bad welding rods arggggg.

[muddstopper]

Now I am just embarassing myself. I was at Lowes and they had a bunch of lincoln 7018 1/8 being discontinued. They have pretty much got rid of all their welding supplies. Well the price was right, so I picked up a box. Today, I ran out of the hobart rods and was eager to try the lincoln rods so open up the box and fired up the welder. right off, I new something was wrong. Rod burning awfully hot, but I didnt like but about 18 inches or so to be completely done. burn first rod and didnt like how the puddle was behaving, but slag on top look smooth so I ran another rod, tried changing rod angle, circles, side to side, nothing satisfactory. Thought about adjusting the heat but I had already welded about 50ft at this setting so I grabbbed the last rod and finished the weld. Grabbed the needle scaler and knocked off the slag. Uggggly, wasnt tied good side to side, big sunken spots in the bead. I sat for a while and tried to figure out just what had changed. Took a look at the rods and then I saw it. AC 7018 and I was running DC on the welder. Looks like I will be grinding out a about a foot and half of weld and redoing, after a trip to the welding supply tomorrow. I was always a better grinder than a welder anyways.:shocked:

 

[CADplans]

Lincoln 7018 is far superior to Hobart.
Lincoln, in fact, purchased an entire company to get the flux formulation for the 7018 rod.

I purchased some Hobart 7018, after running the Lincoln,,,
I could not get the rod to run, it would stick, etc,,
I returned the rod to the welding supply store to complain.

The counter guy just commented;
"You must not be a REAL welder,, it takes a real welder to run Hobart!"

He promptly refunded my money, I went to the other welding supply, and purchased Lincoln.

OH, and 7018AC should run perfectly with DC.
The AC version only has a slight addition to the flux to help keep the arc "on",
that has no affect when running DC.

 

[JD955SC]

I had inconsistency issues with Hobart rods from Tractor supply in the black plastic cases. Some would be ok some would run like crap. I found Lincoln to be far better and very consistent, plus lincolns were sealed in plastic wrap if they didn't come in 10 or 50 lb containers.

 

[muddstopper]

Lincoln 7018 is far superior to Hobart.
Lincoln, in fact, purchased an entire company to get the flux formulation for the 7018 rod.

I purchased some Hobart 7018, after running the Lincoln,,,
I could not get the rod to run, it would stick, etc,,
I returned the rod to the welding supply store to complain.

The counter guy just commented;
"You must not be a REAL welder,, it takes a real welder to run Hobart!"

He promptly refunded my money, I went to the other welding supply, and purchased Lincoln.

OH, and 7018AC should run perfectly with DC.
The AC version only has a slight addition to the flux to help keep the arc "on",
that has no affect when running DC.

I must be a real Welder, who would of thought it. LOL. I have ran a lot of hobart rods, mostly because I dont live far from TSC and can pick up a 5lb box on a Sunday if I need them. I have noticed the inconsistency of the rods tho. I think it probably because those little black boxes are just sealed with a little tape and not air tight. No telling how long they have been on the shelf either.

As for the Lincoln 7018AC, I knew they are different than DC rods, but didnt know it was something added to the flux to keep the arc on. I did notice that they struck a arc easy, almost jumping from the rod to the metal. They seemed to run really hot. I could probably make a little amp adjustment and they would run fine on DC. I probably wont use them any more on this project as I am getting to some critical welding and and cant tolerate any bad welding while I learn the AC rods. I might swap the welder over to AC and try a few beads.

 

[Mark @ Everlast]

This. Plus they may have been over baked. Unless 7018 comes from a sealed metal can, they are wet from the start.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I always buy 50# of rods at a time minimum in the hermetically sealed metal can. I don't trust the cardboard containers.
Last time I had an opportunity to get some rods at a good deal, I bought 500# and I still have several 50# cans in 3/32 and 1/8" Atom Arc brand.
I have used Atom Arc (preferred brand) and Hobart and Lincoln rods on commercial construction with no problems. It has been almost 3 decades since I used Hobart but we had no problems with them.

Lincoln and Atom Arc are still the preferred brand to use for critical welding on pressure vessels and pipe on construction jobs.