Stick Welding 7018 Cut & Etch 

Just got my first buzz box at 34 years old. Put down my first 7018 AC beads. Nasty sunburn on my legs from wearing shorts like a dummy. Thanks for the videos. I've seen most of them. So informative. You do a great job! Thanks

I have never seen the difference in grain like that! Wow, what a difference in that second weave pass. Thanks Jody!

I've worked at two different nuclear power plants back in the 80s, a lot of times I would check out 3 pounds of 7018 3/32, we was allowed to take 12 rods out of our portable Rod Caddy at a time put them in a rod pouch, if we didn't use them by lunch time, or after 4 hrs we had to fold them in half, put them in a stub bucket not to be used, at the end of the day we had to bring our used rods and the folded rods back to the rod trailer, they would write down the information and put back the unused rods from the portable rod caddy into their ovens, they used a 53 foot semi trailer for the rod storage, they had their rods ovens two high on both sides, one night the power went out and the temperature of the rides dropped enough to where the NRC (Nuclear regulatory commission) did not feel safe to use them, so they scrap them all, bought new rods loaded the ovens, and we had to wait for two days before we can continue welding again,The 7018 electrodes back in them days had to be in the oven in order to perform properly, they have rods today that are listed at 7018 that do not have to be in the oven, but out of respect for the tradition and to reduce any prosody or any defects I would continue using the oven anyway,I watch all your videos I really like what you're doing to help inform new welders coming up through the ranks and even season welders too

As always, a great video. Thank you for all you do for the welding community.

i only been welding for 3months now just for a hobby and working on my race car. i gotta say i watch your vids everyday sometimes catch myself watching the same video over n over again trying to learn as much as possible . i been tig welding steel and aluminum and i have people at work blown away and i got some co workers watching your vids now . im just getting into stick welding now ..so again thanks for your great welding vids and teachings. . Dont stop lol

Great information in this one! The cut and etch on the weave pass was eye opening! Thanks for the great video!

When I was in welding school, about 35 years ago, one of the first things we learned was that 7018 needed to be kept in an oven, and I subscribe to that theory if you're talking about any kind of code welding, such as shipyard or structural steel applications. On the other hand I've ran a lot of 7018 for general repair or hobby welding that was not kept in an oven, and had been sitting in my garage or on a shelf at work with good results. I wouldn't trust it for anything that needed to be X-rayed, but for an engine stand or utility trailer, etc... it seems to work fine.

it's funny hearing Mr. Jody say I need practice"...the amount of welding he does in comparison to how much I do, I would need to go all the way back to school again! great videos Mr. Jody and thanks for your service...

I love 7018. You guys are all pro's. I am just an old farmer that knows how to make things stick together and that is my rod of choice. Oh yea ,no oven.

wow. you never cease to amaze me with your videos. thank you!

Great video Jodie appreciate the metric conversion. I'm coded to mma and notice a big difference in same code rods but different welds / slag.

Bravo!!!! Thanks for the incredible tutorial. Please keep them coming.

Jody. Your rusty welds are way better than my best. Great video!

Like i said before, your the man. thanks for your time and helping all of us.

I would just like to say, bravo, i learn tons from your videos/channel, one of your subscribers here, thank you for posting/sharing.

Man! Where were you 20 yrs ago when I learned welding?! Love your videos! And that money shot was special!

Hi Jody. Last year I had to weld some tooth shanks on my excavator bucket. I found about 50 pounds of 25 year old Lincoln 1/8 7018s under a bench that had fur growing on them. I tried them to see how bad they would run or how bad they would fingernail and as soon as I had a problem I would stop and throw them away. Wound up doing the whole job with them, and a year later, with ripples of the beads worn smooth from digging, teeth still on, no cracks, welds strong. Made in U.S.A.

I keep all my stick rods in an oven. I found they just weld better. Used Hobart and Lincoln for years with no problems. When I bought some Off Brand KOREAN rods I had major problems. I stick to Hobart, Lincoln or ESAB rods. Cost more, but get what you pay for. Love your videos, earn something every time. Thanks. Mike

Thanks Jody! All the info is really appreciated.

Jodie you are a fantastic teacher please keep it up thank you sir.

Thank you so much for this video. Demonetizing this video is highly appreciated. Respect for you sir...

I keep my 7018 in a small rod oven. Where I live, the air is so humid that it keeps them fresh, keeps the rust off and they just seem to run better. Although it discourages me from opening a new can because my rod oven only holds 10lbs, and it's currently occupied with 3/32 Excalibur rods. Sometimes I need 1/8 and won't open a new can because I don't have the space in my oven for them. Maybe after I read Jody's article it'll change my mind.

cool stuff. I'm actually using 7018 Excaliburs 3/32 for a current project.

very very good instruction and video. thank you!

Best cold open ever! :D

Parabéns. Professor. Pelas. As. Aulas. Seus. Vídeos. É. Muito. Bom. Obrigado

Another good video!! Keep em coming

Very nice video as usual. What solution are you using to etch with now? You mentioned a while back going with something a bit "hotter", curious to know what that is.

Sensational video!

Thanks for another great video

I ran some of that HF 7018 for fun, and talk about hard to remove slag! Sometimes you get what you pay for.

The answer is TRUE. I worked at a shop that had 7018 rods that were kept in an over and after 4 hours we had to put the ones we didn't use back in

you should compare some mig pulse welding or "stitch" and continuous bead and check the strength between the too. alot of hot rod ppl will go with a stitch weld look on frames and such and i feel that isn't near as strong since its alot of cooling time before pulses and each tack doesn't fully penetrate.

Its a matter of preference I think. If you need a clean weld that is applied to lets say high pressure pipe weld ? Then yes oven rods are important to use in that type of application.. I would say over head welds would be another time to use oven prepared rods. Even though we know the rods weld much better dry with no moisture,it is not always needed. Cheers and happy welding.

Hi Jodi great videos been a fan of yours ever since you started the videos. An I was wondering if you could make a video on tig cups? like what the numbers mean when to use smaller cup sizes an when you should use those big ones?

Depends on what you are making. For General fab/farm work, probably not, but for coded work, probably a good idea

Great lesson

Hey Jody was just at your store and saw something called " Mig Knuckle" , not much info on it can you do a quick demo video on it please. Thanks

7018’s are low hydrogen rods, and you can only take advantage of that if you store them in a rod oven. Otherwise they are just a much better version of 6013

thank you for another great video. Can you do maybe one on 309 stainless stick vertical and overhead on steel plates please.

I have a small boiler room where I keep my rods all the time as the boiler runs 24-7 and the air is super dry. Seems to work.

I feel like they need to stay in an oven most because that's what's been drilled into my head in school lol but on another note Jody my girl friend got me your tig finger bundle for my birthday and it's amazing way better than trying to put a tig cup on your finger to free hand

HI JODY IM IN THE U.K IM DOING UP HILL MIG ON 8th INCH THICK STEEL WHAT WIRE FEED SPEED BECASUE IT KEEPS BUILDING UP MY FLAT WELDS ARE PERFECT THO

I have always felt the slag on the Hobart rods was hard to chip especially in side of a tight joint where it may be hard to chip it seems chalky and stiff

Great info great weld

Whats name the liquid that you use for reveal the penetration? Thanks.

I like Miller machines and Lincoln rods

I enjoy the Hobart H4R 7018, found them to be great rods and theres something about the flux that I find is almost a weld indicator. If prep was good and so was the weld, the flux is a nice light milky brown and comes off really easy, but if your weld prep was sub par or maybe you had too much arc length or too slow travel speed (they seem to prefer strings from my experience but I've done on site structural welding 100% visual and had no problems with weaves) good rods at a price cheaper than ESAB OK 55's ill take it, never ran a Lincoln 7018 but i imagine they'd handle just fine.

Once 7018 rods have been left exposed to the atmosphere, can the hydrogen be driven off by baking them in an oven? If so, what kind of oven?

HI! there is lot of confersation to use to oven and stick heater. I got to say example europe welding stardat PED give your frames to to do welding jobs from a begining at to the end. you have to put rods to the oven and after that is possible use heaters in the job sites. you can avoid certain welding mistakes to use heated rods. what comes that melted sticks after it reach to the very end in here finland we use hand remote to addjust amperages keep arc voltage steady.

your my hero jodey

thank you!

These discussions about low-hydrogen rods always focus on oven vs. no oven, as though heat were the important factor. It isn't. The important thing is to keep all moisture, all water, out of the flux. Water contains hydrogen and can contaminate the weld. Low hydrogen rods can be kept in any environment that will not allow hydrogen-containing substances, like water or hydrocarbons, to contaminate the flux. An oven is a sure-fire way to do that. If you keep the temperature well above the dew point, and preferably above the boiling point of water, no contamination occurs. But you can also store low-hydrogen rods in a dry nitrogen atmosphere, dry CO2, helium, argon, oxygen, or a vacuum. Whatever you like, as long as no hydrogen can penetrate into the flux. These other methods are not as simple and sure-fire as an oven. It's good to keep things simple and foolproof. Ovens also provide easy access to the rods. Just open the door. An oven works as long as electricity doesn't fail for a long period of time. On the other hand, if you need to store these rods for really long periods of time, like months or years, it costs energy/money to keep an oven hot. Other methods like dry nitrogen cost nothing to maintain but you don't have easy access to the rods.

TRUE! But, it really does depend on the application.

7018 is a low hydrogen electrode. If you use them, normally u have like 8h of use before u have to bake them, if they come out vacuum. U cannot keep them in an oven on high temp, you will damage the coating. If they are not in a vac pack you have to bake them (+-572°F) for +-2 hours before use. You can also use this rule for electrodes out of a vac pack after more than 8 hours. For storage best check the temp and humidity. Store around 86° F and low humidity (for best result). Before use, bake them again, you can bake max 2 times. The big problem with the moister (if you do not bake) is hydrogen cracking, but this is normally not on thin metal and you will not see a difference is weld metal only in the arc itself. If you weld thicker metal, the hydrogen cannot diffuse anymore and than there is a chance on hydrogen cracking, but this is also not noticeable in the weld metal, except if it cracks obviously, but maybe that's a bit of topic.

I'd like to see a test of how cold you have to run in order to get insufficient penetration. With stick, penetration is usually about as good as it gets, and between that and the vertical uphill, I bet it would still do fine even below 70 amps.

i want smaw open corner joint in falt position

Thank you

I've pulled 7018 Stubbs out of a mud puddle and use them to attack my ground on to what I was welding and it's startling how strong it still is. I do not think you need to have your 7018 rod in an oven.

What do you use for etching?

Hey Jody, I was wondering why you chose to use 3/32 rods instead of 1/8th considering the 1/4 plate. Thanks!

Hey Jody can you film a video where you weld a different types of materials together? Or there is alreday video with this theme... Your videos are great, Iam going on engineering college and this helps me to see what is REAL welding. Greetings from Croatia! (Sorry for bad english)

When I was welding at the Forward Brothers mill in Red Bluff CA - Ben my boss said always keep them in the oven and dry and then later in mostly dry country didn't seem to matter too much. I guess I will keep them in the oven just for grins and Ben

Ok Jody!... now, how do I keep a finer grain on that second pass? and as always- Thank you for all your hard work!

what's the chemical for the etching process?

Jody, Beads looked pretty decent to me for someone who claims not to stick weld much.

I prefer ESAB 7018 far and away over either Lincoln or Hobart , welded code for years and have run them all,, used to be Atom Arc, but ESAB bought them out... give it a whirl, you might like it.

Looks like all that buzzbox amperage control needs is to be tightened up, taking some of the slack out of it. Calibrate it with your meter and tighten up the adjustment mechanism, maybe adding some friction between the adjustment handle and the white indicator. Five minutes of work to bring the unit up to where you can rely on it.

we use esab rods at school and they dont run well.

True

Haven't read your article yet, but I'll take a guess: FALSE, if the application doesn't require (e.g. code spec'd) a true low-hydrogen weld, then using "left in the open" 7018 is no worse than using 7014, 6013, etc... none of which are low-hydrogen rods. TRUE, if the application requires a true low-hydrogen weld. In short, for those of us doing general purpose, non-coded welding, an oven isn't needed.

Just like most things welding, the answer for 7018 rod ovens is it depends. stickin a hay rake back together? sittin on a bucket, burning some rod in the yard? you gonna be just fine. doin a retrofit to an existing overpass on the interstate? man, keep them things warm.

I must say that's quite the chincy handle lol. the Miller mig and stick welders (240v) i own both have cast aluminum handle assemblies with a bearing on the shaft you put your hand on. it must be over 30 years old, and that shit still feels like new.

I see it says do not switch under load. What happens when you switch under load?

Ok so I have a noob type of question. Is it possible to weld with a Lincoln AC tombstone on auto exhaust, and if it's possible what electrode would be best for this application? My Lincoln is all I have to work with.

7018 is a low hydrogen rod however it doesn't need to be baked unless it is specified which is usually for military or structual codes. other than that it usually isn't too much a big deal unless specified

I want to get a course welding You have

I've used 6013 and 7018 not on any structure just building tool's I need to work on home job's witch of the is best I'm going to build 4 metal saw horses and just wanting to know witch would be better.

I often need to do vertical up laps on 4 mm, weaving burns off the edge and makes it look nasty, is there a technique for straight up no weave ?

im going off the cuff here. low hydrogen rods need to be kept in the oven for 4 hours before use for code welding. then for every 6 hours left out they need to be put back in the oven?

он профессор высокие квалификации сварка и арго дуговой.я тоже учится сварщик практические я это глухих

7018 is LO H but will still weld fine if its not baked, you just run a higher risk of imperfections in the weld.

Yes

My thought is that the necessity of an oven depends on the application.

true

i was sleepy until i watched this video

True but not always necessary

TRUE

I actually have my welding merit badge in boyscouts.

Hy Jody. In the Video the ARc length looks to big vor an alkaline welding electrode. Answer of your Question: Follow the Pruducer Specifications. Its recommend to bake the elektrode in an Ofen. Greetings from Austria.

On rods in an oven? I'll try to say this clearly - follow the welding procedure. If it calls for your 7018 rods to be heated and properly low hydrogen before welding, do it. If you're doing something on your own, probably not important - just be aware of the potential issues of hydrogen embrittlement and other problems. So ultimately, the answer is it depends - but 'follow the welding procedures' is the best answer.

If you are on site without electrode oven, tap electrode onto live job without making an arch and watch the moistures come out of the electrode and you should be good to go, not suitable for power stations or sub building, but then these guys are welding to a much higher specifaction.

Too bad you can't get the old Hobart Brothers rod to compare with or compare Excalibur with std Lincoln 7018.

Yes low-hydrogen rods should be kept in an oven or caddy at all times.

me parece genial tus videos pero debes poner videos en castellano tambien porque yo soy del PERU y me es complicado traducirlos haver si sacas los videos en ingles y el mismo video en castellano gracias y saludos

My college welding course uses 1/8” 7018 Excalibur and run them at 125 amps

Exactly how did you use a meter to check your exact amperage? That seems like a useful trick..

May be asking a bit much here, but somebody out there must be able to scientifically measure the difference between a 7018 and 7014 weld, when both are stored at "atmospheric" conditions (not in an oven) and say whether the 7018 weld had more hydrogen entrapment/embrittlement than the 7014, and also do xray, destructive, bend testing of both samples. 7014 isn't allowed in welds where low-hy is req'd, but is a 7018 stored in non-oven/non-sealed conditions actually any worse? I'd be surprised if AWS hasn't already measured this somewhere...

yes it is a low hydrogen rod it can help to keep in an oven but doesn't have to be

need/shall/must.....should/recommended/favorably........ boilermaker/pipe fitter/iron worker. farmer/hobby/general maintenance. yeah there's a bit lacking in that loaded question. haha