Welder

6010/6011/6013 works well for welding rusty dirty metal, but leaves "ugly" welds, although it's super easy to strike an arc. 7018 requires "clean" metal, is harder to strike an arc, but leaves a bead like a row of dimes.

amperage requirements are usually printed on the package.

steell wrote:

my son had a bitch of a time trying to strike an arc with this rod, and keeping it going. a few years back he built a trailer at school. he had to make some additions (all new steel) when he brought it home. we borrowed a welder(220 volt. Model=?) and bought some of this rod, he had used a dif rod at school? is there a trick to using this rod? Is it because he may have had the wrong amperage? As I recall , he tried dif settings?
what about the drying of this rod? it doesn’t sound practical for the occasional user to keep rod in a dryer?
is there a better choice for a beginner? the trouble he had, has kept me from trying mods to my KZ,myself.

7018 is a low hydrogen rod and must be kept dry in a rod oven to maintain its low hydrogen properties. It's hard to re-strike an arc because the rod burns up inside the coating forming a 'cup' that keeps the metal rod away from the base metal when striking. If you break off the extended coating from the rod it will start up easier. To start an arc, scratch the metal like striking a match rather than stabbing at the base metal.

I use 7014 for general purpose welding. It works on AC or DC. It's not as sensitive to moisture in the coating as 7018 and strikes and welds very easily. It can be dragged to provide a nice bead. It's available at many farm supply stores. Buy a couple of pounds and practice, practice, practice.
Tom