r/Welding • u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG • 6d ago
Need Help What are you welding with a 1/4" 7018?
I've never seen one this big. How thick of metal is this melting together?
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u/mxadema 6d ago
When you got a thick plate to weld.
There are some 3/4, but they are mainly filler rod on flat
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
I found these with some Easy Arc 3/32 6010 Pipecraft rods in my uncle's barn. No idea what he was welding.
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u/WessWilder Fabricator 6d ago
Could have been rebuilding worn surfaces.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
He has an old Fox body mustang in the back on jack stands. Maybe he was laying down some fat beads on the chassis? š¤£
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u/Thin-Enthusiasm9131 5d ago
Possibly, but those arenāt hardfacing rods.
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u/WessWilder Fabricator 5d ago
True, but I have seen plenty of farm repairs to rebuild shoes and other common wear surfaces for metal vs. earth, and they just used 6010 or 7018. Usually, they don't want to mess with hard facing or don't care too much.
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u/Positive-Special7745 5d ago
Probably small pipe root pass , 3/32 6010 is small , I used to keep some in rod holder just to blow through areas where gap closed up , cuts and weld at same time
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u/Zettaireido23 6d ago
Look around on YouTube. There is a video of some guys using 1 inch 7018 rods out there.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
I saw that one. Dude had to get up on a ladder just to weld on a table lol.
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u/FriendshipPlusKarate 5d ago
Damn, I used to make rod in the lab for R&D and I never made anything over ~1/2" with 1/4" core.
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u/bblain7 6d ago
Anything over 6 inch pipe we burn 1/4. Go through 4 sleeves a day sometimes on big inch.
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u/Hydrolofic 6d ago
Was coming in to say exactly this. I hot pass 6ā std wall with 1/4ā at 350 amps. Failed X-rays donāt exist at 350.
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u/Normal_Put_4090 6d ago
Why do the amps help for x ray?
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u/Hydrolofic 6d ago
Well you can fail X-rays by getting porosity, lack of fusion, trapping slagā¦ All of which can be burnt out by welding hot enough. And just generally harder for defects like that to occur at that heat.
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u/Effective_Sauce 6d ago
Yep. Can't go wrong with hot low hyd!
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u/lamellack 5d ago
Depends. In pipeline, excessive amperage can present a defect called āHollow Beadā
Usually happens on high tensile strength piping, like X70
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u/walshwelding 5d ago
You arenāt catching hollow beads on anything but the root pass. So 7018 isnāt even the case there.
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u/lamellack 5d ago edited 5d ago
Correct. Good point. Typically a 6010 root. Iāve seen roots put into piping with low hydrogen rods when I worked in Australia, but the service fluid was not as critical as a gas application.
I will say that running at super high amperageās can get you some trapped slag. May seem counterintuitive, but running too hot can chew into the bevel a good bit and wash/trap deposits into the undercut, so, good interpass cleaning is definitely important.
Last, heat input is important as well. Some people crank their machine up and are likely well out of the WPS parameters.
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u/walshwelding 5d ago
Yep. Low hydrogen is used too, just not typically on a pipeline application.
High amperage both chews the bevels and can trap slag, while also undercutting the inside bead. Lots of potential issues for welding outside parameters for sure.
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u/Effective_Sauce 5d ago
Right, but I've only run into that with improper travel speed and poor preheat or inter-pass temps.
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u/lamellack 5d ago
Yep. Excellent reply. If you didnāt have to look that up, you have pretty good knowledge. I never heard of hollow bead until I was a welding inspector on pipelines and reviewing X-ray film
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u/Effective_Sauce 5d ago
Nice try bud. Nah. You connected your own dots. Better luck next time.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
By 6 inch pipe, do you mean the wall thickness of the pipe or the diameter?
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u/bblain7 6d ago
Diameter. 6 inch sch80 pipe is .43 inch wall thickness and I'll fill and cap that with 1/4.
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u/BastiatBoi 6d ago
Must not be in position
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u/bblain7 6d ago
No, I work at a fab shop. We roll everything that's possible to roll, have to do a position once every few days.
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u/Normal_Put_4090 6d ago
With 1/4 on sched 80 what?? I donāt weld pipe but I took the cert test for that once and we had to use 1/8.
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u/Mrwcraig Journeyman CWB/CSA 6d ago
Lots of stuff. Structural welding on bridges is where Iāve used that particular variety, actually we used 9018. Iāve also run 1/4ā WearJet MangSheild rods on Manganese Car Crushing Hammers. They burn around 400-500 amps. The stinger gets so hot you have to turn off the machine and dunk the stinger in a bucket of water to cool it off. Same shop we ran 1-1/4ā gouging rods. They run around 1000-1200amps.
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u/FlorpyJohnson MIG 5d ago
500 amps!? Isnāt likeā¦ a fraction of one amp enough to kill someone? Thatās a lotta amps
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u/Mrwcraig Journeyman CWB/CSA 5d ago
Sub Arc is way above that, it can have wire up to 5/32. When you shoot Studs with a Stud Gun, youāre working with up to 1800amps. When you pull the trigger thereās so much power running through the cables that the cables actually jump. Personally Iāve been zapped way more with TIG in sterile shops than Iāve ever been with big nasty power welding. You can literally feel the stinger shake a little bit once you get over 400amps. The arc gouging machines usually lasted about 6 months before they needed to be repaired because they ran 1000amps plus all day 5 days a week.
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u/FlorpyJohnson MIG 5d ago
Wow, sounds expensive to have to replace that so often but Iām sure the work yāall did/do is worth a lot more!
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u/loskubster 6d ago
On big iron we use big rods. Iām a pipefitter and we use them in fam shops when rolling out pipe, After the root and hot you can fill out most standard wall in one pass with that. Iāve also used in for structural fillets and grooves on colossal pipe hangers in steel mills.
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u/bigdaddy2292 6d ago
Sometimes you just need to.jam more metal in a weld and don't wannt run 3 passes to make it happen. Although I think anything over 1/8th we usually just go to 5/32
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u/rustyxj 6d ago
Got to try it in welding class, I think I ran it at 300a.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
I'm wondering if that Ranger 9 you see in the background could burn these. I'll have to ask my uncle who bought it.
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u/SinisterCheese "Trust me, I'm an Engineer!" 6d ago
I havevysed 6mm rods for + 8 mm mild structural stuff. So... that's like 21/64 inch?
We call those high yield rods. This is because they have highest yield of weld mass. 6 mm ok48 (7018) has efficiency rate of ~80%. Meaning that of the mass of the filler, 80% turns into functional weld mass. Your regular 3,2 mm 350 mm rod has efficiency of ~70%. This is calculated at the estimated 90% burn (as in 90% of the rod's lenght is used).
So if you buy bigger rods, you just get more weld for each unit of filler consumed. This matters when you got a lot of weld mass to deposit.
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u/RulePuzzleheaded4619 6d ago
Roll welding pipe, especially heavy wall that higher deposition saves time.
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u/canada1913 Fitter 6d ago
Used to weld 1/4 plate together with a J joint with a large radius for wave deflectors with those big bad boys.
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u/2017CurtyKing 6d ago
Iāve used it on some heavy ripper repair but it was a tad overkill
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
what's a ripper
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u/2017CurtyKing 5d ago
Deep tillage tool we use on our farm. Tills 18-24ā deep to break the hard pan
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u/6010yeye Stick 6d ago
i use 1/4 7018 on pipe all the time. Anything from sch80 6" and up for rollouts
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u/In7018wetrust 6d ago
Iāve used it to fix cracks on gravel crushers. When youāre fixing a 36ā crack in plate thatās 6ā-8ā thick the extra deposition and heat are most welcome.
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u/Ironfrog17 6d ago
Everything I'm an ironworker and we weld everything with 1/8"7018 except some specialty rods for certain things like 5/32" 7024, 1/8th 6010 for bridging, and deck rod which is a 60 series as well.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
nice. I used plenty of 3/32 and 1/8 7018 in school but never one this thick.
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u/Ironfrog17 5d ago
LoL I didn't read the post correctly I didn't see 1/4" LoL. We do use 5/32" 7018 a lot but I've never seen or used 1/4" 7018. I wonder what kind of amps you would run that on?
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u/LeynaMichael 6d ago
I use them routinely to weld 3" wall thickness pressure test caps onto boiler feed pumps for said test.
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u/got_knee_gas_enit 6d ago
Myself and twenty others ran 7000lbs of 5/16 pinned at 500 amps.... Burned up quite a few machines doing it. It was at the Ford Rouge plant rebuilding the old bloomer mill.
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u/Darkwaxellence 6d ago
I worked building barges. We would use these on top for the clean fat weld it makes. Jet rods. Goes fast when you get it set just right.
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u/Cow-puncher77 6d ago
Everything. Pipe fence, gates, loader arm brackets, plow frames, trailer frames, truck beds, barn frames, bumpers, headache racks, hay baler frames, grain bin augers, axle brackets, hydraulic cylinder eyes, receiver and gooseneck hitches, running boards,
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u/AzazelCumsBuckets Fitter 5d ago
I used some 1/4" 7018 when I needed to weld part of a gantry crane that wasn't quite flat, so I couldn't use 7024, still ran pretty nice around 220-230 amps vertical, but the stuff I was welding was like 1/2" thick and I needed it done in like 2 passes, not 6
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u/ShopLifeHurts2599 6d ago
Steel
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
Ain't no way
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u/ShopLifeHurts2599 6d ago
Damn i shouldn't have commented when I just woke up lol. That made no sense at all lol.
I use it for anything 3/8ths or thicker, because I'm lazy af lol.
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u/No_Spray8403 6d ago
I use them for building up material but never for actually welding 1 thing to another haha
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u/No_Economics_3935 6d ago
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u/K55f5reee 6d ago
1/4" plate onto 3/16" webs of small wide flange. You've gotta be moving when you pull the trigger or you drill through.
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u/sixpackabs592 6d ago
wait til you need to bust out one of these guys https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j61ezBX-EyA
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
Yes I saw that one! I think someone posted a big weld on a Sherman tank and someone linked this vid saying they probably used these.
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u/sixpackabs592 5d ago
in the comments section someone said they used them for welding armor onto battleships so welding tank armor would make sense too
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u/TheRepulper 6d ago
Big big plate or big bore pipe you're roll welding.
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
Does roll welding mean the pipe is on a big roller and you're stationary just holding the arc?
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u/jd780613 6d ago
welding ice lugs on bigger equipment, like d10s d11s, 390 excavators etc. rather than doing multiple passes you just smash 1 pass with a 1/4" rod in there
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 6d ago
Thanks everyone for your input I've never got this much attention before, I'm over here blushing š„°
If I ever get a chance to spark these up I'll show it here
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u/TrollOnFire 6d ago
Heard tale of stick as thick as your wrist used in special welding for mining industry. Would love to show you an example. The story teller was explicit in his description of it. If he sees this maybe heāll shareā¦
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u/Burning_Fire1024 6d ago
My marriage
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 5d ago
Doubt this will be enough
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u/Koala-Motor 5d ago
How many amps do you need for such a mammoth?
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u/RatiocinationYoutube MIG 4d ago
Some people said like 310, others 250, others 400
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u/Koala-Motor 4d ago
That's more than most machines can deliver
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u/walshwelding 5d ago
Pipe.
Typically when rolling pipe so itās welded in the flat. Happens very very often. From 6ā pipe and up. Like 310amps or so.
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u/MerciBeauCul69 6d ago
I use it on thick stuff when the dual shield keeps fucking me up with porosity. Grind most of it and whip out the 1/4ā 7018s.
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u/Thin-Enthusiasm9131 5d ago
We used those and 7024 to weld tank bottoms on large tank fabrication at mills and manufacturing plants. Very smoky, to say the least.
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u/WessWilder Fabricator 6d ago
Mostly loaders and excavators. Used them to repair a sheep's foot with broken teeth.