Welding Tips and Tricks

I purchased some Inweld brand 1/8 inch 7018 AC electrodes from my local welding supply store and was very impressed with them in my opinion they are better than Hobart and Lincoln rods ,has anyone else ran these rods if so what do you think about them?

I'm curious about how much rod was in the package you got? At work they buy us a lot of Lincoln or Esab 7018 in 50# cans. I know there are requirements for a rod to be designated by a numb like 7018 but I have noticed less diferance between batches from one of the manufacturers than the other. Are the Inweld rods common down there?

Josh, I bought a 5lb box for 14.95 sales tax included to do some trailer repair . Yes they are very common out here in the sticks ,my local supply store carries Lincoln and Hobart electrodes but most of the local welders use Inweld ,they are a great rod and are a lot cheaper than the well known brands . I used to use Lincoln rods but after running these I will never run another Lincoln or Hobart rod again. As for differences between the appearance the flux is a little darker color than the Lincoln rods.

Funny I like the Esab over the Lincoln. The Esab also has a darker flux than the Lincoln. I'll have to do some brand research maybe Inweld and Esab are the same.

I know yall are talking stick electrodes, but yesterday I ran out of my lincoln 70s6 .035 wire in my lincoln wire matic 250. I had a roll of inweld .035 70s wire I picked up just to try. So I loaded it in and started running it as before with no parameters changing. I couldn't even get it to weld close to decent. I changed voltage and wfs a hundred different ways and it was pure crap. Booger looking beads, no wet out, no penetration, nothing consistent. I was beside myself. I was welding 1/4" mild steel on a frame of a contractors bed. Doing inside corner vertical ups and horizontal butt joints. I was humming along happily with the lincoln wire. This inweld stuff won't even get me by. I'm taking the roll back. Hopefully it was a fluke but will never make that mistake again.

DeepSouthWelder wrote:I purchased some Inweld brand 1/8 inch 7018 AC electrodes from my local welding supply store and was very impressed with them in my opinion they are better than Hobart and Lincoln rods ,has anyone else ran these rods if so what do you think about them?

I have the same experience with them, but only having run them on DC. LWS had just started carrying them, tossed me a box at the "blowout price" they were selling the Hobarts for, and said "Try them and let us know what you think". 2 Thumbs up form the Siskel and Ebert show.