Technical Stick welders, help me out please

This one I have to disagree with. I have built three complete stock car chassis\roll cages, and a T Bucket frame from the ground up with my old Lincoln AC arc welder. Working with .065 to .187” tubing. I found that the 6011 was always difficult to strike an arc without sticking, and that it loves to stick even after you get the arc going. I used 6013 99% of the time. I’ve never had a single weld break on these cars, even after crash testing the race cars plenty of times. You just just have to set the amperage correctly to get adequate penetration, and make multiple passes as needed. AC arc welding is time consuming and not real pretty, but it does get the job done well. On a side note, I have seen mig welds that looked wonderful, but had nearly zero penetration and strength, luckily you can’t do that with an arc welder.

 

Interesting info there. I have tried using 7018 with my AC arc welder, without success. Now I know why.

 

It never hurts to just help a brother out.......

 

We used one on the race cars that was similar, it had a blue coating. We just called it Jet Wire, IIRC it was a 7014.

I used to use 6011 for anything heavy, it sounded like angry bacon frying. 6013 was our general go-to rod. On my Ford, I could only find 7018 when I was making up my motor mounts. I wish I had made this revelation years ago. On the 1/2" sections, I cranked it up to 150 amps and held the rod in tight.

 

You go Gene and Merry Xmas.

 

The beauty of this sight is that we get support and we police ourselves the only wrong ? Is the one not asked
Merry Christmas all
Dan

 

Finally Thank you !

 

I agree that rods 6011 and 6013 have the same tensile strength but I would argue that 6011 generally makes a stronger weld than 6013 because of its deeper penetration I have ran welds down hill with 6013 that failed due to not enough penetration albeit not a total failure but cracking and peeling none the less

 

In the late 40’s and 50’s and even into the 60’s, wouldn’t welding be done with gas or arc, especially in situations with “kids” building Hot Rods?

 

Gas welds with wire coat hangers

 

Yep. Arc welding is definitely traditional.

 

I'm sure you have it sorted already but follow Petejoe's directions. Please wait till you get your hands on some 7018 and don't open the box until you need to use it. Prep properly and pre heat that joint. Also don't weave too many big passes. Have fun

 

I know the 60 or 70 refers to tensile strength. But a strong weld with poor penetration does no good. I'm a metallurgical engineer, I do know a little something about welding. That's why I said preheat is good on the thick material. Especially when using an AC buzzbox since approx half the heat is going into the electrode. DC would be preferred, but sometimes you make do with what you have available to get the job done. I built my namesake car, 38 Chevy with a 454, using an AC buzzbox. Survived 450 hp and 18 years of my ownership without problems. Most welded with 6011, incl the OT front susp swap.

Thanks to Sharpone for stating it better than I originally wrote.

 

Maybe this is your HAMB worthy grader? Lets just pretend. Probably won't matter, lots of HAMBer's hate the Show Rod stuff too. Anyways. I usta do everything with my old Lincoln AC machine. Been at least 10 years since I struck an arc with stick, but 2 weeks ago I was on an unscheduled work trip and that's all that was available. They had 7018AC rod, which I'd never used before, but that stuff (on 1/4" steel) welded like a dream. I was pretty proud of myself, since it had been so long. I always used 6013 on the car stuff.

 

^^^^ Double like for the rear engine grader

 

Beware of old rod. I dug my old "BuzzBox" out after about 20 years and tried to weld with some rods I had left. I thought I'd completely lost all of my arc weldings skills. I mentioned this to a friend and he told me I needed new rods. I couldn't believe how much better I got when I bought some.

 

What happens with welding rod is the coating absorbs moisture sometimes you can bake them in an oven for a few hours at 200 degrees and they’ll be OK - sometimes not. The best thing to do after opening a box of rods is place them in heated cabinet, welding supply houses sell them or you can make your own, a small cabinet ( big enough to hold a few boxes) that is fairly air tight with a 60 watt incandescent bulb should work. If you can’t find an incandescent bulb a gun safe heater may work.
Dan

 

Great info, Thank you

 

I use an old refrigerator. Make sure the seal is good, and put some dessicant in to absorb moisture.

 

lol. Me too. Mine is from the ‘50’s, so there’s that

 

I keep the beer in my old refrigerator.

 

They don’t call 6011 farmers stick for nothing, go practice on something first though, all I could add to the good advice above. I think 7018 welds pretty easily too but you need to prep cleaner for sure.

 

I like my beer cold, so I had to find a use for the fridge when it shit itself.
No room in the new one for welding rods...........

 

lol. Me too.
But my dad had that dead fridge as long as I was able to go into the shop.
I (at one time) wanted to restore it/upgrade it. Then reminded myself how long I have to prep for an oil change

 

Mine still runs, got it from mom's lake house.

 

Mine (well dads) looks similar, it’s about 4 foot tall, freezer on the bottom, think it’s a freezer.
Mercy I need to get back in the shop and look again, but too cold tonight!

Merry Christmas!

 

7018 is the way to go with what you are doing!

 

Diet Coke for me.. I used eutectic ac/dc 680, pretty tough stuff I think at 120,000 for suspension brackets, 6013 for everything else. Tig I think 6800

 

If you are having trouble using 6011 to start a weld and it sticks in the middle of the weld, you are the problem.
Proper metal prep, good ground, correct amperage, correct arc length and speed all figure into a good weld.
If you're having trouble with 6011, don't even try 7018
Welding race car chassis and crashing them is hardly an example of good welding.
Go to a Trade Union, vocational college, or welding school and weld up one of their test coupons and have it x rayed, acid itched and bent tested if you really want to brag about your welding.
As long as we're on the subject, an AC stick rod machine is a piece of junk and the only reason people have them is the really low purchase price. No professional would weld with an AC machine unless it's for TIG welding with High Frequency for exotic metals and aluminum.

 

Welding downhill is for root passes and cover passes. Piling pass after pass of thin downhill weld with E 6011 or E6013 doesn't make it any stronger. E7014 uphill makes a much better and stronger weld. E7018 is better yet. Take the time to learn vertical up welding.

In 4 hours at 70% humidity, E7018 will absorb 12 times the amount of moisture that it had when the can was opened. Lincoln suggests storing their electrodes at a minimum of 250 degrees.