Yeah, I have to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when it came to 1/8th vs 5/32. I never saw a video regarding that in the past, or tested it myself. My thought was (based on my previous video that I cranked 1/8th 7018 up to 165 amps) was more amperage wouldn’t mean more penetration. On face value it makes sense that a 5/32 rod wouldn’t have much (if any) more penetration that 1/8th rod. The metal you’re melting is more so more heat goes into melting the rod than the base metal. Basically a heat to metal ratio stays fairly consistent despite more amperage. The limitation being you will hit a limit where the amperage needed to get some penetration exceeds the rods ability to handle the current. To test this I think I will try to weld 1/2in ice cold plate with 3/32 to 5/32 and see what happens lol.

The biggest issue with bigger rods is they can be difficult to get a solid root in depending on what you’re welding. In real world repairs and making stuff, it’s very common to have joints that aren’t perfect 90degree fillets. The bigger/wider rod makes it difficult to get the tip of the rod close enough to get root fusion. You end up putting a bigger first pass than you really need, and it ends up bridging both plates. This can be really bad with 7024 rods. Generally speaking it’s best to use a 3/32 or 1/8th rod to do a root and then a 5/32 to fill. 5/32 rods do have more penetration/fusion than 1/8th in many cases, but that’s if you can get a tight arc gap, which often isn’t possible because of how wide the rod is.

No problem 😀. It was fun to shoot and I feel like I gained useful knowledge. I will be doing a video where I weld stupidly thick material to test the limits, that will be real interesting to see what the rods do on 1in thick material lol.

You’re absolutely correct. I actually did the preheat trick when I welded 18ga to 1/4in thick steel with flux core. Preheating the thicker allowed me to reduce amperage low enough that the thin didn’t just blow apart. Preheat can buy you a ton of capability in a pinch. It actually seems to help penetration more on thicker plate than just turning the amperage up. The biggest limiting factor with welding thin is arc force. Stick no matter what rod/polarity/etc just has a more aggressive arc than .030 flux core or .025 MiG wire. I can weld auto body all day with wire welding, but stick is extremely difficult. So difficult I rather use a torch and weld or braze it any day before stick welding it lol.

@@makingmistakeswithgreg the only tips I've found for stick welding thin metals are on youtube, but from fabricators in Indonesia and Vietnam. It's not pretty or in English, but if you watch closely you can see how they do it with limited equipment (no mig, tig). They all use 6013 and 2.6 or 2.8mm rods which are available, but not common here. The rods also have a little more aggressive flux. You can find the thai brand they use, then lookup the composition of the flux. Some of these guys are pretty good at this dab, dab technique, although they know how to run a bead (but can't without blowthru). I suggest small Hobart rods, not more smooth running rods. The more aggressive formulas of 6013 flux adds a little extra CO2 kick. Not all these guys are good at it. They also have a 2nd piece of material next to them and keep the tip of the electrode cherry red while they're dabbing. If it cools too much, they dab the scrap a couple of times then go back to the object they're welding. I have seen it look like tig (once in a while) when the guys really good at it. They only use 6013 DCEP, at least that's what I remember! I don't know why? Less Penetration on DCEN or AC.

I was able to weld closed some holes I put in my exhaust, but I had to ignore all the advice I found online. Best approach I found was 6011, gives the fast freeze of 6010 with less arc force. I ran the 1/8 rod way down at 60a and the 3/32 at 45-50. The technique that worked for me was starting out by welding a small circle enclosing the hole the making the circle progressively smaller until you’ve closed the hole. Using the 6011 you can strike up easily and move quickly. When you do this, you’ll find you are almost “painting” on the metal with drive-by passes. It’s not a bead and it’s just slightly longer than a tack. It’s like you strike, weld, and break the arc in a continuous circular swipe. I had a LOT of frustration dealing with that exhaust pipe and when I had the eureka of a technique that worked, I was elated. I never could get 6013 to work because the it’s not fast freeze and won’t allow you do stack metal on metal very well. Plus the slag is always in the way and requires constant brushing. With the 6011, I could stack metal on metal and close the holes I burned in trying to make 6013 work.

The nice thing with the bigger rods is they don’t flex like the little ones, so they are easier to keep the arc/rod tip pointed where you want. 5/32s and bigger are easy to run provided you have thick steel to weld. 😀

The main drop would be voltage due to voltage loss via resistance of the cable. The welder I used in that video had 2ga cable with a 12’ or so run each leg. 2ga is solidly good to around 250a on a 50’ run so half that at sub 200 is good to go 👍