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Welding rod oven

Martin w

Ultra Member
I store my rods in a dry place, but I put them in a rod oven before I do any project that requires a lot of welding.
Typically how far a head should the rods go in the oven? It’s a Gullco 300 watt
Martin
 
Years ago, I worked quite a bit with a welder (welder, mechanic, AZ driver, jack-of-all trades, etc.). He was very skilled at fabricating things and coming up with ingenious gizmos. Anyhow, that is beside the point. In his shop, he used an old refrigerator to store his welding rod. Inside the refrigerator was a 100-watt light bulb that was always left on. It kept the inside temperature over 100 degrees F (as well as dry).
 
Not a pro welder, but my understanding is 7018 is fussy and needs extra care in avoiding moisture and drying prior to use.
 
Yea and no

Technically, should be in a rod oven to keep the moisture content low to zero, reasoning is that extra moisture can cause hydrogen embrittlement which could lead to cracking.....it's more of an issue with something that has high cyclic loading like a bridge

Practically, the rod burns the same unless it's absolutely soaked, chances to have a crack that propagates due to hydrogen embrittlement in general welding is very low, add to that most amateur welder's have far worse weld faults than the possibility of an internal crack resulting from rod that have not been kept in an oven, it's really not something to worry about. Higher likely hood you will have inclusions, lof or undercut...and add to that most hobby welders over weld the heck out it

In other words, unless you have been keeping them in the rain, or an extremely damp location, weld on.

If you have been keeping them in the rain or in the bottom of the fish tank and the flux is somehow intact, 24hrs minimum
 
6011 doesn't go in the oven, only xxx5, xxx6, xxx7, xxx8 and possibly some very specialty rods.

In your application for 7018 I honestly wouldn't worry about it, but it won't hurt either, so it's your call. If you were to plug it in, it needs to be at least 24hrs, less than that you might as well have not plugged it in and saved the electricity
 
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