Hi Greg, 7024 is one of the best rods for "Firecracker" welding, the young guys were always impressed. They also liked torch cutting without acetylene, starting your cut as normal then cutting off the acetylene, the cut proceeds normally. For a nice smooth rod try 309 or 312, they run like a dream. You are a very good instructor, please continue proliferating the trade.
Thanks for the kind words. I have both 309 and 312 rods. It’s super rare I ever weld with them, generally I tig everything stainless. Although the 312 is a very useful rod/farmers special for welding almost anything. I have used that rod for holding u joint caps in on driveshafts as trail repairs before lol. I have seen the torch cutting trick done before, but I was never good enough to do it myself. I should practice 😀
309 (TIG) works well on “mystery stainless,” and on non-stainless “furniture-grade” mild steel tubing welding, where you want a “smooth and lovely” appearance which needs no grinding to look especially good.
Another well produced and informative video, not just this one but all I've watched, thank you sir! I have just discovered your channel and can't get enough seat time in to watch the next video. Your channel is an undiscovered gem and a gold mine of information. I'd be willing to wager this channel will get a huge following once more folks discover it. I have been welding since 1968 and there is always something new to pickup, we never stop learning. Thank you for taking the time and effort to produce these excellent production, I know it takes a lot of effort to do this and it is greatly appreciated. Keep up the great work. This is an excellent resource for anybody wanting to learn more on this very broad subject. By the way, love those 7024 rods when the situation allows them. Signed: a new subscriber!
Thanks for all the kind words and the subscription. It’s my hope that I can get people to realize that they can build a lot of stuff and learn new skills. That and they don’t need to be afraid of making mistakes. I also really enjoy the RU-vid method to share information because it’s just me and people who want to learn something. I don’t have the overhead/inefficiencies of working for a college teaching classes that are probably half full of people who don’t want to be there. There is no politics getting in the way of what I want to share either. I figure there has to be a reason I know so much useless knowledge, why not share it with people so they can learn 😀. The channel will also serve as a future trove of info so when I forget half of it I can watch a video I made and remember 😅.
Almost 50 years ago I worked at a steel manufacturing company in Decatur, Illinois, MVSS. I was what they called a setup and welder, we would run 7028 1/4 inch all day long. It's like weling with a baseball bat.
Greg, your beads look amazing. True, it's not a very common rod, but I will pick it up some at a nearby welding supply store, which has ESAB's 7024's in various variants e.g. OK 33.60. Good video as usual. Cheers.
Those 7024’s definitely deposit crazy amounts of metal. They would have saved me some time today, but with all the different positions that I had to weld today I was limited to 7018 3/16. Even 3/16 was a big change from running 3/32 for the last few days. Even tho I spend a lot of my time under the hood I still enjoy your channel. I’m always wondering what you’re gonna do next
@@makingmistakeswithgreg I can say they run just like 7024. I can get them here in Canada in 10 lb boxes from Air Liquide. they are expensive than 7024. I seldom need them but they availale if needed.
@@bruced1429very interesting. I will have to talk with my local weld store and see what I can get. I do like 7024 so it would be fun (and potentially useful) to have a low hydrogen version.
Do these rods deposit more metal than a spray spray transfer 0.45 solid wire with Mig in a single pass? Just to try them I asked for an handful of 7024 at my Welding supplier, but they sell only full boxes and they have to order them (not available on the shelf...). I feel unlucky. Thanks for the time to make these good videos. Sart0
So the only way to get 7024 in smaller packs is online. The rod weld deposit size is controlled by rod size. I am sure a 5/32 or bigger rod would easily surpass .045 solid wire in a single pass. The primary downside to 7024 over spray is that spray tends to have more penetration than 7024. 7024 can be run horizontally but it’s best suited in the flat position. It has great penetration in the flat position but it does lose some on say a fillet weld. Spray works great on a fillet weld. Pulse spray can be run uphill too, which 7024 can’t. If you have a bunch of big welds you need to do in the flat position you should definitely consider 7024 as a option. It runs super easy and you can do it with a very simple welder.
Crayon 🖍️ on a skillet, so the wax coloring things kids use 😀. Or a hot melt glue stick on a hot skillet. Basically if you were to do that the pressure/feeling of the crayon slowly melting is what you should feel as you stick weld.
@@bryanjones14 Really? I didn't know you had farm and fleets there, but I definitely think farm and fleet is better than TSC. Thats a total bummer. I occasionally go to TSC around here but they tend to have very little worth buying. It's like a northern tool minus the stuff worth buying lol.
Probably around ww2 like you’re thinking. My understanding is it was primarily used for welding ship decks originally. It actually has really good penetration in the flat position butt welds. On fillet welds it tends to not have the best penetration.
Are smaller 7024 rods worth having around? Or is it more so specifically for just putting massive amounts of steel on steel? Personally I feel like 3/32-1/8 6011 and 7018 give me all I need, other than my 1 pound pack of 1/16 rods that I hate having to use lol
The main use for 7024 is bigger welds in the flat position. A 1/8th 7024 in the flat position seems to have more penetration than even a 5/32 7018 if we are talking butt joints. On a fillet weld the 7024 tends to not have the best performance because it puts down so much metal it can be hard to not bridge the root. For most jobs there isn’t much benefit to 7024. I would stick with 7018 😀
@@makingmistakeswithgreg makes sense. Seems like 7024 is kind of a special use type deal where as 7018 is more versatile. I’m mostly sticking farm and poultry equipment back together so 6011 and 7018 seem to work good for me. I use my ESAB rogue 180i on a predator 4350 generator (3500 running watts) and something I found to be beneficial is to run the amperage on the med to med-high side and run the hot start a bit in the negative. I had a big issue with starting rods like 7018 where I like to long arc for a second and then roll into it and it seems to help quite a bit with bogging the generator down. I never understood why hot start would go into the negatives but it’s definitely a feature in my book. Another note, with the ESAB rogues, is it fine to run 7018 on the 6010 mode? Sometimes I go between 1/8 6011 and 3/32 7018 and normally run them both around 80-90 amps and sometimes it would be nice to just swap rods and not change modes. I’ve done it before but I’m not quite skilled enough to really recognize the difference, if there is one
@@jeremys8360 regarding the 6010 mode, I am not exactly sure what it changes. My thought is it just gives the ability to keep different settings for 6010 vs 7018. It is possible it changes the max voltage output at lower amp setpoints, but if that’s the case it wouldn’t damage anything running 7018 on it.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg I thought that as well. I use it like that when switching between 3/32 6011 and 3/32 7018 running off my generator. Good to know. I’ll have to try it out some more. To get some more experience with it. Your videos are a great help with my learning process. I don’t have anyone to teach me directly but after watching probably 75% of your videos and half those twice or more, the arc footage really helps with the hood time.
@@jeremys8360 in many ways everyone teaches themselves how to weld, because that is the only way to build muscle memory. Having good information helps a ton of pitfalls/mistakes, but practice is king. 😀
