E7018 kept in sealed container

[Alan Murfee]

There are no exact timings but yes the concept Is that if you will keep the rod at normal temperature it will gain moisture and will retain it for ever. And this way you will never be able to use it again. So always keep it in a hot environment and take it out one hour before the use.

[usmcpop]

I... Storage in vacuum or with desiccant might give you dry rods or not.No way to tell....

Storage in a vacuum or in a relatively pure inert gas should do the trick. After all, this is chemistry, not particle physics. We don't need to be in a zero-G place somewhere in outer space. I'll bet if you were out in the Sahara desert, 7018 would last a whole lot longer out of the box than on the coast of Oregon.

[canoecruiser]

Sure I've thought about it. If you put in a moisture-free inert atmosphere or a vacuum, you are golden.

I thought about getting a plastic sheet type seal-a-meal (AS SEEN ON TV!!) and making up a bunch of pockets, sliding a few sticks in each one and heat-sealing the final edge. The rods could be popped out as they are needed while the rest are snuggled up nice and dry.

[usmcpop]

Sure I've thought about it. If you put in a moisture-free inert atmosphere or a vacuum, you are golden.

If you have to have dry rods must keep them at proper specified storage temperature as that is only way to know they are kept dry. Storage in vacuum or with desiccant might give you dry rods or not.No way to tell. Re drying is another problem requiring higher temperature.

Thinner metals should not be a problem unless your welding on disc plows. Then preheat and slow cooling in insulating bed of ashes or perlite might prevent cracking.

[canoecruiser]

Probably OK for hobbyist type work. The flood gas should be dry (low dew-point); it's the water vapor that's the problem. But viewing it theoretically it could work, and probably quite well.

For any welding process calling for lo-hy rod it would be a non-starter. The rod manufacturer specifies how the rod is to be handled to preserve its properties. Any referenced WPS would have to approve your handling procedure. For critical work getting that to occur would be about zero.

Or let's say you were to fab an on-road trailer and it comes apart and kills someone. If a lawyer were to find out you saved a few bucks by not following the manufacturer's handling specs (rod ovens aren't that expensive), you would almost certainly be in an indefensible position.

It does make me wonder when I grab a 5 lb. box of 7018AC at Lowes and it is packaged in a cardboard box with a ripped cellophane shrink-wrap. How good can they be? And yet I've never found any cracked welds made with 'em.

I did a side job for my employer a few months ago (I'm not a weldor by trade) and bought a 10 lb. can of Lincoln Excaliber and charged it to the job. The remainder went into a plastic rod-can for around the house use. Lo-hy not really required but I got a few sticks out of the deal.

[Scotia]

Vacuum Rod Container?

Instead of constantly running a rod oven for maintaining low hydrogen rod how about making a rod holder out of a piece of 2" pipe with end caps on both ends and drill, tap, and place a fitting onto one of the end caps for hooking up an air conditioning vacuum pump. Open your rod up out of its fresh container and then place into this rod holder. Suck out all of the air and then equalize the air pressure with an inert gas such as nitrogen. It would seem to me that you would have rod that is portable without a rod oven and is no different from the freshly opened new rod other than the time difference between transferring containers and drawing a vacuum down. No expense of burning the electricity of a constantly running rod oven. Have several of these containers with a small amount of rod in each so you can proportion your rod to the task at hand.

Has anyone else thought of doing this? Seems like a simpler solution. I just read a thread about one guy that was trying to build his concept of a mobile rod oven using his vehicles exhaust. Exhaust gas has a lot of moisture in it. Water is a by product of the combustion of hydrogen. People putting light bulbs in old refrigerators for storing rod. Some people don't have any concern about storing the rod in the open air.

What are your thoughts on this? I have yet to implement this concept.

[moya034]

well we watched another video today and it did say rods kept out for a max of 4 hours... and they could be "re-baked" but only once and i believe it was for like 9 hours or something like that...

This is true, however many jobsites will not allow the practice of rebaking the electrodes.

[blazin454]

well we watched another video today and it did say rods kept out for a max of 4 hours... and they could be "re-baked" but only once and i believe it was for like 9 hours or something like that...

[delwelds]

I work in the same environment as you... And heated quivers are the only way we're allowed to store rods outside of the holding oven..... And if your quiver isn't calibrated your still in trouble...LOL

I hear you man, Really all I try to do is stay out of trouble while I'm there working! Oddly enough they don't provide us with heated quivers, we're just stuck with the plain old hard or soft leather ones.

[MIKIEweld]

That would be a great idea, but I work in nuclear plants. They are really, really strict about rod's and time out of the oven. Even GTAW wire has to be thrown out at the end of a shift. Coated rods are good for only 5hrs. out of the oven then they have to be tossed. If you get caught welding with rods beyond the issue time then you have trouble with the plant manager and the NRC.

I work in the same environment as you... And heated quivers are the only way we're allowed to store rods outside of the holding oven..... And if your quiver isn't calibrated your still in trouble...LOL

[Tux_Rules]

LOL! Ha, yeah right! They throw all that stuff away. There is too much risk and liability with having a contaminated (radiation on the rod) rod leave the premises. I'm not sure where they take them to get rid of them. I think they go through de-con. and separate the contaminated ones from the "clean" ones. I hope they donate the "clean" rods to a community college or something, but who knows...

Most likely not. I do believe they would just send them along with the rest of the low-level waste to be diposed of. They may frisk them to check for high-level contamination, but still bury them (It would be hard to de-con the flux). I saw a lot of good things permanently disposed of at Big Rock Point when they tore it down.

[delwelds]

I hope they let you take the waste rods and electrodes home.

LOL! Ha, yeah right! They throw all that stuff away. There is too much risk and liability with having a contaminated (radiation on the rod) rod leave the premises. I'm not sure where they take them to get rid of them. I think they go through de-con. and separate the contaminated ones from the "clean" ones. I hope they donate the "clean" rods to a community college or something, but who knows...

[Timinmb]

That would be a great idea, but I work in nuclear plants. They are really, really strict about rod's and time out of the oven. Even GTAW wire has to be thrown out at the end of a shift. Coated rods are good for only 5hrs. out of the oven then they have to be tossed. If you get caught welding with rods beyond the issue time then you have trouble with the plant manager and the NRC.

I hope they let you take the waste rods and electrodes home.

[delwelds]

Thats why I use a heated quiver...It can take about 2 1/2 packets of rods so gets you up to the next break easily....

That would be a great idea, but I work in nuclear plants. They are really, really strict about rod's and time out of the oven. Even GTAW wire has to be thrown out at the end of a shift. Coated rods are good for only 5hrs. out of the oven then they have to be tossed. If you get caught welding with rods beyond the issue time then you have trouble with the plant manager and the NRC.