Positive-Negative

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I need an answer as to how to identify welding rod.   First is welding rod marked in such a way as to be quickly identified either positive or negative? If so what marks  or identifying numbers and or color will it be? Is there a standard marking  for all makers of different rods?  Or can you just adjust the machine to Positive or negative ground and proceed with a rod of your choosing for the job?   Hope these are not to stupid of questions  to go unanswered.   Thanks to all for the help.one good deed is worth a thousand good intentions
Reply:There are standards for rods, and most of the rod a welding shop moves will be one of the standard types. The basic spec is set by the American Welding Society, and, though there are variations within each type, for most tasks, all rods of a given type are interchangable.  There are also a LOT of rods that do not meet AWS (or ASME, or ABS, orAPI, or ..) standard. These are generally special purpose rods.Rods meeting AWS standard are marked with the rod type, right on the flux, near the stinger end. (for that matter, fillers designed for TIG and gas welding are also stamped in general) The marking usually won't indicate anything other than the basic type of rod (for example: Lincoln 5P and 5P+ are both marked "6010", unless there as been a recent change) If the exact spec matters, it is generally on the can. No can, tough to tell. No number on the rod, you need to know where it came from. I have a couple boxes of older Eutectic in the shop, all different, no interpretable markings on the rods, just scrawl on the box as to what they are for.For examples, see: http://www.mylincolnelectric.com/Cat...asp?browse=104|2030|Stick%20Electrodes%20-%20Mild%20and%20Low%20Alloy%20Steels&locale=1033Note the a given AWS class may have several trade name rods associated (this is only one manufacturer, too) each with somewhat different characteristics. When you get down into rods like the 7018's, there are significant differences in alloy, flux, etc, that don't matter for many applications, but can be critical for others.The point: classified rods are marked. Not all of the info is on the rod, tho, so for an application where the details matter, use only rods you can trace to an exact spec/manufacturer/product
Reply:Also if you have DC forget all about all this + or - stuff. Set the machine to DCRP (+) and take the knob off and throw it away. The only time you need to change anything is using AC for nickel and occasionally for stainless. All the common steel rods will run on DC better than AC.www.urkafarms.com