The Enduring 7018 Electrode

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Most good welders will have at least one story that sounds like this: “You’re not going to believe this but it’s as true as _______ (I live, water is wet, an apple is a fruit). We were on ___________ (holidays, the way back from camp, the way to the hospital) with ___________(the wife and 6 kids, a badly injured worker, a woman in labor) driving a_________ (station wagon, 1942 4×4 International, 1963 VW hippy van) towing a _________ ( U-Haul, tent trailer, B train) on behind. It was getting towards dark and the radio said there was a ____________ (tornado, snow blizzard, typhoon) coming in the next 2 ______(hours, minutes, seconds). Right then, out in the ________(deserted mountain passes, howling desert, flooding valley), the _________ (truck’s suspension, truck’s axle, truck’s front wheel) _________ (breaks, rolls away, explodes). We have to pull over on this ________ (deserted dirt road, edge of cliff, thin wedge of a crevice). What do you do? Wouldn’t you know it, not far off the road is an_______ (abandoned mine, hidden cave, storage shed). I go in there and here’s some old _______ (stick electrode, welding wire, coat hanger). I jacked up the vehicle. Used the _______ (rusty bare welding cable, jumper cables, cables from Playstation) for welding cables and used the power off the _________ (battery of the car, abandoned truck battery, flashlight battery) and welded the part back on. It just had to last ______ (1 mile of icy roads, 10 miles of washed out road, 40 miles of twisting goat trails) before we were in a town where a better weld could be put on. You know, we never did get it welded. The weld was still good. I sold the vehicle that way. ” After that story, you just nod your head in agreement and don’t try to top it with a better story. It could be true. Well, the part about him being a great welder is sure true. And you never know when you’ll need Elmer to do some welding for you. Yeah, what the heck, I believe it.

We are in the days where productivity is honoured and inefficiency is cursed. Computers, video, and data have banded together to document and show the cancer of inefficiency, whether you play soccer or work on a manufacturing floor. One of the things that have received the Big Gong is the stick electrode. The stick electrode belongs to the days when people made their living delivering milk to your door. You want to make money, you better ditch those things. Not only are they good at making you poor but it’s hard to find anyone who can lay down a good bead. Yes, it’s all true.

We are in the days where productivity is honoured and inefficiency is cursed. Computers, video, and data have banded together to document and show the cancer of inefficiency, whether you play soccer or work on a manufacturing floor. One of the things that have received the Big Gong is the stick electrode. The stick electrode belongs to the days when people made their living delivering milk to your door. You want to make money, you better ditch those things. Not only are they good at making you poor but it’s hard to find anyone who can lay down a good bead. Yes, it’s all true.

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If there is an electrode that represents Sgt Joe Friday (“Just doing my job, ma’am”) it’s the 7018. It’s the electrode of choice for structural welding. There are 5 things 7018 does better than the other guys.

  1. Its chemical character enables it to weld through certain levels of dirt, debris or mill scale.
  2. The addition of iron powder in the coating of the 7018 gives it a good deposition rate (for the SIGMA group, deposition rate is a good metric).
  3. The other good metric is it has good post weld clean up. Translation: the slag is easy to remove.
  4. It’s ideal for all position welding, except for vertical down.
  5. It has good starting and restarting characteristics.

This last characteristic is what creates superstition and fighting. All manufacturers claim their magic dust (formulation) is what makes their wands (electrodes) the best. But the guy, who actually does the welding, will have had success with X Brand but not Y Brand. So when at least two welders enjoy different brands and purchasing says we’re only buying one brand, at least one person will be unhappy.

When using 7018, you’ll be doing some restarting and probably restriking. If these 2 things aren’t done properly, they show up after the welding is done. A restart is when the required weld needs more than 1 electrode. The 2nd electrode is going to have to start where the last rod stopped. The heartache comes from a bad restart. It requires good welding skills to restart where you left off without creating a mess. The other issue is when you’ve completed the welding job but didn’t use up the whole electrode. What do you do with the remaining rod? If you reuse it, then it’s called restriking. One thing you need to do and to know.   A silicon deposit has probably formed on the end of the stick electrode and it must be removed. Just be careful that your approach to removing the deposit doesn’t include knocking off the electrode coating. And the thing you need to know is whether your welding code or welding procedure allows restriking.

7018 does have issues but who doesn’t; even Superman has to be careful around certain chemicals. One of the things 7018 has to be careful around is moisture. 7018 nick name is lo-hi. Just means it has low hydrogen. It is the lack of hydrogen in the electrode that gives its power. Manufacturers when they finish producing the electrode put it into a hermetically sealed package, to keep the moisture out. So, once the package has been opened then it becomes your job to keep the moisture out.

7018 does require special handling care – not just using clean dry gloves. Once 7018 has been taken out of the package and been exposed to the atmosphere, you have to answer the question: has it been exposed to the atmosphere too long and picked up moisture. There’ll be rules as to how long it can be exposed. Too long, they will have to be reconditioned. If not too long, then the remaining electrodes must be stored properly while they wait for the next job. This is where a rod oven with a temperature control can be a great money saver.

The rod oven can do 2 things: store and recondition the electrodes. Below is a chart giving the 2 different temperatures for storage or reconditioning.

Two things need to be done when reconditioning electrodes. One, don’t stuff and run. Spread the rods out so each one attains to the proper temperature. Two, know your codes. Some codes restrict how many times they can be reconditioned.

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7018 will continue to be the most popular electrode. And Stick Welding will continue to be used for a variety of welding jobs and Paul Bunyan type stories.

If you need more info, give us a call we’ll help you.

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