Greg I really don’t know how to thank you enough between this and the tig video. I’m actually blown away. And a bit speechless. I could never have even wished for a better learning resource than you!
Thank you for your kind comment. You can thank me by investing the time in yourself to get your skills up so you can build stuff 😀. Having useful skills will always pay off in the long run😀
Greg, your channel is like having a personal welding school instructor right by your side! I am so glad to that I stumbled across it. That is not to say that there aren't good welding sites out there. But a lot of them now are just commercials to sell you their welder, or there products. I and many others appreciate what you do.
Thanks for the kind words, I am glad to have you as a subscriber 😀. I knew the welding world on TH-cam is packed, even so I know I can have a lot to offer (not just in welding since I will be getting into a lot more videos besides welding). The main reason I am doing everything is my hope that I can inspire people to pickup a tool and build something. To few people hear words of encouragement, and having hands on skills seems to be dying off. If I can get even a few people motivated and making stuff that’s a great thing 😃
I learned more here in 48 minutes than the total sum of all videos watched in 2 years Thanks! No one has ever explained that actually contacting the metal with the rod is a good thing. I've always just tried keeping some kind of distance.
I am glad it helped you out 😀👍. You will find 6011 and 6010 both run better if you actually touch the flux to the plate in a stitching Motion. What ends up happening if you hold a gap the whole time is the rod burns off higher and higher inside the flux, and about 1/3rd to 1/2 a rod in you get a bunch of arc blow. By knocking the flux off by tightening the arc via touching the flux to the plate and melting the flux off it keeps the actual rod closer to the edge of the flux, thus less arc blow. Once you get the hang of it you should see a decent jump in quality of weld, far less spatter, and more consistency to your welds. 😀👍
Thanks Greg! Here are a few of the points I liked. You taught us how to use a 6011 rod. You simulated the likely mistakes a beginner would make and offered advice on how to fix. The contrast to other rods and the specific instructions when using 6011 were dead on. The idea that it may take 20 pounds of rod to learn gave me comfort. I watched your video and now I'm heading to the shop knowing more than I did 30 minutes ago.
Glad to hear you took away some helpful tips 😀. Since 6011 is so common I figured making a video on it in specific would help people out. As far as learning to weld, when I took 2 separate stick welding classes a while ago I had to burn up somewhere around 80lbs of rods per class. With 6011 in specific I probably burned up atleast 15lbs of rods. At the end of all of that I had a decent handle on flat and horizontal stick welding with multiple rods. I know that sounds like a lot, but that’s what it takes to fine tune things. The hardest thing to master was a simple 5inch bead on plate that was equal in width, height, and straight. Focus on doing that and overlapping them perfect so you don’t have valleys between welds. Once you can do that easily everything else will be far easier 😀.
@@dennisyoung4631 I'm not him, but I learned to weld close to 30 years ago on a Lincoln AC225 and 6011. Today I'm a machinist that also does the welding(stick, mig, and tig) for my employer. There's no substitute for time spent under the hood, trying different things and observing the results. If you're just learning, it will help to minimize the variables. Electrodes are a variable. Different brands won't run quite the same, and there can be variance from lot to lot within the same brand. I don't know if Hobart makes more than one type of 6011, but Lincoln does and others may as well, so be sure to stick to the same brand/type, and if you're buying smaller quantities, check the lot number as well. Eventually, you may try other brands/types and discover than one works better for you and your machine than another. I've never run a comparison of different brands/types of 6011 myself, but with 6010 and 7018 it is absolutely true, and very apparent.
Appreciate the video, picked up some 6011 3/32 today, unfortunately my titanium 225 doesn’t have arc force adjustment so I would get some weak starts, a lot of sticking and my arc seemingly dying out. This explains quite a bit. Appreciate the work you do!
The titanium 225 will run 6011 (and 6010), but it’s a bit harder to start the arc than a machine with adjustable hot start. It will take a bit of screwing around to get the start just right, but once you practice enough you will be in good shape.
Great video Greg. I have been practicing "whip and pause" 6011 rod manipulation, and my welds look horrible. Today I tried the "circle e" rod manipulation, and found it a game changer for me, my welds began to quickly look a lot better, as I practiced I did not know that 6011 can be dragged, I'll try that tomorrow. Thanks again.
You’re entirely welcome. You can do circle e movements and that will spread out the weld decently. 6010 tends to produce a narrow weld that can rope up, doing a circle e movement or increasing the arc gap will help flatter a beat out. To get a whip and pause to work the best you must lengthen the arc gap enough that it widens the weld but not too much that the arc becomes unstable. It’s a very fine line of what works and what doesn’t. Generally speaking unless you’re welding uphill you want to drag most stick rods. 6011 can function with a push angle simply because it’s arc pushes the flux out of the way. Dragging it should produce a better looking weld no doubt. The key is to run slower travel speed than with say 6013, and to let the rod deposit metal. You’ll get it, it will just take some practice 😀
Excellent information.. your narrative to your process is awesome!! Reminds me of my best friend when we graduated who taught me to weld on a weekend at his family farm .. his attention to prep and his explanation of his actions took most of the day .. by the time I actually struck an arc there wasn’t much time to burn more than twenty rods for the day .. we were working with 6011 for that day .. Saturday.. Sunday we jumped on a greyhound and headed north .. surprisingly I passed the welding test Monday at a potential job posting .. lol .. ahh youth eh? Your series about stick welding is the first TH-cam I’ve watched .. great tutorial !! I do have a request though .. about video production actually.. a split screen of your hand movement and the arc footage synced together would be great to understand what’s actually happening to achieve the result .. thanks for your attention to detail !!
Glad the video helped you out 😀. 6011 is a great rod once you can get a handle on how slow you must move and the consistency required. It will make you a better welder.
Good stuff bud I wish we could be welding buddy's it stinks not having a friend to talk about welding together or just shoot the crap with been welding for almost 20 years now love your stuff
Thanks for the kind words 😀. I can relate, while I have been spending the last 20 years building stuff and restoring buildings, most of the people I hung out with wound up in jail, dead, or nowhere. Very few people I know weld or are interested in it. That’s why it’s nice to do the TH-cam thing, so I can talk with like minded people 😀
I remember the days when building storage racks from 6ft tall to 30ft tall in 6 inch I beam to 16inch and large channel single sided to double. There was a time the local steelmill wanted us to build stirage wracks from rejected steel so they brought samples in for us to cut and fit so we built two of each, when there inspectors came to look they said you guys were able to use the scrap. They were going to be used at the steelmill so we finnished the job but there were gaps to fill using 6011 rods to finishing up with jet rod and mig also. Those wracks are still standing today after 40 years. I picked up a harbor freight 140 120v unit stick, mig and tig.
Hey Greg, I'm just getting started with stuck welding and really glad I found your channel. Your explanations are clear and to the point. I really like the crayon reference. That helps a lot. ....and yes...new subscriber 👍
Thanks for the subscription and I am glad the info has helped you. I figured the crayon thought would help, it’s the best way I could describe it that I figured would make sense. The learning curve on stick is steep but once you get over that it’s not bad 😀
A very good instructional video for people wanting to get the best out of 6010 & 6011 rods. So very true everything you say about the technique needed to get good welds with this rod. As mentioned the fast freeze nature of this rod does indeed show all inconsistent travel speeds and puddle management variations. Once this rod is mastered, it can indeed produce consistent ripples when rod is whipped forward and back in. It is indeed a very sensitive rod to use, but very good for penetration and all position usage. This rod also does great for rusted and contaminated surfaces when proper prep isn’t an option. I’ve always thought 6010 welds better than the 6011, although the latter can be used with AC, whereas 6010 is used best used with DC Reverse (+) polarity only. Keep the great weld videos coming my friend, great job. 😎👍
Thanks 😀. 6010 and 6011 will definitely show any flaws/inconsistencies in a persons movement/technique. I always found it funny how many people don’t like the rods and think they cant make good looking welds. Little do they realize it’s their lack of skill/consistency, and the rod doesn’t cover them up lol. I cant imagine stick welding without 6010/11, so useful to those who can run them 😃
Greg you are awsome you have helped me out the most with your expert way of demonstration and explanation with 6011 i just started welding a month ago and could not repair my truck this video literally answers all my questions for my centrury 230 amp buzzer
Awesome, glad to hear it. 6011 can do a real good job, it just requires a slow travel speed. Once you get that down and focus on being steady/smooth, the rod becomes very useful.
I would take a heatgun and heat the rod at the beginning of the day. It would dry the rod, and since I was working off a service truck in the Minnesota winters, pre heating was needed. I would also keep the rod in the cab under the heater. PS. Don't do this in a plastic box. I was running a Miller 325 EFI. Gas drive.
I have been trying to weld with 3/32 6011 and an Everlast welder with ArcForce. Sometimes I have success, but most of the time the weld is inconsistent, there is arc blow, and the arc extinguishes after an inch or so of welding. I have had better results with going back into the puddle and then forward a bit. This helps to keep the arc lit. But I am still far from what I would like to get. I have just seen your advice at around 30:50 where you suggested to touch the metal then lift off a bit and repeat. This, I think is really good advice and I believe it would help me maintain a lit arc. You make it look so easy. Thank you Greg for your tutorials......from the other side of the world. Cheers.
6011 is very easy to have too long of a arc with. Every welder tolerates a different arc length, or basically max welding voltage. If the arc cuts out what may be going on is the voltage may be rising above what the welder can sustain. Moving forward and back will cause the arc voltage to rise and fall, likely keeping it from rising too high. To get 6011 to run well you must feed quite a bit of rod in (because a lot of metal is lost via sparks and the flux doesn’t aid metal deposition) and move fairly slow. It does take some getting used to. The weld will be wider than many other rods, and that’s ok. Also, turning up arc force will cause an increase in amperage as the arc gets tighter (aka the voltage drops). If you have it set too high it will be difficult to control without the muscle memory of holding a consistent arc gap. I can run super high arc force simply because I have ran so many rods I am super consistent. For you experiment with low settings of 20-40% for a while and it may help. You don’t have to run 6011 at high arc force. Beyond that just keep practicing and you will get better. 6011 makes ugly welds until you have the muscle memory down to run it. 😀
Weld-Spatter = *Blops.* First encountered these in the mid-eighties, at Sunkist, working in the paint-booth, which is where I came up with the term “Blops” to name them. A chisel works good to get rid of them.
crossing my fingers so that you do detailed videos like this for TIG as well. Was not looking to learn stick but with these so detailed videos, is hard not to try it out.
I will be getting back into tig and for the first time MiG soon. I have all the rest of the stick welding videos shot, I just need to edit them. Do you have any video requests in specific for tig?
Greg, I'm a rank beginner at welding, just starting a couple weeks ago. I have viewed many different YT welding presenters and your presentation style is by far the best and most informative that I've seen. I've been struggling with 6011 and this video has removed the frustration of working with this rod--just need more practice now. Q: With a given work situation where one could use either 6011 or 7018 (if that is possible), which rod would you select? BTW, compared to 6011, 6013 is easier to use for this beginner, but I understand the two rods have different applications. Thanks again for you contribution to teaching.
Thanks for the kind words. To answer your questions, hopefully this will help: I use 6010 and 7018 for pretty much everything. If I had to pick between 7018 and 6011 I would pick 7018. 7018 puts down a consistent bead, it’s easy to layer, the slag is way easier to remove, etc. With 6011 it’s slower to weld with on many projects, and the slag takes more time to clean. There are some situations that 6011 would be my pick. Closing a hole up, bridging a large gap, being forced to run downhill, welding real scabby material with no prep, etc. 6011 is easier to strike a arc and restart, but takes far more consistency/practice to weld with when compared to 7018. Until you practice a bunch 7018 restarts will be rough. From a strength perspective both rods deposit metal that’s likely stronger than what you’re welding however 7018 is a stronger weld and more ductile. Also, I have a video releasing in the next two days that shows average travel speed and bead width for 7018 and 6010 (plus others). This should further help you by giving you real measurements that you can follow to check your welds to see if you are in the ballpark. Being that you’re new you must remember that the hardest part about learning anything new is what I call the “fool” stage. That is the period in time where you don’t have idea idea of what you’re doing and you are terrible at it too. You get out of this by putting in a significant amount of practice and finding everything that doesn’t work. It’s not fun because nobody likes being a fool, and they want to build stuff. The building stuff will come faster than you realize if you keep putting in the practice 😀. So keep it up and keep practicing 😀
I am a personal hobby welder, the Fronius TP 180 RC is my second purchased welding device. I use 6013,7018,309 MOL and 316 L electrodes. I am a novice in welding. Tell me why I need to use 6010 type electrodes and what I need to weld with them.
So 6010 and 6011 are similar and are commonly used for the same purpose. Both of them have far more penetration than other common rods (6010 in specific definitely does). They can easily weld downhill and overhead once you have the skill to run them, they don’t drip Liquid Metal. They are also far easier to use to fill a hole too. When it comes to welding on poor surface prep or terrible condition material they also work great. You also have a ton of control with the rod, by manipulating the arc you can do things like bridge gaps, increase/decrease penetration, etc. The main drawbacks to the rods are excessive penetration (thin material is difficult to weld) much higher skill is required to use them, the slag will not fully come off without a wire wheel on a grinder, the possibility of undercut is huge as well. 6010 won’t run on many machines which is also a draw back. I use 6010 all the time to do repairs on poor material. It’s actually easier to weld with because of how fast the molten puddle freezes.
When I was first learning to weld with 6010 I was told to keep a real light grip on the stinger. Actually the teacher shook my hand at first and I thought to myself, what’s up with the soft ass handshake. He then stated that that’s how soft you should hold the stinger.use the same whipping motion as dealing cards only on a smaller scale is what he told me.
Great advice. I definitely need to remind myself more on avoiding the death grip on the stinger. Normally by time I realize I am doing it I am already locked in and it’s too late to fix it lol. A bit too much caffeine and a lack of sleep certainly doesn’t help.
Great video thanks. I just picked up a stick welder and some 3/32 6011's. I just have a regular 15 amp 110v outlet, can I work with that? If so is there a best practice so it doesn't trip on me endlessly? Thx!
So a 15 amp 110 will likely trip fairly often with stick welding. Depending on the welder you should be able to hit 60 amps without it tripping. Here re a couple tips to help your situation out: 1) 6011 uses more arc voltage than 6013, so if you find 6011 is tripping the breaker 6013 might not. 2) 1/16th rods won’t trip the breaker, but at the same time they are tough to run. 3) some welders are far more efficient than others. The most amperage you can get out of a 15amp circuit is around 80-90 amps, and that’s with something like a esab rogue 200. 4) they do make 5/64th rods that weld far easier than 1/16th and those would likely not trip the breaker. Beyond those things anyway you can find a way to run the welder on a dedicated 20a circuit or a 240v circuit (if it’s 240 capable) is the best option 👍
great video Greg. question: at 44:44 you started your cap pass on top of the root pass (outside corner joint). did you clean off the slag after your root pass, and before you started your cap pass? I did not see you do this. I am under the impression one should remove slag between passes. maybe you did this and did not video it? or was it unnecessary to remove slag between those passes? just trying to learn. thanks.
Yes I did clean it with a wire wheel, I edited it out. If you don’t clean it out good you will have slag entrapment/inclusions and a weak weld. The cleaner the better, strong welds are as much prep as the rod used 😀
Very helpful, excellent content. I'm a bit confused. Supposedly the farther the electrode from the work piece, the higher the voltage, but also the lower the amperage and vice-versa. So, when short arching, are you generating more heat? Also from I got so far is that you need to push the puddle back by the arch force by long arching intermittently, correct?
So I will clarify this 😀. With stick welding your amperage is constant (known as constant current, or CC). Whatever your amp setting is the machine will regulator output to that. Stick is done with CC but variable voltage. The voltage is dictated by the arc gap (same with tig) and rod used (different rods produce different shielding gasses so the voltages they run at are different). So with that in mind let’s look at what happens: When you lengthen the arc your voltage increases to maintain the arc. The lengthening of arc produces more heat, but the arc cone is less concentrated therefore you don’t gain penetration (you make a wider weld or produce excessive spatter). With certain rods like 6010-6011 they tend to produce very “peaked” welds and tend to dig very aggressively. By allowing the rod to dig a bit and then slightly lengthening the arc gap you can get really good penetration and flatten the bead out a bit. When you keep a very short arc you are doing 2 things. 1) you are keeping the shielding gas in the area molten droplets are coming off the rod tip. This keeps the reaction of the molten metal with oxygen to a minimum and helps the molten drops find the molten pool without “missing”. And 2) the tight arc focus the heat to a small area which is needed to make a proper size weld. A long arc actually produces more heat, but the lack of focus limits it’s effectiveness. A somewhat similar way would be to look at a magnifying glass 🔍. Focus it down to a pinpoint and it will melt steel. Focus it so it has a 1/2in light circle and it will barely light paper on fire. The tighter the arc gap you hold the more amperage you can run. You will likely see me run hot with many rods (100-105 amps with 3/32 7018 and 130-135 with 1/8th 7018) because I hold such a tight arc gap I can get away with those values (especially on thicker material). Arc force control on some welders (not to be confused with the “arc force” the rod produces that naturally pushes the molten metal) does the same thing, as the arc gets tighter it boosts the amperage. So if you set your machine to say 120 amps and 70% arc force it will boost the amperage well above 120 amps if you cram the rod into the molten metal. Thicker metal can handle that no problem and it doesn’t generally produce undercut because the heat is so focused. Undercut happens from unfocused long arcs. Another way to look at it is by a wattage standpoint. A 7018 run at 22 volts 120 amps (within the normal range) is 2640 watts. The same rod run with a longer arc gap will be 26 volts at 120 amps is 3120 watts. That’s a huge increase in what is effectively wattage used for heat, with a minimal change in arc gap voltage. It’s just that the lack of focus of that heat (widening of the arc cone) doesn’t effectively use that extra heat. How you get around this is using a rod that produces a shielding gas that requires higher voltage for a arc to exist in it (6010/6011). With such rods you have your cake and eat it too, you have higher voltage while still keeping a tight arc cone. That is why 6010 drives very deep penetration, all that heat is focused in a very small area. The trade off is a rougher looking bead and more spatter.
Excellent explanation, thanks Greg! As a beginner I like to add that this one of two things that were counter-intuitive to me. One, moving the ""heat source" farer away (creating a longer arc) creates more heat. Two, increasing the amperage can reduce the overall heat and the heat affected zone as it allows to move faster, but "faster" still doesn't look fast. Nevertheless turning up the amperage may prevent or at least reduce blow-outs.
I have watched this multiple times between practice sessions, and I always notice something new, and then I try to incorporate that new nugget in my next practice session. So I have a couple questions: Wagon Tracks - When padding beads aka multi pass with the same type rod. I try to clean the slag in the toes of the previous pass, but I can’t get it all. During the next pass, what happens to that slag that is trapped in the toe? As the puddle pass over it, does it simply liquify again, and float to the surface, thereby cleaning out the Wagon Tracks. You said if the welder had a fill or cap with 7018, you can see the wagon tracks on X-ray, so if padding beads with the same rod type, does that slag that was trapped in the toes remain to some degree, and if cutting and etching or x-raying to exam the weld would I see evidence of porosity? If the slag is heavy in the toes and is bad because the weld was rough (for any number of reasons you stated), is it recommended to grind the toes out, or grind the whole weld, and try again? When holding and manipulating the stinger, I seem to suffer from that Death Grip you mentioned - Your whip and pause aka Rocking manipulation, is that in your fingers, wrist or arm mostly, or a combination of the three? When nearing the end of the rod, what is a PROPER amount of rod to leave unused? I’ve seen recommendations to leave 1-2 inches, and I’ve also seen some burn it right up to the end of the flux coating. Not for any other reason, other than I simply suddenly realize “Whoa! I’m almost out of rod!”, and I find my self with less than inch of flux coat in left. Is that bad for the equipment? Would it help (on cold metal) to preheat the first inch to prevent cold start lack of penetration? Preheating seems to be rarely discussed from what I’ve seen in various welding community videos, and is something I would like to learn more about. Lastly - you mentioned that the 6010/6011 rods burn differently from beginning to end; implying the moisture content burns off, and therefore changes how the rod burns, especially with a new rod on cold plate. Would it be helpful to burn a 1/2” of the rod on some nearby scrap to preheat the rod a bit? I have seen some preheat their rods with a torch, heat gun or oven, (one guy I saw with no stuck rod power cutout, intentionally stuck his rod for 30 seconds to allow moisture to cook off), but that seems to be more of a 7018 thing than any other type of rods, but I have seen it done on other rods as well…
Somehow I missed responding to this, and there is a ton of valuable info I can share on this: Wagon tracks can be left and basically the weld will just sit ontop of them. If you run 6010 over the wagon tracks it probably would melt them out. 7018 would probably not melt all of them out, especially if they are in a position where they are sunk in decent (think if the bead roped up a bit). With 6010 root pass its difficult to make a weld thats not overly "peaked" on say a fillet weld. The reason is if you lengthen the arc gap to flatten the weld out, you will undercut the sides bad. So you wint up with a root pass that typically looks more like a bead of caulk (but it still has a ton of penetration) To prep the toes of the welds its very common to take a cut off disc or a dual purpose disc (cutoff and grind) to just smooth out the toes to 100% make sure there is no slag there. If the weld has slag inclusions (basically the slag is stuck and the weld solidified around it) the best way to fix it is with a angle grinder. You grind the area until its clean and you see no obvious defects. In some test I did a while back I ran a 6010 right over the top of a terrible weld, and it actually worked better than I thought. However with 7018 or any rod that doesn't penetrate well, good luck lol. The whipping and pausing for me is mostly wrist movement. The key thing is as you whip forward (2-3mm) you push the rod into the plate (like melting a crayon). Then you rock back and slightly increase the arc gap. Basically you no longer feel the rod touch the plate. So its kind of a touch the plate as you move forward, rock back while lifting the rod just above you feeling it touch the plate, and repeat. Its not very much at all, it doesn't take much. Many code work jobs you burn the rods down to the numbers and thats it. Two reasons for it, 1) so there is no doubt as to what rod was used, and 2) to reduce the issues that can come with the rod getting very hot near the end. The truth is for home use I would burn them down to within a inch of the flux and not worry too much. I generally use the little stubs for tack welding on stuff so they still get used. Preheating the plates will help with fusion at the start, but not hugely. Hot start features on a welder do a lot to help with that. Even so, in every stick welding break test I have done there is a area just after the start of a weld for a short distance that has noticeably less fusion. This is also the case with mig and flux core. Short of very high hot start there is no way to fix this. If the beginning of the plate was preheated it would likely help. Realistically as long as the settings are close to proper, the slight lack of fusion wont matter. This is one thing TIG has mastery over, due to the precise control and clear fusion at the root which you can watch while welding, it doesn't have issues like other processes (provided a skilled operator). 6010 is definitely notorious at changing how it runs depending on what point you are with length. It's a combination of the heat put in the rod and the rod tip melting off higher in comparison to the edge of the rods flux. Generally speaking the hotter the rod is the more aggressive the arc is. I still need to try dipping a rod in water and test it. I have a feeling it calms the rod down more due to the cooling effect of the water vaporising than absorbing into the flux and having an effect. Ideally 6010 and 6011 should be stored in the factory packaging and definitely not baked out. The moisture content is stupidly high from the factory, and that's fine. 6011 (guessing here) probably has less moisture content than 6010 because 6010 likely needs a lot of it to hold its cellulose flux together.
If you're taking requests, I've got one. I see plenty of "pipe" videos where guys are welding big pipe. It's the small pipe that's killing me. The 2 3/8 and 2 7/8 pipe. And it's not the welding per se, it's the constantly changing angle of your rod. You go from uphill to flat to downhill in just a couple of inches and it's a major challenge to maintain a decent bead without using a welding positioner. Maybe it's just experience, or maybe my expectations are too high, and I just need to stop and start the bead every couple of inches. What's Greg's take on it?
I made a video that should help you. It’s at the bottom of this post. I don’t stickweld pipe, nor am I certified at stick pipe. However I know a thing or two about having to weld terrible angles and in bad positions. You have to find a position that gives you the most control over rod movement for the least movement of your arm/body. What rod, rod size, and pipe wall are you welding? This video is only viewable through this link, it’s not listed on my pages home page. th-cam.com/video/XbQJmRUW030/w-d-xo.html
So when I get around to it I will make a whole index and online training portal. For the time being if you go to the channel overview and click playlists you can pull up all the videos under a particular topic. I do also believe you can download them as well, which makes it easy to put them in a folder to watch later 😀👍
I have never ran a 6012 or 6022, both are commonly found outside of the US It seems. I read the data sheet on them and they seem to suggest their primary use is poor fit up on thin material. I am thinking they probably run like a 6013 mixed with a 6011. It’s suggested they have a smooth finished weld. It would be interesting to see how they run. In the future I will have to give them a shot 😃
Greg i got to ask.....for 6011 should i be running DCEP cause im having problems with my 6011 3/32 welding rod...its sticking and getting hot. ...but no prob with my 6013 its laying down very nicely like butter...but thats all on DCEN.
I run 6011 DCEP. 6011 will be more “sticky” than 6013. The reason is the 6013s flux is far thicker and melts of slower, it’s basically easier to hold an arc gap because the rod won’t let you shove it in short it out. With 6011 and 6010 the flux is very thin, and burns off fast. It’s far easier to stick the rods. The trick to running 6011 is to have hot start turned up a bit, and arc force control set at 50-75% if your machine has adjustments for that. Those settings makes 6011 run far easier because the rod won’t stick due to the machine boosting amperage. If you don’t have adjustable settings, you need to get the arc started and slightly hold a longer arc at the start. Once the rod and plate are hot, you can close the arc gap a bit. Balancing this will give you a decent start. Keep in mind that 6011 is about 60% arc and 40% metal deposition. 6013 is about 40% arc 60% metal deposition. What this means is you need to move slower in travel speed to give the rod time to deposit metal with 6011 over 6013. If you move too fast the molten pool will cool and get taller, which may cause the rod to short out to the plate.
In many cases 6011 will run better in 6010 mode because of how some welders adjust settings in 6010 mode. 6010 and 6011 run very similar to one another. As far as one being better than another, I prefer 6010 for most jobs however thin material I rather use 6011 because it’s less aggressive.
Last box of Hobart 6011's I bought were so damp that they had to be baked just so that the arc wouldn't extinguish itself. Oddest thing I've ever experienced since the only rods i ever keep in a rod warmer are 7018's.
Interesting. 6011 has a fair amount of moisture in the flux, and generally will perform worse when baked. Must be a bad batch of rods. I will say the quality control seems to be all over the map with rods lately. I have seen some Lincoln 7018s that had flux so far down the rod you couldn’t put the rod in a stinger A bunch of random rods from different brands had flux falling off the rod without any visible packaging damage. You would get about halfway through a rod and the flux would fall off 😅. Quality control is all over the map.
The grey carhart hoodie is not 100% cotton but I have never had it light up on me. I do have a hi viz carhart that has lit up/melted a bit, it’s a different material though. I definitely wouldn’t want to be air arc gouging with the grey one lol. I do have a few actual welding jackets and they have more holes than my grey hoodie, and I barely use them lol.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg i like a hoodie because you can pull the top over your mask and block light from the rear. my eyesight isn't great and blocking light is very helpful in seeing the puddle for me.
If the rod is still running ok there isn’t much to worry about it. The flux of 6011 and 6010 tends to get hot and discolor. Both rods are predominantly cellulose (think paper) and as the flux heats up (due to the rod) it discolors just like paper will. If you run too much amperage the rod can light on fire, or it can start running weird. Excessive spatter, wandering arc, etc can indicate too much amperage 👍
Its far more vicious than it looks in the videos, just tried it, can really see that arc dig in deep, but it seems much easier to ignite without sticking then any other type. For me, besides watching Greg, stick welding only seems to come together after trying a few different types of stick. Not sure 6013 is the best place to start tbh, wish I had started on 7018.
I have tried many, many times to strike and maintain an arc using 6011 3/32 in. On a 120 volt inverter welder set on max. of 90 amps. Never been able to do it. It always sticks. Anyone have any ideas on this, I am open to suggestions.
I can give you some advice. More than likely it is the machine in combination of the lower voltage. 6011 rods run at about 26 volts when welding. 90 amps at 26 volts requires almost 20amps of input power assuming the welder is 100% efficient (most are only 50-60 %). Likely what is going on is the welder simply can’t output enough voltage at that amperage on 120v input to run the rod. Even a high end esab or miller unit will just run a 6010/11 at 90a on 120. Your best bet is to try 3/32 6011 rods at reduced amperage and you will likely be able to weld with them. If your machine won’t run 6011 3/32s the issue is the welder itself, it likely doesn’t produce enough voltage to run it, so you need to use 6013/7014/7018 instead (all of those need far less voltage). Hopefully that helps you 😀👍
Have heard that Hobart 6011 wants a lot of O.C. voltage to light off, and my (very) limited experience with the stuff bears this out. Have wanted a smaller “portable” welder that helped to practice with 6011/6010, but the one I bought, by AHP, did not like either *at all.*
So I can tell you for a fact that there is quite a broad range of voltages required to operate both 6011 and 6010 rods. I have tested 6011s before I had a channel, and out of 3 brands they were 1-3volts different while welding). So it is entirely possible that a machine that has limited closed circuit voltage capability that it would run one 6011 and not others. 6011 tends to be around 25-26v while welding, and 6010 is 27 to 31 depending on rod. 7018 is 22-24v. Without going in to much depth, the way welders work they all have a transformers (even inverter welders). The transformer is responsible for changing higher voltage lower amperage into higher amperage lower voltage. Well depending on how the transformer is wound, and how it’s powered (with a inverter or just wall power) dictates what voltage it can output at what amperage. What you can find is a cheaper welder may be able to reach say 26v to run a 6011, but not until the machine is over 120amps setpoint. That becomes useless to run a 3/32 or 1/8th 6011 because they don’t operate at those amperages. 6013 and 7018s lower volt per amp curve allow cheaper/simpler power supplies to keep them lit. It gets really bad with multi process MiG/tig/stick welders, it costs a lot of money to produce a machine that is both excellent on tig and Mig (12v to 24v) and stick (30-32v). That’s why most tig only machines tend to poorly weld with 6010 (like the Lincoln tig 200 I owned) and why most all in ones favor mig/tig over stick.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg it tended to run the Forney 6011 the best, relatively speaking - then Lincoln, and finally, Hobart. It was difficult to run the Forney ones without constant sticking, with the others I tried being yet worse. Note: Forney 6011s tended to be the “calmest/least intimidating” ones, also - regardless of which welder I used. In contrast, the Lincoln ones acted more like “demon-possessed fireworks!” Hobart’s were about in the middle. Had I more funds at that time, I would have tried more brands in hope of finding one I could use successfully (acquiring further practice in the process.) It might be a while before I can secure an ESAB welder…. Adjustable Arc force and hot start *supposedly* help some with getting an *ornery stick* to behave…
Higher arc force settings will just boost amperage the tighter you push the rod. On my machine 6011 runs best with 30-60%, 6010 does best with 40-65%. To learn to work with the rod a lower arc force setting would be best, and for uphil welding lower will help. Thin material too will prefer lower arc force.
I started about 20 years ago, but could hardly be called a welder then (think complete trash welds). I came full circle and restarted (and taking it serious) about 7 or 8 years ago, mainly because I couldn't find anyone to weld stuff I needed. Unlike most people that weld, I don't do any kind of production work, I mostly do repair work where everything is different. It makes it very hard to get everything dialed in perfect since every joint, repair, material type/thickness, etc is different. From a skill perspective the average person could probably get to my level or higher in 4-5 years of random jobs and practice.
The flux is touching. In most cases with stick I let the flux of the rod touch to keep the molten pool pushed away from the travel direction. You must run high enough amperage that the rod doesn’t stick though. 6010/6011 this doesn’t apply though, because they will just gouge the plate rather than resting the flux on it lol.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg That makes sense if it works kind of like a “rest” that slightly helps you steady the rod, and then the core burns recessed in the flux to keep a gap for the arc to jump across. As you can see, I haven’t welded before but I’m planning on learning it. Thanks for the reply!
Great question. Pushing the puddle with stick is a slippery slope. Certain rods like 6013 will produce extremely poor welds when pushed (slag entrapment). A rod like 6011 which has far less flux/slag will have far less issue with slag inclusion when pushed. When welding uphill or near a corner you can get away with not pulling as well. Like everything with welding the rules aren’t absolute, but going against the rule may have undesirable side effects 😀
@@bojack2740 no problem 😀. I like building/welding stuff so it’s fun to bring a camera along to make some content to share with people. I know if people follow what I say and practice their abilities will hugely improve, which makes it worth while too. 😀
Overhead welding is very similar to running a weld in the flat position believe it or not. The difference is if your travel speed slows down too much you will have a drip of molten metal. Many people run too low of amperage when welding overhead. General speaking 5-10 amps max less than your flat weld amperage should be in the ball park. You must put pressure on the rod/keep a tight arc gap. 6011 runs overhead a bit easier than many other rods because of how fast the puddle freezes. So a slight oscillation forward/back will help stack metal.
So 6011 vertical runs very close to 6010, just run it at 5-10 amps hotter. 6011 runs much like grey 6010 5p + rods, a more liquid puddle than a standard 6010 (red rod). 6011 is very easy to run vertical up in comparison to many other rods because the puddle freezes fairly fast.
You can run low arc force or high with 6011. The rod itself doesn’t penetrate nearly as much as 6010. I did a penetration test between 6010 and 6011 and was surprised that 6010 had far better penetration even when running 6011 at higher amperages. The arc force has less of a effect on 6011 than 6010 because it tends to not melt the flux off the rod as fast as 6010. Not to mention the actual effect arc force has on a rod comes down to how a person is using it. If you run straight in/minimal movement without putting pressure to push the rod in, high arc force won’t do much. Only when the welder sees a reduction in voltage does it boost the amperage. With 6010 I run 60-65%, 6011 30-60%, and 7018 I run 30%. I tried running 7018 at 60% for a video and no matter how much I pushed it the flux wouldn’t melt fast enough to get the rod to stick 😅.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg Muchos bushels of thanks for your explanation, based upon your vast experiences and analytical critique of your own work.. You have successfully un-confused me.
The main things 6010/11 rods are good for is repair work on poor material, tack welding, and bridging gaps. They are no doubt weaker than 7018 but in many cases that’s not a concern. Like fence piping on thin rusty material 😀
@@makingmistakeswithgreg 6013 is as good as 6010/11 and has almost the same penetration, but with way smoother flow. I understand that some pipeline applications call for 6010, but for small fabrication or DIY work you are better off with 6013 and 7018
Why try to use 6011 rods at all? 7014 is so much easier to start and maintain an arc. 6011 is much worse for sticking. The flux breaks away from the tip on the 6011 after it is used and is terrible for sticking with only the wire protruding the next time you TRY to use that rod. 6011 rods are not allowed in my shop.
6011 has its uses. It has more penetration than 7014 and handles poor fitups (gaps) far better. It also can be run vertical down to limit penetration. It handles poor material prep better, and is far less likely to have slag inclusions too. It also welds uphill and overhead easier. I don’t use much 6011 or 7014, 6010 and 7018 is what I (and most people use). 7014 has very limited penetration on thicker steel, which is why I tend to not use it much. The small 1/16th and 5/64 7014 rods are definitely good for sheetmetal.
Turn the heat up a little more on 7014. I never have anything break from using it due to poor penetration. People must be pretty lazy if they don't clean the area to be welded. A knotted cup brush on a 4 1/2" grinder. Takes only seconds.I like 7018 but only on D.C. Otherwise you just have another sticking rod like the 6011. As far as what most people use, I see those stupid 6011 rods around here in other shops. Lazy people I guess. Thanks for your reply.
I soooooo badly want to watch more of your videos, but I'm finding it to be too difficult. Please find/learn the difference between babbling and teaching. Over explaining everything is not helpful. Your hour long videos could easily be 15 minutes if you'd FOCUS on what's important.
My videos aren’t for everyone, sounds like they aren’t for you. You’re probably at a higher level than what my (intro) videos are aimed for. That’s fine, because there are plenty of TH-camrs with 5 min videos that will probably be more like what you’re looking for. All of my videos are setup where you can easily skip chapters based on what you already know. I appreciate the input but ultimately if the content isn’t for you it’s not for you. I provide it for free, don’t have half of the video as sales ads, don’t work as a shill for companies products, and I force TH-cam to make adds skip able, so people aren’t stuck watching them. The average length of my videos in the last 6 months (keep in mind I have only been doing this for a year) is under 20 minutes. I have been steadily improving on timelines but again I don’t think cutting it even further down is going to work for me. I am a small part of the larger TH-cam community so you have much to pick from that meets your needs, I wish you luck.
I hear what he’s saying, and there are content producers who may have good content, but for whatever reason, I just don’t jive with their style, so I simply move on… Please don’t change a thing, based on that comment! I like and prefer your style, so keep on keeping on with what you’ve been doing.
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Greg I really don’t know how to thank you enough between this and the tig video. I’m actually blown away. And a bit speechless. I could never have even wished for a better learning resource than you!
Thank you for your kind comment. You can thank me by investing the time in yourself to get your skills up so you can build stuff 😀. Having useful skills will always pay off in the long run😀
Greg, your channel is like having a personal welding school instructor right by your side! I am so glad to that I stumbled across it. That is not to say that there aren't good welding sites out there. But a lot of them now are just commercials to sell you their welder, or there products. I and many others appreciate what you do.
Thanks for the kind words, I am glad to have you as a subscriber 😀. I knew the welding world on TH-cam is packed, even so I know I can have a lot to offer (not just in welding since I will be getting into a lot more videos besides welding). The main reason I am doing everything is my hope that I can inspire people to pickup a tool and build something. To few people hear words of encouragement, and having hands on skills seems to be dying off. If I can get even a few people motivated and making stuff that’s a great thing 😃
I learned more here in 48 minutes than the total sum of all videos watched in 2 years Thanks!
No one has ever explained that actually contacting the metal with the rod is a good thing. I've always just tried keeping some kind of distance.
I am glad it helped you out 😀👍. You will find 6011 and 6010 both run better if you actually touch the flux to the plate in a stitching
Motion. What ends up happening if you hold a gap the whole time is the rod burns off higher and higher inside the flux, and about 1/3rd to 1/2 a rod in you get a bunch of arc blow. By knocking the flux off by tightening the arc via touching the flux to the plate and melting the flux off it keeps the actual rod closer to the edge of the flux, thus less arc blow. Once you get the hang of it you should see a decent jump in quality of weld, far less spatter, and more consistency to your welds. 😀👍
Thanks Greg! Here are a few of the points I liked. You taught us how to use a 6011 rod. You simulated the likely mistakes a beginner would make and offered advice on how to fix. The contrast to other rods and the specific instructions when using 6011 were dead on. The idea that it may take 20 pounds of rod to learn gave me comfort. I watched your video and now I'm heading to the shop knowing more than I did 30 minutes ago.
Glad to hear you took away some helpful tips 😀. Since 6011 is so common I figured making a video on it in specific would help people out. As far as learning to weld, when I took 2 separate stick welding classes a while ago I had to burn up somewhere around 80lbs of rods per class. With 6011 in specific I probably burned up atleast 15lbs of rods. At the end of all of that I had a decent handle on flat and horizontal stick welding with multiple rods. I know that sounds like a lot, but that’s what it takes to fine tune things. The hardest thing to master was a simple 5inch bead on plate that was equal in width, height, and straight. Focus on doing that and overlapping them perfect so you don’t have valleys between welds. Once you can do that easily everything else will be far easier 😀.
Buy the tin/50 pound box?
@@dennisyoung4631 I'm not him, but I learned to weld close to 30 years ago on a Lincoln AC225 and 6011. Today I'm a machinist that also does the welding(stick, mig, and tig) for my employer. There's no substitute for time spent under the hood, trying different things and observing the results. If you're just learning, it will help to minimize the variables. Electrodes are a variable. Different brands won't run quite the same, and there can be variance from lot to lot within the same brand. I don't know if Hobart makes more than one type of 6011, but Lincoln does and others may as well, so be sure to stick to the same brand/type, and if you're buying smaller quantities, check the lot number as well. Eventually, you may try other brands/types and discover than one works better for you and your machine than another. I've never run a comparison of different brands/types of 6011 myself, but with 6010 and 7018 it is absolutely true, and very apparent.
Appreciate the video, picked up some 6011 3/32 today, unfortunately my titanium 225 doesn’t have arc force adjustment so I would get some weak starts, a lot of sticking and my arc seemingly dying out. This explains quite a bit. Appreciate the work you do!
The titanium 225 will run 6011 (and 6010), but it’s a bit harder to start the arc than a machine with adjustable hot start. It will take a bit of screwing around to get the start just right, but once you practice enough you will be in good shape.
Keep it up mate, this is turning into quite a nice educational channel, with actual details for beginners :)
Hopefully I inspire more than a few people to get building stuff 😀
Great video Greg. I have been practicing "whip and pause" 6011 rod manipulation, and my welds look horrible. Today I tried the "circle e" rod manipulation, and found it a game changer for me, my welds began to quickly look a lot better, as I practiced
I did not know that 6011 can be dragged, I'll try that tomorrow.
Thanks again.
You’re entirely welcome. You can do circle e movements and that will spread out the weld decently. 6010 tends to produce a narrow weld that can rope up, doing a circle e movement or increasing the arc gap will help flatter a beat out. To get a whip and pause to work the best you must lengthen the arc gap enough that it widens the weld but not too much that the arc becomes unstable. It’s a very fine line of what works and what doesn’t.
Generally speaking unless you’re welding uphill you want to drag most stick rods. 6011 can function with a push angle simply because it’s arc pushes the flux out of the way. Dragging it should produce a better looking weld no doubt. The key is to run slower travel speed than with say 6013, and to let the rod deposit metal. You’ll get it, it will just take some practice 😀
Superb explanation and demonstration of 6011 welding with the how to and how not to. Thank you for the help.
No problem. 6011 can be a super useful rod, it just takes some practice to run. Glad I could help you out 😀
Excellent information.. your narrative to your process is awesome!! Reminds me of my best friend when we graduated who taught me to weld on a weekend at his family farm .. his attention to prep and his explanation of his actions took most of the day .. by the time I actually struck an arc there wasn’t much time to burn more than twenty rods for the day .. we were working with 6011 for that day .. Saturday.. Sunday we jumped on a greyhound and headed north .. surprisingly I passed the welding test Monday at a potential job posting .. lol .. ahh youth eh? Your series about stick welding is the first TH-cam I’ve watched .. great tutorial !!
I do have a request though .. about video production actually.. a split screen of your hand movement and the arc footage synced together would be great to understand what’s actually happening to achieve the result .. thanks for your attention to detail !!
I definitely can do that in a upcoming video, thanks for the story and the recommendation 😀.
Another Great Video Sir !!
Thanks for making them !
I’m glad I found your channel
Glad the video helped you out 😀. 6011 is a great rod once you can get a handle on how slow you must move and the consistency required. It will make you a better welder.
Good stuff bud I wish we could be welding buddy's it stinks not having a friend to talk about welding together or just shoot the crap with been welding for almost 20 years now love your stuff
Thanks for the kind words 😀. I can relate, while I have been spending the last 20 years building stuff and restoring buildings, most of the people I hung out with wound up in jail, dead, or nowhere. Very few people I know weld or are interested in it. That’s why it’s nice to do the TH-cam thing, so I can talk with like minded people 😀
I remember the days when building storage racks from 6ft tall to 30ft tall in 6 inch I beam to 16inch and large channel single sided to double. There was a time the local steelmill wanted us to build stirage wracks from rejected steel so they brought samples in for us to cut and fit so we built two of each, when there inspectors came to look they said you guys were able to use the scrap. They were going to be used at the steelmill so we finnished the job but there were gaps to fill using 6011 rods to finishing up with jet rod and mig also. Those wracks are still standing today after 40 years. I picked up a harbor freight 140 120v unit stick, mig and tig.
6011 and jet rod will definitely get a lot of gaps filled 😀
Hey Greg, I'm just getting started with stuck welding and really glad I found your channel. Your explanations are clear and to the point. I really like the crayon reference. That helps a lot. ....and yes...new subscriber 👍
Thanks for the subscription and I am glad the info has helped you. I figured the crayon thought would help, it’s the best way I could describe it that I figured would make sense. The learning curve on stick is steep but once you get over that it’s not bad 😀
A very good instructional video for people wanting to get the best out of 6010 & 6011 rods. So very true everything you say about the technique needed to get good welds with this rod. As mentioned the fast freeze nature of this rod does indeed show all inconsistent travel speeds and puddle management variations. Once this rod is mastered, it can indeed produce consistent ripples when rod is whipped forward and back in. It is indeed a very sensitive rod to use, but very good for penetration and all position usage. This rod also does great for rusted and contaminated surfaces when proper prep isn’t an option. I’ve always thought 6010 welds better than the 6011, although the latter can be used with AC, whereas 6010 is used best used with DC Reverse (+) polarity only. Keep the great weld videos coming my friend, great job. 😎👍
Thanks 😀. 6010 and 6011 will definitely show any flaws/inconsistencies in a persons movement/technique. I always found it funny how many people don’t like the rods and think they cant make good looking welds. Little do they realize it’s their lack of skill/consistency, and the rod doesn’t cover them up lol. I cant imagine stick welding without 6010/11, so useful to those who can run them 😃
@@makingmistakeswithgreg So true
Greg you are awsome you have helped me out the most with your expert way of demonstration and explanation with 6011 i just started welding a month ago and could not repair my truck this video literally answers all my questions for my centrury 230 amp buzzer
Awesome, glad to hear it. 6011 can do a real good job, it just requires a slow travel speed. Once you get that down and focus on being steady/smooth, the rod becomes very useful.
Great tip that the weld width should be about 2 rods wide. This will help me, thanks for your efforts and time!
No problem 😀👍
I would take a heatgun and heat the rod at the beginning of the day. It would dry the rod, and since I was working off a service truck in the Minnesota winters, pre heating was needed. I would also keep the rod in the cab under the heater. PS. Don't do this in a plastic box. I was running a Miller 325 EFI. Gas drive.
I have been trying to weld with 3/32 6011 and an Everlast welder with ArcForce. Sometimes I have success, but most of the time the weld is inconsistent, there is arc blow, and the arc extinguishes after an inch or so of welding. I have had better results with going back into the puddle and then forward a bit. This helps to keep the arc lit. But I am still far from what I would like to get. I have just seen your advice at around 30:50 where you suggested to touch the metal then lift off a bit and repeat. This, I think is really good advice and I believe it would help me maintain a lit arc. You make it look so easy. Thank you Greg for your tutorials......from the other side of the world. Cheers.
6011 is very easy to have too long of a arc with. Every welder tolerates a different arc length, or basically max welding voltage. If the arc cuts out what may be going on is the voltage may be rising above what the welder can sustain. Moving forward and back will cause the arc voltage to rise and fall, likely keeping it from rising too high. To get 6011 to run well you must feed quite a bit of rod in (because a lot of metal is lost via sparks and the flux doesn’t aid metal deposition) and move fairly slow. It does take some getting used to. The weld will be wider than many other rods, and that’s ok. Also, turning up arc force will cause an increase in amperage as the arc gets tighter (aka the voltage drops). If you have it set too high it will be difficult to control without the muscle memory of holding a consistent arc gap. I can run super high arc force simply because I have ran so many rods I am super consistent. For you experiment with low settings of 20-40% for a while and it may help. You don’t have to run 6011 at high arc force. Beyond that just keep practicing and you will get better. 6011 makes ugly welds until you have the muscle memory down to run it. 😀
most comprehensive on 6011 thus far...😊
Glad you liked the video 😀👍. 6011 is a solid rod that it pays to know how to run.
Hi Greg. I'm a new subscriber. I'm glad I found your channel. You give some great advice!
Welcome and I am glad you found the info useful 😀. Once you have a better idea of what you’re doing welding becomes much easier.
Very thoroughly explained.
Glad the info was of use 😀.
Weld-Spatter = *Blops.*
First encountered these in the mid-eighties, at Sunkist, working in the paint-booth, which is where I came up with the term “Blops” to name them.
A chisel works good to get rid of them.
Sorry I been away Greg. I'm back. Keep up the good work ❤
crossing my fingers so that you do detailed videos like this for TIG as well. Was not looking to learn stick but with these so detailed videos, is hard not to try it out.
I will be getting back into tig and for the first time MiG soon. I have all the rest of the stick welding videos shot, I just need to edit them. Do you have any video requests in specific for tig?
@@makingmistakeswithgreg covering some of the basics if possible. Rod selection, machine setup, tips for facilitate learning.
@@jp8479+1 for the tig course.
Greg, I'm a rank beginner at welding, just starting a couple weeks ago. I have viewed many different YT welding presenters and your presentation style is by far the best and most informative that I've seen. I've been struggling with 6011 and this video has removed the frustration of working with this rod--just need more practice now. Q: With a given work situation where one could use either 6011 or 7018 (if that is possible), which rod would you select? BTW, compared to 6011, 6013 is easier to use for this beginner, but I understand the two rods have different applications. Thanks again for you contribution to teaching.
Thanks for the kind words. To answer your questions, hopefully this will help:
I use 6010 and 7018 for pretty much everything. If I had to pick between 7018 and 6011 I would pick 7018. 7018 puts down a consistent bead, it’s easy to layer, the slag is way easier to remove, etc. With 6011 it’s slower to weld with on many projects, and the slag takes more time to clean. There are some situations that 6011 would be my pick. Closing a hole up, bridging a large gap, being forced to run downhill, welding real scabby material with no prep, etc. 6011 is easier to strike a arc and restart, but takes far more consistency/practice to weld with when compared to 7018. Until you practice a bunch 7018 restarts will be rough. From a strength perspective both rods deposit metal that’s likely stronger than what you’re welding however 7018 is a stronger weld and more ductile.
Also, I have a video releasing in the next two days that shows average travel speed and bead width for 7018 and 6010 (plus others). This should further help you by giving you real measurements that you can follow to check your welds to see if you are in the ballpark. Being that you’re new you must remember that the hardest part about learning anything new is what I call the “fool” stage. That is the period in time where you don’t have idea idea of what you’re doing and you are terrible at it too. You get out of this by putting in a significant amount of practice and finding everything that doesn’t work. It’s not fun because nobody likes being a fool, and they want to build stuff. The building stuff will come faster than you realize if you keep putting in the practice 😀. So keep it up and keep practicing 😀
@@makingmistakeswithgreg😊
Great video, Thanks !
No problem 😀👍
I am a personal hobby welder, the Fronius TP 180 RC is my second purchased welding device. I use 6013,7018,309 MOL and 316 L electrodes. I am a novice in welding. Tell me why I need to use 6010 type electrodes and what I need to weld with them.
So 6010 and 6011 are similar and are commonly used for the same purpose. Both of them have far more penetration than other common rods (6010 in specific definitely does). They can easily weld downhill and overhead once you have the skill to run them, they don’t drip Liquid Metal. They are also far easier to use to fill a hole too. When it comes to welding on poor surface prep or terrible condition material they also work great. You also have a ton of control with the rod, by manipulating the arc you can do things like bridge gaps, increase/decrease penetration, etc.
The main drawbacks to the rods are excessive penetration (thin material is difficult to weld) much higher skill is required to use them, the slag will not fully come off without a wire wheel on a grinder, the possibility of undercut is huge as well. 6010 won’t run on many machines which is also a draw back.
I use 6010 all the time to do repairs on poor material. It’s actually easier to weld with because of how fast the molten puddle freezes.
"Cashed out" funny that the last time I heard that phrase in person someone was referencing a bowl that was done.
Haha 😂. Up here in Wisconsin it’s code for a bottle of liquor being finished off. Either that or paying a bar tab off. 😅
When I was first learning to weld with 6010 I was told to keep a real light grip on the stinger. Actually the teacher shook my hand at first and I thought to myself, what’s up with the soft ass handshake. He then stated that that’s how soft you should hold the stinger.use the same whipping motion as dealing cards only on a smaller scale is what he told me.
Great advice. I definitely need to remind myself more on avoiding the death grip on the stinger. Normally by time I realize I am doing it I am already locked in and it’s too late to fix it lol. A bit too much caffeine and a lack of sleep certainly doesn’t help.
Great video thanks. I just picked up a stick welder and some 3/32 6011's. I just have a regular 15 amp 110v outlet, can I work with that? If so is there a best practice so it doesn't trip on me endlessly? Thx!
So a 15 amp 110 will likely trip fairly often with stick welding. Depending on the welder you should be able to hit 60 amps without it tripping. Here re a couple tips to help your situation out: 1) 6011 uses more arc voltage than 6013, so if you find 6011 is tripping the breaker 6013 might not. 2) 1/16th rods won’t trip the breaker, but at the same time they are tough to run. 3) some welders are far more efficient than others. The most amperage you can get out of a 15amp circuit is around 80-90 amps, and that’s with something like a esab rogue 200. 4) they do make 5/64th rods that weld far easier than 1/16th and those would likely not trip the breaker.
Beyond those things anyway you can find a way to run the welder on a dedicated 20a circuit or a 240v circuit (if it’s 240 capable) is the best option 👍
great vid Bob
Excellent ,many thanks 🙏🏼
You’re welcome 😀
AWESOME- LOVE it.
Glad you liked it 😀. 6011 is a great rod to have in the tool box, and it’s definitely worth knowing how to weld with it 😀.
great video Greg. question: at 44:44 you started your cap pass on top of the root pass (outside corner joint). did you clean off the slag after your root pass, and before you started your cap pass? I did not see you do this. I am under the impression one should remove slag between passes. maybe you did this and did not video it? or was it unnecessary to remove slag between those passes? just trying to learn. thanks.
Yes I did clean it with a wire wheel, I edited it out. If you don’t clean it out good you will have slag entrapment/inclusions and a weak weld. The cleaner the better, strong welds are as much prep as the rod used 😀
Very helpful, excellent content. I'm a bit confused. Supposedly the farther the electrode from the work piece, the higher the voltage, but also the lower the amperage and vice-versa. So, when short arching, are you generating more heat? Also from I got so far is that you need to push the puddle back by the arch force by long arching intermittently, correct?
So I will clarify this 😀. With stick welding your amperage is constant (known as constant current, or CC). Whatever your amp setting is the machine will regulator output to that. Stick is done with CC but variable voltage. The voltage is dictated by the arc gap (same with tig) and rod used (different rods produce different shielding gasses so the voltages they run at are different). So with that in mind let’s look at what happens:
When you lengthen the arc your voltage increases to maintain the arc. The lengthening of arc produces more heat, but the arc cone is less concentrated therefore you don’t gain penetration (you make a wider weld or produce excessive spatter). With certain rods like 6010-6011 they tend to produce very “peaked” welds and tend to dig very aggressively. By allowing the rod to dig a bit and then slightly lengthening the arc gap you can get really good penetration and flatten the bead out a bit.
When you keep a very short arc you are doing 2 things. 1) you are keeping the shielding gas in the area molten droplets are coming off the rod tip. This keeps the reaction of the molten metal with oxygen to a minimum and helps the molten drops find the molten pool without “missing”. And 2) the tight arc focus the heat to a small area which is needed to make a proper size weld. A long arc actually produces more heat, but the lack of focus limits it’s effectiveness. A somewhat similar way would be to look at a magnifying glass 🔍. Focus it down to a pinpoint and it will melt steel. Focus it so it has a 1/2in light circle and it will barely light paper on fire.
The tighter the arc gap you hold the more amperage you can run. You will likely see me run hot with many rods (100-105 amps with 3/32 7018 and 130-135 with 1/8th 7018) because I hold such a tight arc gap I can get away with those values (especially on thicker material). Arc force control on some welders (not to be confused with the “arc force” the rod produces that naturally pushes the molten metal) does the same thing, as the arc gets tighter it boosts the amperage. So if you set your machine to say 120 amps and 70% arc force it will boost the amperage well above 120 amps if you cram the rod into the molten metal. Thicker metal can handle that no problem and it doesn’t generally produce undercut because the heat is so focused. Undercut happens from unfocused long arcs.
Another way to look at it is by a wattage standpoint. A 7018 run at 22 volts 120 amps (within the normal range) is 2640 watts. The same rod run with a longer arc gap will be 26 volts at 120 amps is 3120 watts. That’s a huge increase in what is effectively wattage used for heat, with a minimal change in arc gap voltage. It’s just that the lack of focus of that heat (widening of the arc cone) doesn’t effectively use that extra heat. How you get around this is using a rod that produces a shielding gas that requires higher voltage for a arc to exist in it (6010/6011). With such rods you have your cake and eat it too, you have higher voltage while still keeping a tight arc cone. That is why 6010 drives very deep penetration, all that heat is focused in a very small area. The trade off is a rougher looking bead and more spatter.
Excellent explanation, thanks Greg! As a beginner I like to add that this one of two things that were counter-intuitive to me. One, moving the ""heat source" farer away (creating a longer arc) creates more heat. Two, increasing the amperage can reduce the overall heat and the heat affected zone as it allows to move faster, but "faster" still doesn't look fast. Nevertheless turning up the amperage may prevent or at least reduce blow-outs.
@@makingmistakeswithgregthe best explanation I've seen on this subject. Thanks again man
I have watched this multiple times between practice sessions, and I always notice something new, and then I try to incorporate that new nugget in my next practice session. So I have a couple questions:
Wagon Tracks - When padding beads aka multi pass with the same type rod. I try to clean the slag in the toes of the previous pass, but I can’t get it all. During the next pass, what happens to that slag that is trapped in the toe? As the puddle pass over it, does it simply liquify again, and float to the surface, thereby cleaning out the Wagon Tracks. You said if the welder had a fill or cap with 7018, you can see the wagon tracks on X-ray, so if padding beads with the same rod type, does that slag that was trapped in the toes remain to some degree, and if cutting and etching or x-raying to exam the weld would I see evidence of porosity?
If the slag is heavy in the toes and is bad because the weld was rough (for any number of reasons you stated), is it recommended to grind the toes out, or grind the whole weld, and try again?
When holding and manipulating the stinger, I seem to suffer from that Death Grip you mentioned - Your whip and pause aka Rocking manipulation, is that in your fingers, wrist or arm mostly, or a combination of the three?
When nearing the end of the rod, what is a PROPER amount of rod to leave unused? I’ve seen recommendations to leave 1-2 inches, and I’ve also seen some burn it right up to the end of the flux coating. Not for any other reason, other than I simply suddenly realize “Whoa! I’m almost out of rod!”, and I find my self with less than inch of flux coat in left. Is that bad for the equipment?
Would it help (on cold metal) to preheat the first inch to prevent cold start lack of penetration? Preheating seems to be rarely discussed from what I’ve seen in various welding community videos, and is something I would like to learn more about.
Lastly - you mentioned that the 6010/6011 rods burn differently from beginning to end; implying the moisture content burns off, and therefore changes how the rod burns, especially with a new rod on cold plate. Would it be helpful to burn a 1/2” of the rod on some nearby scrap to preheat the rod a bit? I have seen some preheat their rods with a torch, heat gun or oven, (one guy I saw with no stuck rod power cutout, intentionally stuck his rod for 30 seconds to allow moisture to cook off), but that seems to be more of a 7018 thing than any other type of rods, but I have seen it done on other rods as well…
Hi welding a lot with 60 11,60 10, 70, 18. an extra excellent welding on hard weld go with 312 stainless works well
Somehow I missed responding to this, and there is a ton of valuable info I can share on this:
Wagon tracks can be left and basically the weld will just sit ontop of them. If you run 6010 over the wagon tracks it probably would melt them out. 7018 would probably not melt all of them out, especially if they are in a position where they are sunk in decent (think if the bead roped up a bit). With 6010 root pass its difficult to make a weld thats not overly "peaked" on say a fillet weld. The reason is if you lengthen the arc gap to flatten the weld out, you will undercut the sides bad. So you wint up with a root pass that typically looks more like a bead of caulk (but it still has a ton of penetration) To prep the toes of the welds its very common to take a cut off disc or a dual purpose disc (cutoff and grind) to just smooth out the toes to 100% make sure there is no slag there.
If the weld has slag inclusions (basically the slag is stuck and the weld solidified around it) the best way to fix it is with a angle grinder. You grind the area until its clean and you see no obvious defects. In some test I did a while back I ran a 6010 right over the top of a terrible weld, and it actually worked better than I thought. However with 7018 or any rod that doesn't penetrate well, good luck lol.
The whipping and pausing for me is mostly wrist movement. The key thing is as you whip forward (2-3mm) you push the rod into the plate (like melting a crayon). Then you rock back and slightly increase the arc gap. Basically you no longer feel the rod touch the plate. So its kind of a touch the plate as you move forward, rock back while lifting the rod just above you feeling it touch the plate, and repeat. Its not very much at all, it doesn't take much.
Many code work jobs you burn the rods down to the numbers and thats it. Two reasons for it, 1) so there is no doubt as to what rod was used, and 2) to reduce the issues that can come with the rod getting very hot near the end. The truth is for home use I would burn them down to within a inch of the flux and not worry too much. I generally use the little stubs for tack welding on stuff so they still get used.
Preheating the plates will help with fusion at the start, but not hugely. Hot start features on a welder do a lot to help with that. Even so, in every stick welding break test I have done there is a area just after the start of a weld for a short distance that has noticeably less fusion. This is also the case with mig and flux core. Short of very high hot start there is no way to fix this. If the beginning of the plate was preheated it would likely help. Realistically as long as the settings are close to proper, the slight lack of fusion wont matter. This is one thing TIG has mastery over, due to the precise control and clear fusion at the root which you can watch while welding, it doesn't have issues like other processes (provided a skilled operator).
6010 is definitely notorious at changing how it runs depending on what point you are with length. It's a combination of the heat put in the rod and the rod tip melting off higher in comparison to the edge of the rods flux. Generally speaking the hotter the rod is the more aggressive the arc is. I still need to try dipping a rod in water and test it. I have a feeling it calms the rod down more due to the cooling effect of the water vaporising than absorbing into the flux and having an effect. Ideally 6010 and 6011 should be stored in the factory packaging and definitely not baked out. The moisture content is stupidly high from the factory, and that's fine. 6011 (guessing here) probably has less moisture content than 6010 because 6010 likely needs a lot of it to hold its cellulose flux together.
If you're taking requests, I've got one. I see plenty of "pipe" videos where guys are welding big pipe. It's the small pipe that's killing me. The 2 3/8 and 2 7/8 pipe. And it's not the welding per se, it's the constantly changing angle of your rod. You go from uphill to flat to downhill in just a couple of inches and it's a major challenge to maintain a decent bead without using a welding positioner. Maybe it's just experience, or maybe my expectations are too high, and I just need to stop and start the bead every couple of inches. What's Greg's take on it?
I made a video that should help you. It’s at the bottom of this post. I don’t stickweld pipe, nor am I certified at stick pipe. However I know a thing or two about having to weld terrible angles and in bad positions. You have to find a position that gives you the most control over rod movement for the least movement of your arm/body. What rod, rod size, and pipe wall are you welding?
This video is only viewable through this link, it’s not listed on my pages home page. th-cam.com/video/XbQJmRUW030/w-d-xo.html
FYI , black stallion company does show several types of gloves in 3xl in their catalog , thru local welding store
I will definitely look into that, thanks for the heads up 😀
Thanks Greg, just what I was hoping to find. Your videos couldnt be better.
Btw, do you have an index for your videos! Sure be helpful for me
So when I get around to it I will make a whole index and online training portal. For the time being if you go to the channel overview and click playlists you can pull up all the videos under a particular topic. I do also believe you can download them as well, which makes it easy to put them in a folder to watch later 😀👍
@ Aha! Yes, the playlist has just what I was looking for. Thanks mate!
I got a whole bunch of rods that are supposed to be 6012. Boxes say ISO 2560-A. You got any experience with those?
I have never ran a 6012 or 6022, both are commonly found outside of the US It seems. I read the data sheet on them and they seem to suggest their primary use is poor fit up on thin material. I am thinking they probably run like a 6013 mixed with a 6011. It’s suggested they have a smooth finished weld. It would be interesting to see how they run. In the future I will have to give them a shot 😃
Greg i got to ask.....for 6011 should i be running DCEP cause im having problems with my 6011 3/32 welding rod...its sticking and getting hot. ...but no prob with my 6013 its laying down very nicely like butter...but thats all on DCEN.
I run 6011 DCEP. 6011 will be more “sticky” than 6013. The reason is the 6013s flux is far thicker and melts of slower, it’s basically easier to hold an arc gap because the rod won’t let you shove it in short it out. With 6011 and 6010 the flux is very thin, and burns off fast. It’s far easier to stick the rods.
The trick to running 6011 is to have hot start turned up a bit, and arc force control set at 50-75% if your machine has adjustments for that. Those settings makes 6011 run far easier because the rod won’t stick due to the machine boosting amperage. If you don’t have adjustable settings, you need to get the arc started and slightly hold a longer arc at the start. Once the rod and plate are hot, you can close the arc gap a bit. Balancing this will give you a decent start. Keep in mind that 6011 is about 60% arc and 40% metal deposition. 6013 is about 40% arc 60% metal deposition. What this means is you need to move slower in travel speed to give the rod time to deposit metal with 6011 over 6013. If you move too fast the molten pool will cool and get taller, which may cause the rod to short out to the plate.
Should I use the 6010 setting on my welder? When I use 6011 rod, will I get a better weld?
In many cases 6011 will run better in 6010 mode because of how some welders adjust settings in 6010 mode. 6010 and 6011 run very similar to one another. As far as one being better than another, I prefer 6010 for most jobs however thin material I rather use 6011 because it’s less aggressive.
Last box of Hobart 6011's I bought were so damp that they had to be baked just so that the arc wouldn't extinguish itself. Oddest thing I've ever experienced since the only rods i ever keep in a rod warmer are 7018's.
Interesting. 6011 has a fair amount of moisture in the flux, and generally will perform worse when baked. Must be a bad batch of rods. I will say the quality control seems to be all over the map with rods lately. I have seen some Lincoln 7018s that had flux so far down the rod you couldn’t put the rod in a stinger A bunch of random rods from different brands had flux falling off the rod without any visible packaging damage. You would get about halfway through a rod and the flux would fall off 😅. Quality control is all over the map.
is your hoodie 100% cotton--if not do you worry about ignition of polyester?
The grey carhart hoodie is not 100% cotton but I have never had it light up on me. I do have a hi viz carhart that has lit up/melted a bit, it’s a different material though. I definitely wouldn’t want to be air arc gouging with the grey one lol. I do have a few actual welding jackets and they have more holes than my grey hoodie, and I barely use them lol.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg i like a hoodie because you can pull the top over your mask and block light from the rear. my eyesight isn't great and blocking light is very helpful in seeing the puddle for me.
Greg hope all is well im trying to learn to weld my 6011 rod seems to turn brown half way through. What causes that?
If the rod is still running ok there isn’t much to worry about it. The flux of 6011 and 6010 tends to get hot and discolor. Both rods are predominantly cellulose (think paper) and as the flux heats up (due to the rod) it discolors just like paper will. If you run too much amperage the rod can light on fire, or it can start running weird. Excessive spatter, wandering arc, etc can indicate too much amperage 👍
@@makingmistakeswithgreg thank you for the quick response this helps so much. Thank you for everything you do you are helping so many people.
meanwhile my arc-force is set on "farmer's buzzbox" 😆
Haha if that’s the case add more amps and you have all the arc force you need 🔥😂
Its far more vicious than it looks in the videos, just tried it, can really see that arc dig in deep, but it seems much easier to ignite without sticking then any other type.
For me, besides watching Greg, stick welding only seems to come together after trying a few different types of stick. Not sure 6013 is the best place to start tbh, wish I had started on 7018.
I have tried many, many times to strike and maintain an arc using 6011 3/32 in. On a 120 volt inverter welder set on max. of 90 amps. Never been able to do it. It always sticks. Anyone have any ideas on this, I am open to suggestions.
I can give you some advice. More than likely it is the machine in combination of the lower voltage. 6011 rods run at about 26 volts when welding. 90 amps at 26 volts requires almost 20amps of input power assuming the welder is 100% efficient (most are only 50-60 %). Likely what is going on is the welder simply can’t output enough voltage at that amperage on 120v input to run the rod. Even a high end esab or miller unit will just run a 6010/11 at 90a on 120. Your best bet is to try 3/32 6011 rods at reduced amperage and you will likely be able to weld with them. If your machine won’t run 6011 3/32s the issue is the welder itself, it likely doesn’t produce enough voltage to run it, so you need to use 6013/7014/7018 instead (all of those need far less voltage). Hopefully that helps you 😀👍
Have heard that Hobart 6011 wants a lot of O.C. voltage to light off, and my (very) limited experience with the stuff bears this out.
Have wanted a smaller “portable” welder that helped to practice with 6011/6010, but the one I bought, by AHP, did not like either *at all.*
So I can tell you for a fact that there is quite a broad range of voltages required to operate both 6011 and 6010 rods. I have tested 6011s before I had a channel, and out of 3 brands they were 1-3volts different while welding). So it is entirely possible that a machine that has limited closed circuit voltage capability that it would run one 6011 and not others. 6011 tends to be around 25-26v while welding, and 6010 is 27 to 31 depending on rod. 7018 is 22-24v.
Without going in to much depth, the way welders work they all have a transformers (even inverter welders). The transformer is responsible for changing higher voltage lower amperage into higher amperage lower voltage. Well depending on how the transformer is wound, and how it’s powered (with a inverter or just wall power) dictates what voltage it can output at what amperage. What you can find is a cheaper welder may be able to reach say 26v to run a 6011, but not until the machine is over 120amps setpoint. That becomes useless to run a 3/32 or 1/8th 6011 because they don’t operate at those amperages. 6013 and 7018s lower volt per amp curve allow cheaper/simpler power supplies to keep them lit. It gets really bad with multi process MiG/tig/stick welders, it costs a lot of money to produce a machine that is both excellent on tig and Mig (12v to 24v) and stick (30-32v). That’s why most tig only machines tend to poorly weld with 6010 (like the Lincoln tig 200 I owned) and why most all in ones favor mig/tig over stick.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg it tended to run the Forney 6011 the best, relatively speaking - then Lincoln, and finally, Hobart.
It was difficult to run the Forney ones without constant sticking, with the others I tried being yet worse.
Note: Forney 6011s tended to be the “calmest/least intimidating” ones, also - regardless of which welder I used. In contrast, the Lincoln ones acted more like “demon-possessed fireworks!” Hobart’s were about in the middle.
Had I more funds at that time, I would have tried more brands in hope of finding one I could use successfully (acquiring further practice in the process.)
It might be a while before I can secure an ESAB welder…. Adjustable Arc force and hot start *supposedly* help some with getting an *ornery stick* to behave…
I hate 6011, but love 6010. Should you be using arc force, when running practice beads?
Higher arc force settings will just boost amperage the tighter you push the rod. On my machine 6011 runs best with 30-60%, 6010 does best with 40-65%. To learn to work with the rod a lower arc force setting would be best, and for uphil welding lower will help. Thin material too will prefer lower arc force.
How long have you been welding?
I started about 20 years ago, but could hardly be called a welder then (think complete trash welds). I came full circle and restarted (and taking it serious) about 7 or 8 years ago, mainly because I couldn't find anyone to weld stuff I needed. Unlike most people that weld, I don't do any kind of production work, I mostly do repair work where everything is different. It makes it very hard to get everything dialed in perfect since every joint, repair, material type/thickness, etc is different. From a skill perspective the average person could probably get to my level or higher in 4-5 years of random jobs and practice.
I hear you. I'm in heavy equipment industry and weld on machines.i learned from old heads along the way
I know this is an old video, but when you say the rod is touching the plate do you think the metal core is actually touching or just the flux?
The flux is touching. In most cases with stick I let the flux of the rod touch to keep the molten pool pushed away from the travel direction. You must run high enough amperage that the rod doesn’t stick though. 6010/6011 this doesn’t apply though, because they will just gouge the plate rather than resting the flux on it lol.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg That makes sense if it works kind of like a “rest” that slightly helps you steady the rod, and then the core burns recessed in the flux to keep a gap for the arc to jump across.
As you can see, I haven’t welded before but I’m planning on learning it. Thanks for the reply!
Some times some of my 6011 welds look pretty when pushing, is pushing the puddle ok?
Great question. Pushing the puddle with stick is a slippery slope. Certain rods like 6013 will produce extremely poor welds when pushed (slag entrapment). A rod like 6011 which has far less flux/slag will have far less issue with slag inclusion when pushed. When welding uphill or near a corner you can get away with not pulling as well. Like everything with welding the rules aren’t absolute, but going against the rule may have undesirable side effects 😀
@@makingmistakeswithgreg thanks man for the great content.
@@bojack2740 no problem 😀. I like building/welding stuff so it’s fun to bring a camera along to make some content to share with people. I know if people follow what I say and practice their abilities will hugely improve, which makes it worth while too. 😀
Anytips for 6011 overhead?
Overhead welding is very similar to running a weld in the flat position believe it or not. The difference is if your travel speed slows down too much you will have a drip of molten metal. Many people run too low of amperage when welding overhead. General speaking 5-10 amps max less than your flat weld amperage should be in the ball park. You must put pressure on the rod/keep a tight arc gap. 6011 runs overhead a bit easier than many other rods because of how fast the puddle freezes. So a slight oscillation forward/back will help stack metal.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg I appreciate the response and tips my friend.
So why would we get a 60 instead of just running 70
had jacket i didn't care about about till i welded in it, looked down and i was on fire lol.
Yeah, normal jacks tend not to go out once they are lit lol.
What about 6011 vertical?
So 6011 vertical runs very close to 6010, just run it at 5-10 amps hotter. 6011 runs much like grey 6010 5p + rods, a more liquid puddle than a standard 6010 (red rod). 6011 is very easy to run vertical up in comparison to many other rods because the puddle freezes fairly fast.
Whats a good bead width ?
With 6011 it depends on the rod diameter. On a flat plate with 3/32 rods aim for 1/4 to just under 3/8th wide.
@@makingmistakeswithgregthanks Greg I watch all your videos
30% arc force for cellulose 6011? Isn't it 30% for low hydrogen rods and 60% for cellulose, such as the 6011?
Please un-confuse me, Greg. Thanks!
You can run low arc force or high with 6011. The rod itself doesn’t penetrate nearly as much as 6010. I did a penetration test between 6010 and 6011 and was surprised that 6010 had far better penetration even when running 6011 at higher amperages.
The arc force has less of a effect on 6011 than 6010 because it tends to not melt the flux off the rod as fast as 6010. Not to mention the actual effect arc force has on a rod comes down to how a person is using it. If you run straight in/minimal movement without putting pressure to push the rod in, high arc force won’t do much. Only when the welder sees a reduction in voltage does it boost the amperage.
With 6010 I run 60-65%, 6011 30-60%, and 7018 I run 30%. I tried running 7018 at 60% for a video and no matter how much I pushed it the flux wouldn’t melt fast enough to get the rod to stick 😅.
@@makingmistakeswithgreg Muchos bushels of thanks for your explanation, based upon your vast experiences and analytical critique of your own work.. You have successfully un-confused me.
Taught em Everything he Knows...................
Hello Greg, Did you get the pictures I sent to your email?
I will check when I get home, if you sent them I am sure I did 😀. I am running a few days behind on my emails.
In my experience long arcing is the worst cause of excessive spartter.
Long arcing will definitely throw big BBs off the rod. 6011 is already rough enough with the sparks lol.
Moral to the story: if you don't have to use 6010 or 6011, don't. There are better options out there for mostly every application
The main things 6010/11 rods are good for is repair work on poor material, tack welding, and bridging gaps. They are no doubt weaker than 7018 but in many cases that’s not a concern. Like fence piping on thin rusty material 😀
@@makingmistakeswithgreg 6013 is as good as 6010/11 and has almost the same penetration, but with way smoother flow. I understand that some pipeline applications call for 6010, but for small fabrication or DIY work you are better off with 6013 and 7018
I can weld using 6011 w/o using gloves. Spatter? Naahhh doesn't bother me that much
Haha i don’t weld much with 6011, but I can tell you 6010 eats my arms up when welding vertical up lol.
...a prettier weld uuuuuhhhh 😅
Why try to use 6011 rods at all? 7014 is so much easier to start and maintain an arc. 6011 is much worse for sticking. The flux breaks away from the tip on the 6011 after it is used and is terrible for sticking with only the wire protruding the next time you TRY to use that rod. 6011 rods are not allowed in my shop.
6011 has its uses. It has more penetration than 7014 and handles poor fitups (gaps) far better. It also can be run vertical down to limit penetration. It handles poor material prep better, and is far less likely to have slag inclusions too. It also welds uphill and overhead easier. I don’t use much 6011 or 7014, 6010 and 7018 is what I (and most people use). 7014 has very limited penetration on thicker steel, which is why I tend to not use it much. The small 1/16th and 5/64 7014 rods are definitely good for sheetmetal.
Turn the heat up a little more on 7014. I never have anything break from using it due to poor penetration. People must be pretty lazy if they don't clean the area to be welded. A knotted cup brush on a 4 1/2" grinder. Takes only seconds.I like 7018 but only on D.C. Otherwise you just have another sticking rod like the 6011. As far as what most people use, I see those stupid 6011 rods around here in other shops. Lazy people I guess. Thanks for your reply.
I soooooo badly want to watch more of your videos, but I'm finding it to be too difficult. Please find/learn the difference between babbling and teaching. Over explaining everything is not helpful. Your hour long videos could easily be 15 minutes if you'd FOCUS on what's important.
My videos aren’t for everyone, sounds like they aren’t for you. You’re probably at a higher level than what my (intro) videos are aimed for. That’s fine, because there are plenty of TH-camrs with 5 min videos that will probably be more like what you’re looking for. All of my videos are setup where you can easily skip chapters based on what you already know. I appreciate the input but ultimately if the content isn’t for you it’s not for you. I provide it for free, don’t have half of the video as sales ads, don’t work as a shill for companies products, and I force TH-cam to make adds skip able, so people aren’t stuck watching them. The average length of my videos in the last 6 months (keep in mind I have only been doing this for a year) is under 20 minutes. I have been steadily improving on timelines but again I don’t think cutting it even further down is going to work for me. I am a small part of the larger TH-cam community so you have much to pick from that meets your needs, I wish you luck.
I hear what he’s saying, and there are content producers who may have good content, but for whatever reason, I just don’t jive with their style, so I simply move on…
Please don’t change a thing, based on that comment! I like and prefer your style, so keep on keeping on with what you’ve been doing.
I'm obviously just a nobody, but as a rank beginner I greatly appreciate the in-depth explanations. Thank you so much for what you do!
I echo other sentiments. I love the way you go into detail and have found your content very helpful. Thanks so much.
I can weld using 6011 w/o using gloves. Spatter? Naahhh doesn't bother me that much
I can weld using 6011 w/o using gloves. Spatter? Naahhh doesn't bother me that much