storage and preservation of 7018 rods

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Hello all,My main work is field service.  My main rod for most iron repairs is 6010 or 6011.  When higher strength is called for I keep a small quantity of 7018 3/32" and 1/8" which I keep in those round water tight plastic cases.  I also keep on hand aluminum and stainless stick and tig rods for when the situation calls for.  In addition I carry various gas welding/brazing rods in steel, bronze and aluminum.  Also a minute amount of Ni stick rod for those occasional cast iron repairs.  I am not a high volume rod burner, preferring to use my MIG machine when I fabricate in my home shop.If I needed more rod for a project I will usually go to the local Home depot in my service truck and pick up steel stick welding rods in 5lb boxes.  This way I don't have to keep rod exposed to the air unnecessarily. I came across a new 50lb tin of 1/8" 7018 about a year ago at a give away price and just a few days ago had occasion to open the box for a project I did for a pavement company. I used about 10lbs of rod.  Now I am worried how to store the rest as I don't want it to get full of moisture.  I don't have an oven nor a hot box.  I have seen during my life as a welder old refrigerators converted into hot boxes by putting a 100 watt bulb in them and storing rod in them.I can do that but not immediately.  Is there some way I can store this stuff and keep it dry?  For example can I split it up into 5lbs bundles and wrap them with plastic and keep them indoors?  Can I keep them as is and then bake them prior to use in our home oven?  Can I just put some of that clingy plastic wrap around the opened box, seal it and store it indoors?  How do others do it?Any suggestions?Thanks,TonyLast edited by therrera; 05-25-2011 at 11:45 AM.Reason: To add a bit more clarity
Reply:Not long ago I have discovered that unless you are a pro welder that goes throuth a lot of rods in a regular basis OR you have plenty of room and money to afford (buying, running and keeping) a rod oven... 7018 is not for you. Or at least for me! Since my humble 170amps inverter also has a low welding voltage I am also unable to run 6010, seems like I am going to need to learn to propertly run 6013...Mikel
Reply:This should jumpstart your information acquisition ....http://weldingweb.com/vbb/showthread.php...highlight=7018Weldandpower Lincoln 225 AC,DC with Briggs 16hp gas engine.WW2 era Miller TIG.
Reply:I go through rod slowly so I throw the 7018 in the orange Hobart electrode cases (they have a rubber o-ring and screw on cap) and it seems to do fine.  Nothing I do gets X-ray or even eyes from an inspector, but I don't see porosity on casual examination.Hobart LX235Victor 250 Oxy-Acetylene Rig (welding and cutting)Bobcat 773F-350, 1999, 4x4, 16' 10K# trailerOutdoor Wood Burner - 10 cords/year
Reply:If you aren't doing code work, many folks keep the 7018 dry then bake small batches as needed.We had pallets of donated lo-hi rod that sat for years, in plastic-wrapped cardboard boxes, and on the flux of which you could see slight white discoloration characteristic of humidity exposure. We'd bake it for a couple of days and it would pass practice bend tests just fine! You can certainly use incorrectly stored 7018 for PRACTICE. It runs better freshly baked, and warm rods run better than those allowed to cool. If in doubt, don't throw it out, burn it up!
Reply:7018 works fine, even stored unbaked in an open box, unless you are working under a code that requires it to be kept in an oven/only used from a freshly opened box.  It all depends on the application and the code you are working under.  Mind you, I wouldn't recommend using a waterlogged box of 7018 for much other than non-code work smig welding filler...One company I worked for required that any rod that was out of an oven for more than 4 hours, be either re-baked or discarded, but they were pressure vessel oriented.  For general structural use, unbaked 7018 burns like a hot damn, unless as stated, the written code dictates the latter.Last edited by mb_welder; 05-25-2011 at 10:35 PM.
Reply:AWS D1.1 is clear, if even the low hydrogen electrodes are recieved in a hermetically sealed, undamaged container from the manufacturer, no baking/conditioning is necessary.Only when the reciept is in damaged condition then the required baking (260oC to 430oC as per AWS D1.1) is required. However the temperature and the cycle will be as recommended by the electrode manufacturer.ME....Just follow these rules.AWS certified welding inspectorAWS certified welder
Reply:Aftere 35-40 years welding I do not use 6013 for anything that is not either brand new steel meaning very clean, no oil dust espically rust. I always keep my rods in an oven before using. 6010, 6011, 6012, 7018 are my rods of choice if you are doing code work I would not advise using 6013 for that I mostly use 6013 for teaching new welders how to weld as it runs very well on dc-. keep those rods dry maybe if you can invest in a 50# pheonix rod oven I have seen them go for under 100.00 on ebay. good luck and after each pass clean all slag as well as you can, just my .02 cents hope this helps,the ouhtr posts are direct and on [email protected]
Reply:Hello all,well, I gather that it is reasonably acceptable to store the rod in those sealed plastic tubes with the 0-rings.  None of the work I do is "code" work per se.  However I get called on from time to time to weld on construction equipment (buckets, tanks and the like), truck frame and so on where I want the strength of 7018.As a freelance welder I have never been called on to weld on pipe or pressure vessels and so on.  So for those jobs, the suggestions would be to go out and by fresh rod and keep my stash of 7018 dry for use on general purpose projects.  I do happen to live in Arizona, its pretty dry here except for the monsoon season.Does that pretty much sum it up?  I did get a message from a member who responded to my questions to use silica gel and store it with the lo-hi in sealed plastic containers.  That sounds like a good idea and one I would never have thought of.  That way any moisture would get absorbed and away from the rods.Thanks,Tony
Reply:I like to use 7014 rods. Not as touchy as 7018 for moisture but stronger than 6011 6013. Plus for me they run really nice on my ac machine.Millermatic 252millermatic 175miller 300 Thunderboltlincoln ranger 250smith torcheslots of bfh'sIf it dont fit get a bigger hammer
Reply:I've seen a lot of pipe filled and capped with 7018 that had been left out in the plant opened for long periods of time. Seen the bare ends rusted. In the right hands they lay a bead as pretty as any oven kept rods. No code work, no xrays, and realtively low pressure stuff (100 psi steam and air). Never seen any failures in these situations due to hydrogen cracking or anything like that. At my shop I keep them in 2" PVC tubes with one end glued and capped the other with the cap slid on. The caps fit tight enought they usually have to be tapped off with something so they seem to be pretty air tight. The worse thing I've found is rod that has been rough handled and has flaws in the flux. The 7018 has a little thicker coating and seems more fragile than the 6010 type rods. I try to keep the tubes fairly full so the rods don't bang around in the tube. AlA man is judged by what's between his legs...always ride a good horseMiller DialArc HFLincoln Classic 300DThermal Arc 181iPowermax 45Scotchman Ironworker(2) BridgeportsOkomota Surface GrinderAutoCAD 2010
Reply:I don't think anyone here has emphasized the point that hydrogen embrittlement depends heavily on the steel alloy, its hardness, and often the stress it is subjected to. Wrought iron and mild steel are both able to deform, even if hydrogen is present, so it shouldn't be a problem there.In high-tensile steels, particularly in the hardened condition, it may well cause failure if the use provides the necessary (wrong) conditions. With other alloys, the hydrogen can combine with alloying elements to form other gases besides H2, and those alloys will be even more susceptible.The codes are there for a reason, based on what's being done on what; the code is based on the needs of the material and your practice should too, whether a code would apply to your work or not.Here are two pages I quickly found that give a bit more description than I just did:http://failure-analysis.info/2010/12...lement-part-3/http://metallurgyfordummies.com/hydrogen-embrittlement/