7018AC rant

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Here's some excerpts from the labelUSA 7018AWS A5.1 E7018AC/DC+ (reverse polarity)then read through a whole lot of crap until you get to this:PROCEDURE... DC+ (reverse polarity) is recommended however an AC machine with sufficient open circuit voltage can be used. What friggin jerks.  I know, I should have read the whole damned label before I bought this stuff but it really pisses me off that they list at the very top AC/DC+ then bury the recommendation to use DC+.  Not only that, but who the heck runs 7018 on AC?  Us guys with little utility welders. I did manage to get the welds I needed done by running the amps a little high and tossing each rod when I broke the arc.  It was damn near impossible to get restarted.  Oh well, I guess four rods to weld a 3/4" circle ain't bad.At least it was only $9 for a 5 lb box.  Then again, I can collect a box of crap out of my backyard for free.
Reply:never had any luck with the AC 7018!it never hurts to look,unless they`r WELDING!
Reply:There is a 7018 varint designed for AC (7018AC) that is supposed to run much better. Never tried it, but have heard good reports. Regular '18 on AC is not fun, but can be done. It does get easier with practice.Have you run '18 on DC? If you do, you may find that it isn't the easiest rod there either. You MUST pinch the end for restrikes. The end will coat with slag when you break the arc, and the slag prevents restart. Worse on AC, as strikes ar naturally tougher. BTW: Why '18? Lo-Hy? out of position? There are easier rods on AC.
Reply:Hobart and Lincoln (LH73) are especially formulated for AC and run well. A little loose on vert but they re-start well.  Very good for AC machines.www.urkafarms.com
Reply:Sberry,Have you ran the LH73 vs. the Lincoln 7018 AC?  Lincoln gives about the same description for both of these and I'd rather not buy 50 lbs of LH73 at a time.enlpck,I was tapping the end on the concrete and then would experience major sticking on restart.  Never had 6011, 6013 or 7014 stick like that.  If I tried scratch starting, the arc wouldn't stabilize.  Poking it, the rod would weld itself solidly to the work.  I'm not really much of a welder -- guess I need to burn the rest of the rod to see if I can get better with it.I've been performing maintenance on some industrial machinery for a friend at his recently acquired scrap yard.  He's got 25 years of catch up on the maintenance he's trying to get done.  It's a race to get stuff fixed before it breaks.Short answer is I was welding a ball stud into a 1" cast steel bell crank for the steering on a forklift.  It's a 1 to 2 month wait for a new bell crank and if they don't have a forklift, they aren't getting their scrap moved to the shipping ports.LOOOOOng answer you may want to skipI showed up Wednesday morning and the forklikt is sitting on a pair of car rims, with a set of 3 ton jackstands laying on the ground, smashed to hell.  The rear draglink had broken and was at the machinist being welded and rethreaded.  I inspected the rest of the steering components and it was a total mess.  The tie rod ends were all wore out, one of the isolators was broken and the tapers for the tie rod ends and the draglink ball mount were ovaled out.  There were lock washers on the tie rod ends and nails used as cotter pins.  The ball stud for the draglink had a self locking nut on it and was never tightened properly, thus causing some severe egging of the hole.I pulled it all apart to repair as my friend thought the parts would be easily attainable.  After finding out the wait on the bell crank, he asked me to reassemble it.  I took the bell crank to a couple machine shops near me and got the standard answers.  Either, 1) we can't fix that and don't know who can or 2) sure we can fix that -- no clue on how much it might cost and I can't get to it until next week, maybe.  The machinist the yard has an arrangement with does mostly lathe work and said he couldn't fix it.So, we decided we'd weld the egging on the top of the ball stud and put a proper nut back on the bottom.  The weld only needs to fill the wear space and last a month or two.  I waffled on the rod choice but decided I didn't want to chance cracking the bell crank by not using a lo-hy rod.  Probably much to do about nothing but I wasn't taking any chances and having an unusable forklift for 2 months.
Reply:Well... depending on the material of the crank, and the rod condition, this may explain some of the issue. 7018 isn't the easiest rod to run.. quite different from 6010, 7014, etc. It is VERY sensitive to moisture, and even on DC, it runs crappy once it starts to pick moisture up. Worse on AC.  I will presume that the rod was fresh and dry (right out of the oven, or from a new can) and also mention that '18 can be a  little goofy on a machine without sufficient open circ. voltage and on some alloys of steel. Your piece may be an alloy that is more difficult to weld.
Reply:Thanks for the pointers.I ran my oractice beads on some CRS and had the same issues.  This rod came in a sealed plastic container.I picked up some 1/8" Fourney 7018AC today at the hardware store and until I find something better, it'll be my go to rod when I need the lo-hy.  Ran it at 130 and 115 amps and it ran great.  If I broke the arc too fast, it'd leave a little tube of flux that'd prevent restrike but, that's user error, not the rod.  Long arcing until the arc broke left a clean tip that would restrike with no problem.Fourney comes in a cardboard box, so I'm sure it's moisture contaminated -- something I'll have to address.  But even so, it ran great on some test coupons.
Reply:Note on the Forney electrodes......I picked up 10# of Forney 7014 at the local hardware store and noticed that some of the boxes said: "Made in U.S.A"....while others (and you have to look close) said: "Made in Turkey".   My personality will only allow me to buy the "Made in U.S.A." stuff, but i'm sure it all meets, at least, the minimum standards.   It's still in the box, I haven't tried it yet, but I hope it runs OK.I'll be the LAST one to let you down !