Gunner wrote:
Actually..you really dont need a rod oven for 70xx series rod, unless
you are doing actual life safety types of stuff where you need ZERO
hydrogen issues.


As long as its mostly dry..it welds (for me) just hunky dorey. I
did buy some rod from Harbor Freight once in a pinch..Chinese welding
rod. And it sucked with large slurppy sounds. I finally tossed 10lbs
of rod straight into the **** can in disgust. While Im not a "weldor",
I can generally stick a couple pieces of metal together well enough
most of the time and that stuff was utter trash.

I was browsing Ebay, using my local area as base of search and found a
clearance company that had some cans of Fleetweld in, 50lb cans that
no one was bidding on, simply because of the shipping weight and they
had some negative feedback. I dropped em an email asked if local
pickup was ok, and when they agreed, I bid and won a can. for $10USD.

When I showed up to pay and pick, I offered them a sum for every can
they had..about 16 of them. They hemmed and hawed..and finally agreed
so I went home with 800lbs of Lincoln Fleetweld in sealed cans, sold
them all except for a couple to my buddies and then spent the next
couple years burning them up.

Recently, I was in a clients shop and mentioned to one of the maint
workers that I was dabbling in welding. He perked up, and said "wait
here"..then split for a few minutes. He came back, asked me if Id take
$40 off my bill in trade for some :"welding stuff". Seems they had a
company policy change, would only allow certified outside welders do
their welding maint work..and had this "old welder" and " some rod"
that were surplus and I could buy it for that $40 discount.

It turned out to be a Miller Dialarc 250 (marked Airco Bumblebee) and
another 400 lbs or so of rod...of all kinds. Exotic and common stuff.
Stainless steel rod, hard facing cast iron rods, aluminum rod, nickle
rods and on and on....I gave the welder to a buddy, and kept the rod.
Some fascinating stuff in there...G Ive got a half dozen 5 lbs boxes
of a coated rod, black in color with a number Ive not been able to
cross reference...I think its stainless..but it wont rust, will make
absoultly beautiful welds no matter how badly I treat it and will
stick anything that has steel or iron anywhere in it, together. I save
it for special occasions G. The stuff is like using a hot glue gun.

brag/off

Buy or beg a pound of 6011, and try it out. If you were in my neck of
the woods, Id give ya some. (California)

Im 'long term" loaning out my Lincoln Tig 250/250 to a friend this
weekend, I need the room..shrug and Im starting to figure out the
Airco 300 amp square wave tig machine..finally able to weld aluminum
after replacing the breaker with a 60 amp one that wasnt 20 yrs old.

Good luck and let us know how the 6011 works out.

Gunner

I'll pick up some 6011 next week and let you know how it goes. I'm
reluctant to try the 7018 as those few I had were literally impossible
to use, and I hadn't ever got them wet. They'd been dry in the house for
8 or 9 years. Hopefully 6011 will just give me a little extra
penetration on those fillet welds, and I can save the 6013 for sheet metal.

By the way, do any of you guys in the States use the simple oil-cooled
welding transformers? When I was thinking about buying a welder I was
looking at the air-cooled AC buzzboxes which Machine Mart sell here in
the UK, and a wise old engineer (who sadly died recently) told me not
to. He said that for a bit more I could get a second hand oil-cooled
machine which would be a lot more robust, do 100% duty cycle and hold
its value better. I got one and have always been very happy with it.
I've not heard anyone here talking about them. Do you get them on your
side of the Atlantic? Just curious...

Best wishes,

Chris