SMAW and MIG

[aliva]

An other concern with stick welding is keeping the rods dry. The rod oven can be your best friend to help achieve a good weld 7018 being a low hydrogen rod is susceptible to picking up humidity from the ambient air. Where I used to work, rods, if not in the original packaging were stored in a rod oven set at 150F. All the rods where stored in the oven not just the 7018. I worked in an acid plant, so most of the welding was 316L SS. the SS rods where also in the oven along with 6010, 7018. The heating made a big difference in the final weld. Now there's going to be some push back from some that storing in an oven is not necessary for rods other than 7018, maybe a few others. but our welders insisted on it. Also if you can, only pull rods from the oven that you can use in about 1 hour. A toaster oven is a pretty cheap rod oven as opposed to spending a couple hundred $ for a commercial oven. I store my rods in a cardboard mailing tube that has been wrapped in clear packing tape. The tape prevents humidity from getting inside the tube, I also add a couple of desiccant packets. I wanted to buy some plastic rod storage tubes, but the best price I could find was in the $15 range, mailing tubes are $3 for 36"