Thread: Arc rod shelf life.

Hi Mick,
I have tried using damp rods before, they do not want to work for you at all. Dry them out though and they are fine. I wonder how the guys in the high humidity regions go? I got given a few boxes of rods by my FIL when he moved off the farm. Some where in hard plastic blow molded boxes with tight fitting lids. These are great as they keep any spills or moisture away from the rods.
Cheers,
Ew

I store my welding rods in a piece of 90 mm storm water pipe with caps at each end,At work we store the rods in a metal box with a halogen bulb inside to keep condensation out and the rods dry.
.

Good to know. I have some Toolcraft that could be 40 years old.
I found a spaghetti jar long enough - just - for electrodes. But I like the pipe idea better.

Have the same rods and did some welding the other day. Mine are not as old, but did look a little odd with what looked like a dry white mouldy sort of coating over some of the surface. They were stored in a bedroom cupboard to try to keep them dry. Just wiped them and stuck them in the sun for a while and they worked fine. I did notice these are not the same blue colour that the Satincraft13 used to be. I did see on the packet that to recondition, you bake them at 135 degC for an hour. See if your pack says the same.

nev.

Originally Posted by Bryan

Good to know. I have some Toolcraft that could be 40 years old.

Just babies.

I've got two full packs of rods left over from when they built the Mannum to Adelaide pipeline in the early 1950s.

These are the last two packets from a lot we got from a deceased estate of a friend who worked for E&WS from WW2 till retirement on all those major works. He was based at the Islington workshops.

Do they weld OK? Absolutely. Age doesn't hurt them - just dry them if necessary. The old rods fume pretty badly, and it makes you wonder what they used in the flux back then, but they weld OK.

Provided the packs haven't been opened they stay dry, as they came sealed in a type of heavy duty tar/bituminised paper wrapping.

Anyone care to outdo that? I don't think Noah used a stick welder on the ark.

Cheers

Rob

I have used wet rods for cutting when I ran out of gas,(drop them in a bucket of water) doe's the job just though. You are right about using an oven to dry the rods. That is where the old pie warmer welders were great, throw the bitumen/paper container on top to warm the rods, they also had a frequency converter on them, to help start welding, (that's what I think they were called).
Bloody CRAFT disease.
Kryn

The reconditioning instructions on the pack of rods I bought today said

135ºC for one hour

Just on the idea of using capped pipe to store rods...

It's a damn good storage solution but be careful of using PVC caps. If the rods slide around a bit you risk breaking the ends (as I've done in the past). I had, I thought, a reasonably tight fitting length (with foam padding top and bottom that the rods pressed into when closed) and they still managed to break out somehow.

If you make up something for yourself, make the main body about 3/4 the length of the rods so you can easily get to a fresh rod without having to jam your fingers in the pipe or slide the rods out, and you'll also be able to bunch them up to get the lid section back on (both of which are flaws in my current remaining tubes). They're handy too if you're working away from a welding station...put a slip in mount or two for a tube on the side of your welder and they're off the ground, easy to get to, not rolling around all over the place and it's easy enough to change for another tube of different rods.

The attached is one of my tubes. It has rods in it (not that you can tell), so it's too long and I have to tip the rods out a little bit into the lid to be able to close it easily or else they all jam up on the lip. But otherwise, for rods that are practically stored outside, they're bone dry and in good condition.

+ 1 for the PVC pipe.
This is a pic of my works trailer. The rods were stored in these for on site work when I was in north east Victoria. This town that actually manufactured fog on a commercial basis
They managed to stay dry and welded great.

Alex engineering tool Trailer (9).JPG

Phil

Some interesting comments and observations there. I went into the shed and checked the package, not a thing about heating the rods. The only instruction was to keep them dry.

Mine aren't very blue anymore, sort of a light blue look now.

One other thing, they have a very faded McEwans price sticker on them, $4.35 a pack, which was a clearance special if I remember correctly.

I bought four packs and brought them home in a little backpack on a motorcycle!!!

Mick.

Bloody hell you blokes are tight, seems to me that some have hoarders syndrome.
Chuck out the old crap and buy new rods coz if they are that old you aint using them anyway.
I often had to weld in the rain, that was fun, everything you touched would give you a tingle,
there was no RCD's to muck you around then.
When the rod's got wet you would just hold it on the job till it smoked up a bit and then off you'd
go, I still do that if I'm somewhere and only crappy old rods are on hand.
You have to ask yourself this question though, how good is the weld from those rods ?
It might look ok.........but

Originally Posted by Steamwhisperer

+ 1 for the PVC pipe.
This is a pic of my works trailer.

Phil

Looks like a rack of bazooka launches.

Give em a taste of stick welder rods at 10 paces Captain.

Aye Aye Captain , prepare to fire.

Take that you heathen non machinists.

Rob

Originally Posted by shedhappens

Bloody hell you blokes are tight, seems to me that some have hoarders syndrome.
Chuck out the old crap and buy new rods coz if they are that old you aint using them anyway.

Chuck something out ???? Seriously ???? No way. Sure as hell I'l want it two days later

The only reason I still have these rods is because they are large diameter (for pipeline welding) and my machine struggles with them.

But as for throw them out - that would be a sin.

Rob

Yep the same here, I have about half a packet full & noticed they have a whitish powder on some of them, even though they have been stored in a workshop steel cabinet.
They would be about 40 yrs old.
So, thanks for the heating in the oven trick, will try that.
Throw something out ?
No possible way, might need it soon !
Never been known to throw anything out.
Regards
Bruce