what electrode?

[balmerchris]

I made this graipe for the front loader of my ford 555. Made it in work with the mig and need to weld the brackets on at home to get them in the right place. Using a 210 amp arc welder at home. The box section is 100x60x6 and the plates for the mounting brackets are 10mm. So my question is Would 6013 rods be Ok or would I need 7018 rods and 3.2 or 4mm and what amps?
Thanks for any advice,

have included some pics.

 

[BrokenBiker]

i have used 6013 on digger buckets welding eyes in for lifting and dragging purposes. 3.2mm at about 120 amps iirc. Used them as i didn't have 4mm but it worked fine. I put a root and cap for good measure and they are still going strong over a year later.

7018 are low hydrogen and as such need to come from a vacuum sealed pack and kept in a heated quill or oven at 40*C afaik but a pro welder will be along shortly to correct me if im wrong

 

[TechnicAl]

As its load carrying I would always use 7018s because the weld metal is stronger and more ductile. Having said that they are more difficult to use so a defective 7018 weld wont be as good as a perfect 6013 weld.....
7018s are low hydrogen but in this instance its the strength thats important so baking them etc wont be necessary (unless the welds are porous)

 

[balmerchris]

Thanks chaps good to know. Want to try to do the thing right.

 

[dannyp]

id be using up rods on that, general 6013 will be fine if there are open boxes of 7018 or whatever else that need using up they would get used up.

even with old 6013's and yu give it loads of stick it's unlikely it'll be the weld that fails more likely to rip out the box

 

[Henners]

Hi, does anyone have any recommendations on good electrode brands and where to buy them from? I'm just welding mild steel of varying thickness but fed up of using the really cheep budget rods.

Thanks

 

[dannyp]

most of the big names do a white box range of 6013's

they are all simalar but all diffrent try a few till you find one your happy with. atm i'm mostly burning sif's and nexus. think the other are lincon i much prefer fincords but i have to rember to order them as local places i tend to use don't stock them

 

[aametalmaster]

7018 for me because thats my favorite rod...Bob

 

[shenion]

I like 7014's, 6013's then 7018's. The '18s less only because the pain on keeping them dry. Most of mine are Lincoln, some Weldability and Forney too.

 

[Jack Russell]

What brand of 7018 do people use? I tried some esab rods and really struggled to get a good run. The rods also ran really hot to the point the flux would glow and drop off. I ran some comet 7018's and they were superb. I could weld any angle, anywhere. They were so easy. I can't see what I had wrong on the esab's.

 

[Liquid Metal]

One brand of lo hy's i recently used at work for some plate work was Bohler. Until then in my last job was usually ESAB rods OK48.00 7018s in all sizes from 2mm up to 6mm, mostly for very heavy structural steel (columns and beams up to 1000mm square and up to about 40mm thick through the flanges, and plate up to 80mm thick) which was subjected to mostly Ultrasonic NDT. Didnt have much of a probelm with the esabs personally, but they were always a freshly opened vac pack, then kept in a quiver.
Most of the lo hys the firm i work for now uses, are Bohler, Im sure they are EV50 (may not be, been off work ill for a couple of weeks ) Still use all sorts of ESAB rods though, cells, rutiles, Iron powders, Lo Hy's etc for all sorts of things, but more often its the Bohlers for Lo Hy plate/tank work and theyve grown on me lol