im am trying to do my charge piping and my downpipes in stainless steel 304.

i am using a small AC welder that i bought from walmart.

it has 2 settings 55 and 80, it came with 6013 rods that work aweseome on mild steel and i have no problems with sticky electrodes or glowing electrodes. i measured them and they are either 1/16 or 5/64 i cant tell.

i recently purchased 308 electodes to do my stainless piping which is all mocked up.
the 308 electdoes i bought are 1/16th but all they do is just start glowing and they get stuck easily.

ive bought 2 types of 308s, thinking maybe i got a bad batch.

how do i make these elecrodes STOP GLOWING AND WELD
WHY ARE THEY GLOWING!!! why do they keep getting stuck! it doesnt happen with 6013 rods on mild!!!

 

please somebody help! this is driving me out of my wits!

 

dont weld charge pipes with arc. easy fix.

 

did my charge pipes with arc welds, u cant weld it from the top, u gotta weld it on the side of the pipe so the welds can run down, if u weld it from the top of the pipe it'll just burn thru the pipe, angle the rod 45 degrees to which ever side ur comfortable with, i just rotate the pipe as im welding, arc welding wont look good , but u can always paint it

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by dfoxengr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">dont weld charge pipes with arc. easy fix.</TD></TR></TABLE>

true that...

that flux from the inside will brake some day and it will go inside your engine...

 

flux shouldnt be on the bottom of the weld...

 

Arc welding is fine, most charge pipes are welded with an arc welder. However, SMAW welding would probably not be the best choice.

 

When he's talking about arc, I'm pretty sure he means SMAW (stick)
All electric welding is arc welding - mig, tig, stick, smaw, whatever
I know it's confusing, even mig isn't really mig if you use co2 or o2 it's GMAW
people need to clarify better maybe
you're right though, it won't be easy or look nice with stick

 

stick can look nice if you have enough practice.

make sure your rods havent absorved moisture. get thinner rods you have a weak machine so get the thinest rods you can find.

if your rods are too big they wont melt like they should theyll just get stuck and start heating up till they get red....

 

rods dont actually "melt" lol

you need to make sure after you strike the arc you dont get the rod more than 1/8" or so close to the work. itll stick then.
practive striking, somce rods are naturally harder to strike than others.

 

i suck

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nickromeo &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i suck</TD></TR></TABLE>

pactice on some flats. it is harder to keep an equal distance from the workpiece when it is not flat.

anybody remember the Filipino terrorist stick welder. he made some pretty charge pipes?