Not the cheapest but what the large majority of shops use because of the high operator appeal. Unfortunately I don't think Blueshield rods are available in the US. Esab Atom Arc or OK55 (if you can get them) are pretty nice to run and clean up. Lincoln and Hobart aren't too popular except in the box stores. Welding supplies usually have better prices too because they sell a lot more.

[metalmelter2021]

What rods does the school you're going to use? There can be differences between brands so it might be a good idea to use the same rods the school uses. I don't know about where you're at but the tech. schools here use the best rods on the market which are also the most common. Not the cheapest but what the large majority of shops use because of the high operator appeal. Unfortunately I don't think Blueshield rods are available in the US. Esab Atom Arc or OK55 (if you can get them) are pretty nice to run and clean up. Lincoln and Hobart aren't too popular except in the box stores. Welding supplies usually have better prices too because they sell a lot more.

No idea what the school uses. Class begins on 8/10.

[Welder Dave]

Call them up and ask or go by there.

[12V71]

By the hour people like to save money too, money saved is money earned. And then you have the obligation to avoid liability and give the client a good quality product for the money they are paying you. I'm not charging what I charge and then pull out Hobart or Harbor Freight rod. I might as well slap my clients across the face and fuk their wives.

Really? I used to like the Hobart 7018 that made the light brown slag with the cream colored streaks for heavy equipment work. Haven't run any for a few years but I don't remember real problems removing slag. It seemed to be really good for uphill and overhead, using higher than normal settings. And it all stayed together.
That's just my experience. Used a lot of Excaliber for uphill pipe work and like the way it runs but hate the fragile coating. Seems like 5-10% of the box is junk when you open it.

[Freebirdwelds]

Really? I used to like the Hobart 7018 that made the light brown slag with the cream colored streaks for heavy equipment work. Haven't run any for a few years but I don't remember real problems removing slag. It seemed to be really good for uphill and overhead, using higher than normal settings. And it all stayed together.
That's just my experience. Used a lot of Excaliber for uphill pipe work and like the way it runs but hate the fragile coating. Seems like 5-10% of the box is junk when you open it.

Hobart cost too much for what it is and yeah the slag comes off good. Half the rod I burn is Excalibur (with H4R designation) and I personally never had that problem. Keeping 100+lbs of rod on the truck is hard enough. I've had people tell me to buy cheap rod for cheap projects, but then it's a pain to keep it all separated and so forth. So I keep it easy for me. No I will pay more for rod and buy Esab or Blue Demon if that's all I can get cause well I'm useless without rod.

[Freebirdwelds]

This is some of the best rod and wire I have ever run. I wish it was all I ever used. But take a look at the prices.............

https://rockmountwelding.com/product...=arc-rods-smaw

https://rockmountwelding.com/product...ng-wear-plates

[smithdoor]

I should not did a blanket Statement sorry.

Dave

By the hour people like to save money too, money saved is money earned. And then you have the obligation to avoid liability and give the client a good quality product for the money they are paying you. I'm not charging what I charge and then pull out Hobart or Harbor Freight rod. I might as well slap my clients across the face and fuk their wives.

[SlowBlues]

LOL I'd rather see someone pull out hobart than blue demon, but that could just be me.

[52 Ford]

LOL I'd rather see someone pull out hobart than blue demon, but that could just be me.

Are you implying Hobart rods are bad? I like them just fine. Got about 100lbs in the shop 6010, 6011, and 7018-H4R mostly. I think I bought 10lbs of 6013 a few weeks ago for a project. Saves me driving an extra hour or more (into the city - gross) to get other brands. I never have tried ordering rods...

Sent from my Lincoln Buzzbox using Tapatalk

[Oscar]

I found my 5lb box of Blue Demon 7018s, but I actually had both the Blue Demon and the Lincoln Excalibur in the rod oven already.

• All in all, the Blue Demon's slag was just a little bit harder to chip away, but not by any significant margin.
• The Lincoln Excalibur that I ran 2nd got a little weird at the end where I got some large spatter BB's, but I don't think it was arc blow seeing as how I was only running 95A. I probably extended the arc a little bit and didn't realize it, since the beginning ran great.
• The puddle is a teensy weensy bit less discernible with the Blue Demon, but not by a lot. Still a good clear distinction between the slag and puddle, but the Excalibur had a visibly better puddle. With maybe 3-5 more amps, the Blue Demon's would have probably helped.

If you're just going to stock up on rod for practicing, don't pay more than $3/lb. Check your LWS to see what they have, otherwise look on Ebay. I bought some Mundaka 3/32" 7018s and they run just like the Blue Demon's, but much cheaper. You can get 44lbs of 3/32" E7018s for $97 shipped. That's $2.20/lb. For practice or non-critical work, they're the ticket, unless you want to pay more, lol.

[52 Ford]

I found my 5lb box of Blue Demon 7018s, but I actually had both the Blue Demon and the Lincoln Excalibur in the rod oven already.

• All in all, the Blue Demon's slag was just a little bit harder to chip away, but not by any significant margin.
• The Lincoln Excalibur that I ran 2nd got a little weird at the end where I got some large spatter BB's, but I don't think it was arc blow seeing as how I was only running 95A. I probably extended the arc a little bit and didn't realize it, since the beginning ran great.
• The puddle is a teensy weensy bit less discernible with the Blue Demon, but not by a lot. Still a good clear distinction between the slag and puddle, but the Excalibur had a visibly better puddle. With maybe 3-5 more amps, the Blue Demon's would have probably helped.

If you're just going to stock up on rod for practicing, don't pay more than $3/lb. Check your LWS to see what they have, otherwise look on Ebay. I bought some Mundaka 3/32" 7018s and they run just like the Blue Demon's, but much cheaper. You can get 44lbs of 3/32" E7018s for $97 shipped. That's $2.20/lb. For practice or non-critical work, they're the ticket, unless you want to pay more, lol.

Just going off the welds, looks like they both get the job done just fine.

I reckon the biggest difference between the two is going to be how easy the flux comes off.

Sent from my Lincoln Buzzbox using Tapatalk

[metalmelter2021]

Oscar, I much appreciate you doing that little test run on your 7018’s for me. A picture is worth a thousand words. I think your guess that adding a few amps would have made the Blue Demon run well is correct. I will try it with 98-100 amps, and see how they do. 10 lbs. showed up yesterday afternoon by UPS. They’re 5/32, so I might have to go up to 105 amps.

[Freebirdwelds]

Oscar, I much appreciate you doing that little test run on your 7018’s for me. A picture is worth a thousand words. I think your guess that adding a few amps would have made the Blue Demon run well is correct. I will try it with 98-100 amps, and see how they do. 10 lbs. showed up yesterday afternoon by UPS. They’re 5/32, so I might have to go up to 105 amps.

5/32 7018 rod runs @ 150 to 220 amps.

[albrightree]

105 amps is even a bit low for 1/8" or a little hot for 3/32" must be a typo.

I've run the blue demon and thought it was fine, not that much different from lincoln or hobart. I'm always using different machines, with different 7018's so I'm always adjusting the machine to work with the situation. I also use US Forge (Messers) often, it doesn't seem to crumble after being stored unheated for a long time. I just buy small amounts of 7018 to use for a specific job if it need to be fresh, and the rest will sit for a while until I use it up. I don't have a rod oven, and don't do enough work to justify it. Although, with all the humidity, I should replace the light bulb in the broken wine chiller that I use for rod storage. Now it is common to see smaller quantities sold , 1lb spools, and 1lb boxes of rod. I haven't had any experience with the ESAB Atom Arc yet but I have heard good things about it. My local Praxair was selling dented 50lb 5/32" atom arc canisters for $100 a few months ago, I passed on them, the can was really dented. I figured the were open already and half of them would be crushed, and I only use about 10lb of 5/32" in a good year.

All the Blue Demon stuff has AWS certs available, and is often American made. They are just a bulk reseller that allows people to buy welding supplies on small quantities. They started in the 1980's when not many people sold rod in less than 50 lb boxes, or 30 lb spools. I used lots of Blue demon products : Dual shield, solid mig wire, stainless wire(308), tig filler, steel alum, stainless, tungstens gold 1/16",3/32", 1/8", and haven't had any problems. Mcmaster-Carr carries a lot of their stuff.

Good luck, post some pics and let us know if you liked them.

[Freebirdwelds]

105 amps is even a bit low for 1/8" or a little hot for 3/32" must be a typo.

True.

[Oscar]

5/32 7018 rod runs @ 150 to 220 amps.

Hopefully it was a typo, lol. 5/32" is almost getting into the territory of big boy stick rods. That reminds me, I need to find me some 7/32" or 1/4" rods to test out my inverter stick welder maxed out to see if I can break it.

[smithdoor]

I look at rods nice price.
I have used other brands of aluminum and stainless but cost very high.

Have every used the aluminum or stainless rods?

Dave

This is some of the best rod and wire I have ever run. I wish it was all I ever used. But take a look at the prices.............

https://rockmountwelding.com/product...=arc-rods-smaw

https://rockmountwelding.com/product...ng-wear-plates

[Freebirdwelds]

Hopefully it was a typo, lol. 5/32" is almost getting into the territory of big boy stick rods. That reminds me, I need to find me some 7/32" or 1/4" rods to test out my inverter stick welder maxed out to see if I can break it.

That's Excalibur 7//32 - 7028 next to a stick of Excalibur 5/32 - 7018 (smaller stick). The 7/32 runs @ 220 - 290 amps, it'll test it for you. lol But the 7/32 - 7018 might just break it.

[Freebirdwelds]

I look at rods nice price.
I have used other brands of aluminum and stainless but cost very high.

Have every used the aluminum or stainless rods?

Dave

Yes..