What the welding shop has me doing...

[Haywire]

A local shop agreed to supply me with their drops for welding practice. I go get a bucketful, weld them together and then go back and exchange them for more drops. I don't have to pay for practice material and their drops come back heavier. Not much of a gain for them, they're really just doing me a favor.

Anyway.. they're cutting circles out of 1/4" plate on their plasma table for a customer. The foreman suggested that I weld the small ones onto the large ones to get used to welding a curve and holding a consistent rod angle while doing it. I don't know how successful I was, but it's good practice I suppose.

I decided to stop playing around with all the different rods and stick with 7014 till I can get a consistently good bead with that (or I run out of the 5lb I have). Then I'll move on to the others.

Here's what I ended up with.
Attachment 1888Attachment 1889

[geezer]

That was good advice the foreman gave you, and you seem to be doing nicely,

Here's a jingo that will help you remember your 1/8 rod starting amperages: "3 hundreds and 2 thirties equal a 60"

There are six basic rods, 6010, 6011, 6013 these are the 3 using 100 amps, and for 7014, 7018, up the amperage by 30 to 130 and last 7024 ups 60 to 160 amps.

repeat the jingo a few times and you will never forget the stating amps for the six basic 1/8 rods

Have fun, you are actually doing quite well.

[jakeru]

Ha - that's pretty cool way of remember 1/8" rod amperages, Geezer.

Haywire - that sounds like a pretty neat arrangement you made with the local metal shop, exchanging their old drops back for free. Haven't heard of it but it seems like a really good idea. Maybe they would let you purchase drops also from them also, if you got any you wanted to keep.

[geezer]

Ha - that's pretty cool way of remember 1/8" rod amperages, Geezer.

Haywire - that sounds like a pretty neat arrangement you made with the local metal shop, exchanging their old drops back for free. Haven't heard of it but it seems like a really good idea. Maybe they would let you purchase drops also from them also, if you got any you wanted to keep.

jakeru, thinks that is cool. that was the hard part. 3/32 rods are even easier.

Remember your six basic rods , 6010,6011,6013 then 7014, 7018, and 7024 in that order,

For 3/32 rods start counting by ten from 50, eg 50,60,70,80,90 , zero, why zero cause they don't make it.

so you have 6010 = 50 , 6011=60, 6013 = 70, 7014 =80 , 7018 = 90, and 7024 = zero

Master the jingo and count by 10 from 50 on the smaller rods and you have the starting amperages licked for both rod sizes.

[SeanMurphy265]

That's not a bad idea at all, good way to build a relationship.

[DaveO]

... good way to build a relationship.

I've been thinking "that's a job interview in disguise". I don't know if you're looking, but you've made a connection, that's for sure, and the guy is getting a look at your work...

[worntorn]

how about "if it sounds like eggs frying then you are in the zone"

Glen