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Took me 6 months to realize I was preheating my rods all wrong
Was at a job site in Pittsburgh last fall and a old timer walked over while I was heating rods. He just shook his head and said son you're cooking the flux not drying the rod. Turns out I had the temp way too high at 500 degrees. Should be more like 250-300 for low hydrogen. Been doing it wrong for half a year and nobody told me until that guy. Has anyone else gotten bad habits from just guessing on your own?
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elliotr399d ago
Preheating at 500, oof. You were basically making a science experiment out of your welding rods.
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calebm469d ago
Man I felt that one in my bones, 500 is basically a rod toaster oven right there. I did the exact same thing when I first started, cranked it up thinking hotter equals drier and ended up with flux flaking off like old paint. That old timer must have saved you a ton of headaches with cracking later on. It's wild how much stuff you just wing in this trade until someone older and grumpier wanders over to set you straight. Now I'm paranoid about my oven temps and double check everything like a rookie.
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