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So, my MIG work is moving along fairly well. Time to move on to stick. Is there any rule of thumb for selecting the right rod and rod size for plain old farm steel on tractor buckets, oil filed line, etc. and also amps relative to plate and wall thickness?
Reply:If it is "dirty" steel or have a gap to fill use 6010-6011. For everything else I like to use 7018 but 7014 or 6013 are common. For sizes 1/8" will be fine for most farm type stuff, 3/32" for thinner stuff or things that you need more control over the puddle. Amperage is not changed much for different thickness steel, mostly position/temperature of the steel and of course electrode size. Hope you can read the amperage chart I have, I need to take a better picture of it. Attached ImagesAirco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:Squirmy's spot on. One more thing to remember when doing a root and cover pass is you want to avoid running back and forth adjusting amperage, so fill your pockets with different rods. Example, 1/8 6010 that you would use for a root pass runs the same amperage as a 3/32 7018. A 5/32 6010 runs the same amperage as a 1/8 7010. Saves a lot of running up and down adjusting your machine when by yourself. Knowing that most of your repairs are on damaged bent up dirty ranch stuff that should help a little. Most of your repairs I imagine will be fill/patch and cover pass. What machine did you get bud, I missed it!I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:What Mike said reminds me.. Not every joint needs a 6010 root pass and 7018 cover pass, lots of guys think that it is required on everything Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:Originally Posted by SquirmyPugWhat Mike said reminds me.. Not every joint needs a 6010 root pass and 7018 cover pass, lots of guys think that it is required on everything
Reply:Originally Posted by jlamesSo, my MIG work is moving along fairly well. Time to move on to stick. Is there any rule of thumb for selecting the right rod and rod size for plain old farm steel on tractor buckets, oil filed line, etc. and also amps relative to plate and wall thickness?
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeWhen your filling up holes and ripped out welds from cattle damage such as will be most of the work Jonathan is doing I would! But you are correct in a way. Not always necessary! But for the most part on farm repairs it's good practice to help you sleep better at night
Reply:You guys are great and as usual, right on about my welding. We have miles, OK not miles but literally 10s of thousands of feet of 3 1/2" O.D, 1/8" wall thickness oil field pipe that forms the basis for all our corrals. They're probably 30-40 years old and were done right back when the main place was built. And it's covered with that many years of weather, a dozen coats of paint and crud and when it breaks, I need to put it back together right. That's actually how I got here. I had a small, Lincoln stick, a Hobby Weld that, as you can imaging, didn't really cut it. I gave it to Hector. And so my quest to learn welding started and I gained a new appreciation for what you guys go through. Root passes are important and now I know what they are. Cover passes. Cap welds and the like. So again, and I know I say it alot, but sincerely, thank you for your help. So with that said, Mike, I haven't settled on anything yet. It's looking more and more like I'll be going with a Ranger or a Trail Blazer instead of trying to piece a compressor, welder, generator thing together on a trailer. It'll still be on a small trailer like Al recommended but it'll be a generator machine. That'll give me MIG and Stick both in shop and in field and my tig can be at the shop for the fun stuff I'm learning how to do. For right now, I have a 180 Lincoln MIG and a Longenity PROMTS 200 that adds stick and I have a 421 Longevity and a Honda 6500 Generator/Invertor, all of which are on loan to me from great people here like Ed and Simon so I could get going in restoring the ranch and building onto it. For those of you who don't know, our home, the one we open for Weld-o-Rama, is a conventional 4000 sq.ft. home in a residential tract that we've had for 20years. Our ranch is 2 miles away, over a hill. It's about 100 acres with barns, arenas, a 1-1/8mi racetrack and 100 acres that backs onto the national forest. So we're building our retirement home there and are going to be renting this one out. That's why I had to learn welding and learn it right.  It has a small, 1800ft. caretaker's facility on it but  it'll stay that way for the caretaker and our home is going up new. So, now that you're all up to speed, you can see why I've been so progressive about learning exactly what each form of welding was all about before I started buying things and I could never be able to thank you enough for not letting me make some very, very expensive mistakes. Now, we're going to be doing alot of grinding out before we weld and fix. Before, it was just light it up with a stick and call it good; bird doo or not. Finally, as to practice, thankfully, Hector or "Miller Killer" left me a dozen square railroad pads that are well over an inch thick and weigh 100 lbs each and some rail that, until now, I would have never known what to do with. Now I know. Practice, practice, practice. Gosh those things are heavy. Thanks Hector. So I guess I'll use the MTS to practice with. It's sure teaching me well when it comes to TIG. It took me awhile but now I understand the "zone" Terry talks about. You just lose all sense of time.
Reply:Railroad rail. Make yourself a poor mans anvil ! It's 39-47 lbs/ft. Here's how we welded it. Just thought you lava geeks would get a kick out of it.Bubble gumTooth pixDuct tapeBlack glueGBMF hammerScrew gun --bad battery (see above)
Reply:Originally Posted by jlamesI'll be going with a Ranger or a Trail Blazer
Reply:Originally Posted by jlamesIt's looking more and more like I'll be going with a Ranger or a Trail Blazer instead of trying to piece a compressor, welder, generator thing together on a trailer.
Reply:"Half the farms in America are held together with 6011 and the other half is held together with 6013"We call that "FARMER'S ROD".  Mike makes some good points about rod assortments.  And, Yes a 7018 root will suffice on confinement, handling chutes, and corrals.  May not be quite the spec for "PURDY welds", but you use what you got and get back to the dirt.  Since you have so much 3 1/2" pipe to deal with, I would suggest going over to Metal Geek http://metalgeek.com/static/cope.pcgi and making up a few cut templates for the more common angles and cutting them out of magnetic backed vinyl sign material (I get drop cuts for short money at one of the sign shops locally).  You can store them stuck to the hood of your portable and it will save you a ton of time and aggravation coping pipe joints.RogerOld, Tired, and GRUMPYSalesman will call, Batteries not included, Assembly is required, and FREE ADVICE IS WORTH EXACTLY WHAT YOU PAY FOR IT!Dial Arc 250HFThunderbolt 225 AC/DCAssorted A/O torches
Reply:I'm sorry. I was thinking of Al wen I wrote that. I meant a bobcat.  Originally Posted by Stick-manI don't know for sure, but this sounds like you're thinking of a Trailblazer Air Pak??? If so, in my opinion I would recommend getting a separate welder and compressor. I say this because it is likely you'll be doing more work with air tools, than welding. And a Trailblazer Air Pak would be one heck of an expensive air compressor. In other words, you'd be racking up the hours on the high priced unit, when you can get a nice gas compressor, AND a welder for about the same investment. This is not a situation where you only have so much room on your service truck, or you're doing a lot of air arcing everyday.
Reply:Yep, got that veery anvil. 1' long piece of RR rail courtest Hector as well.
Reply:We just got back today from laying 100 yards of 3-1/2" pipe coral top at my neighbor's ranch. He just got a Ranger and boy what a great machine. I brought the Longevity 42i over in the Gator with the pancake 6gal compressor, plugged into his Ranger and cut all morning long. It's not something I want to do all the time because the compressor's about 15 years old and ran all the time keeping up with the pipe cuts but what a clean cut with that Ranger generator for power. I'm still going to look into that Outback but all the research and your all's help is making this all come together. I'm starting on the little trailer this week devoting nights to the project and using the 180 Lincoln I've become comfortable with to lay the beads. I'm not too worried about my still-evolving skill level falling short because it'll be towing my welding setup behind my Gator over our property and it will never see the road, especially with all the California licensing issues and DOT stuff but I think it'll be a good first product now that I know I can put square tube together. And yes, I'm cheating with a store-bought axle.
Reply:Thanks Tackit. Plenty of experience today. This person's really good and very patient so I'm off to a good start.
Reply:Originally Posted by jlamesWe just got back today from laying 100 yards of 3-1/2" pipe coral top at my neighbor's ranch. He just got a Ranger and boy what a great machine. I brought the Longevity 42i over in the Gator with the pancake 6gal compressor, plugged into his Ranger and cut all morning long. It's not something I want to do all the time because the compressor's about 15 years old and ran all the time keeping up with the pipe cuts but what a clean cut with that Ranger generator for power. I'm still going to look into that Outback but all the research and your all's help is making this all come together. I'm starting on the little trailer this week devoting nights to the project and using the 180 Lincoln I've become comfortable with to lay the beads. I'm not too worried about my still-evolving skill level falling short because it'll be towing my welding setup behind my Gator over our property and it will never see the road, especially with all the California licensing issues and DOT stuff but I think it'll be a good first product now that I know I can put square tube together. And yes, I'm cheating with a store-bought axle.
Reply:Really, really, really like stick welding. Mig's fun but stick is just great for the 3.5" pipe. This whole welding thing makes ranch work even more fun.
Reply:Excellent! I like stick welding when I want to lay down a lot of metal, or I'm outside - fluxcore is spendy.My "large" mig is only a MM210 so it can't compare with my big Airco Dave J.Dave J.Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance. ~George Bernard Shaw~ Syncro 350Invertec v250-sThermal Arc 161 and 300MM210DialarcTried being normal once, didn't take....I think it was a Tuesday.
Reply:Originally Posted by MinnesotaDaveI like stick welding when I want to lay down a lot of metal
Reply:Originally Posted by CEPYou want to lay down some metal? Pickup a roll of Lincoln's .120” NS-3M, you can dump about 40-pounds an hour with that stuff! http://www.lincolnelectric.com/en-us...olnElectric%29
Reply:Originally Posted by MinnesotaDaveUff-da - my machines don't have the stones to run that! Dave J.
Reply:Originally Posted by CEPWhy not? My Miller wire feeder ran it just fine.
Reply:I thought all welders were the same, especially Millers! Don’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400
Reply:Originally Posted by CEPI thought all welders were the same, especially Millers!Originally Posted by MinnesotaDaveYou are prob right, I'll recommend that wire to my brother (melonhead on WW) for his Miller 130 mig Dave J.
Reply:Originally Posted by weldermikeI forgot about your brother Dave. Any updates on that wicked chevelle hes building!
Reply:Originally Posted by MinnesotaDaveHe has to wear ear muffs in the garage to tune it He's been driving it (and scaring old people I'm sure) - has a track day coming up to see what it does Mostly it's been the Dairy Queen ice cream getter so far Dave J.
Reply:Hey Squirmy- Out of what book did you get that page? Looks like something I should be reading.
Reply:Originally Posted by jlamesHey Squirmy- Out of what book did you get that page? Looks like something I should be reading.
Reply:That page is from "Modern Welding Technologies" it has tons of information but is a bit pricey. Think I paid $160 for it.Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:Originally Posted by SquirmyPugThat page is from "Modern Welding Technologies" it has tons of information but is a bit pricey. Think I paid $160 for it.
Reply:That'd be great of you but I can't keep them from you and I can't read it all in one sitting. I need to build a reference library much the same as I have for film and lighting and the like that I can go to every time I have an issue. But thank you so much for the kind offer and it'll be great to see you at the next shindig. Good thing it wasn't yesterday. It was raining like crazy out here.
Reply:You know, I thought I'd go broke buying my college text books at about $35 a crack thinking it was such a rip-off for students to have to buy books for, at that time, exorbitant prices that were written by the professors. Now I routinely see prices like $160 for reference manuals and wonder how kids are making it through school today. I guess everything's relative though. Originally Posted by SquirmyPugThat page is from "Modern Welding Technologies" it has tons of information but is a bit pricey. Think I paid $160 for it.
Reply:Jonathan, I bought a bunch of welding encyclopdias from the AWS a bunch of years back. Loaded with knowledge. Maybe check there website and see if they're still available.  I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Reply:I looked quick on my phone, im still at work, but it seems it's all broken down to spiral hand books now. I looked up smaw for you and the book is only $15. Not bad at all.I hate being bi-polar it's awsomeMy Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys