Re: tack weld SMAW 6010 cellulosics - yes!

Bob La Londe <none@none.com99> writes:

On 6/6/2025 2:02 AM, Richard Smith wrote:

Hello everyone
Decades after first mention of tack welding with SMAW 6010's, on then
welding newsgroup and on r.c.m., I tried - and am bowled-over!
In Britain almost no use of 6010's and 6011's.

>
I think that is in part because 6010 doesn't run on all the machines
that could fly through 6013 and 7018.  Only in recent years have I see
mif price import machines able to run 60610 reliably, and some of them
have shown mixed results from one machine to the next of the same
model.   I can't speak to older transformer machines.  My Lincoln
cracker box barely ran 7018 well.  My only other transformer machine
is the Miller MIG box.  WEll I do have an ancient Hobart (Real Hobart,
not Miller Hobart) generator welder, but my dad parked it decades ago
when it melted its starting battery.  I haven't got around to trouble
shooting it.
>

I've used for a couple of decades of root-running.
"In background" a bit because my Miller Dynasty 200DX welding machine
won't "keyhole" with 6010.  Which was my first application of
cellulosic 6010's and 6011's - "keyhole" the root of a V-butt weld.
Well, trying to weld 10mm A/F 6mm nuts to the periphery of a 10mm
wall thickness tube forming the shell of my rod-mill, suddenly
recalled 6010's used for tacking in North America.
So that's "open arc" - use like a 6013 (7018 is "open arc" but very
close-up due to cup formation at end of rod - so not that similar)
Wow!
That was a trick I missed!
* instant arc-up and pool formation
* fluidity
* very "clean"
* fast freeze
* directional directable arc
* smooth and pleasant to use
 

>
Thanks for the info.  While the odds are never zero I am unlikely to
run 6010 any time soon.  There is always that chance.  I will have
some questions about mid thickness overhead welding soon.
>

Well everyone - best wishes and thanks for all the help along the way,
Rich S

>
Same to you.
>
>
--
Bob La Londe
CNC Molds N Stuff

I forgot to mention

* almost no slag - just a bit of glassy substance - so no slag choking
  the weld area (the "fast freeze" is a corollary of this - no slag?)
  as you tack-weld

Running 6010 open-arc isn't impossibly hard on the welding machine.
The voltage when running is higher than with other rods.  Why would be a
problem for a really feeble inverter - 20 years ago some low-end ones
would only run 6013.
If run it much like a 6013, with a bit of arc length, is "just" "nice".
Never thought to do that with first learning keyholing.