Arc electrode penetration

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So I've been doing a lot of reading about arc electrodes and how they penetrate into the steel. However one thing that is still confusing me is what is meant by low, medium and deep penetrating rod and how it affects weld strength. I know for a proper weld the filler must penetrate all the way into the base metals, however those ratings are pretty vague and i like concrete numbers. Anybody have any insight they and share on this? Thanks.
Reply:There is a major difference between penetrating "into" and penetrating "through" a material.  If a guy was welding something pretty thin, and clean, then a low penetrating rod like 6013 would be good.  If welding something with alot of scale, rust, etc, then you would want something a little more penetrating---6010, 6011-------The thing is, is there is not a "magic" electrode that works in all situations and one that works wonders on one application may not work at all in another.  Lots of people really like 6013 cause it's easy to weld with, the downside is that also doesn't penetrate very deep so not a good choice on something that needs penetration----clear as mud?6 Miller Big Blue 600 Air Paks2 Miller 400D6 Lincoln LN-25's4 Miller Xtreme 12VS2 Miller Dimension 812 4 Climax BW-3000Z bore welders Hypertherm 65 and 85Bug-O Track BugPair of Welpers
Reply:Pretty hard to give concrete numbers cause the amount of penetration is controlled by a lot of variables like electrode diameter, amperage used for a given rod size, direction of travel, type of material your welding, arc voltage, arc length, how clean the metal is, AC or DC welding, the color of your underwear and whether you changed your socks that morning. Lots of variables and they all effect the way your welds behave. 6010 penetrated deep and is good on dirty metal and works at lower amperages, 7018 not as deep penetrating and requires clean metal and relatively higher amperages. 6013 low penetration but not as high of amperage required and easy to burn.
Reply:Thanks for the answers. Most of that I already knew, but I think I might have formed my question wrong. What I've been trying to understand is how they made those distinctions between shallow medium and deep. I have a feeling that I need to go out and get a bunch of different rod, some plate and weld up a bunch of test pieces to try and break apart.
Reply:Welding consumable suppliers have been at this game for a very long time, with as many talented people as they want, to come up with so many variations on electrodes and their applications. It used to be that electrodes were color coded, but I have never seen any of those in use.City of L.A. Structural; Manual & Semi-Automatic;"Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore."Job 28:1,2Lincoln, Miller, Victor & ISV BibleDanny
Reply:i have a bunch of old rod that is color coded. did a search a couple years ago to try to find out and identify it. some i succeeded doing others where impossible to get info on. some rod i had numerous containers of with military id's on but that was about it. figured i would someday sit down and burn different ones to see if i could see how it handled....someday lol.225NT bobcatAEAD200LEScott 125mm175, mm252 w 30A, PT225mm211, TA 181iHyper Therm 380, cut master 529100X & XX, Digital Elite6 Victor setssmith little torch, meco midget kalamazoo band sawsteel max saw evoulution circular saw