help to identify welding rod

I bought a Lincoln 220 AC welder at a garage sale. With it came a bunch of welding rod with 6011 number on it. Compared to other welding rod the 6011 is a lot smaller in diameter.

Can someone tell me what this rod can be used for and what heat range to try?

Thanks for your help.

6011's come in a variety of diameters. All welding rods do. Have fun. Rick

6011 is ok but I prefer 6013 works better for me. You need to measure the dia of the rod and set the amps of the welder there to start. So 1/8= .125= 125 amps or so. Have fun with your new toy!

Deep penetration fast freeze good for over head and verical. Heat range depends on rod diam. Used mainly on dirty or rusty meatl or root pass.

The 6011 rod is probably the most useful rod for an AC welder. It has deep penetration, will work well on a dirty and rusty surface, and has a quick "freeze" making it useful for vertical welding. It will give a good weld with relatively little practice. If you use multiple passes, you should chip the slag coating between passes, but it has some tolerance if you don't get the previous layer totally clean.

I have no idea what diameters of rod you may have. But IIRC, the 1/8" diameter can be run at about 100 amps. The size is determined by measuring the diameter of the steel rod, not the OD of the whiteish coating.

To get the arc started, strike the rod on the steel like you might strike a wood match, only a bit more vigorously. If the rods are old, put them in an oven at a lower temp like 200 to 250 F for a few hours to drive out moisture. The 6011 is pretty tolerant of moisture, but they are easiest to use when totally dry.

I built a lot of stuff with my Lincoln 225 AC machine, mostly using 6011 rods. If you are trying to weld thin metal like 14 gauge or thinner, you will need a different rod. The 6011 has too deep penetration for thin stock, and blows holes in it. It is easy to use with 1/8" thick stock and heavier.

Good luck and have fun!!

Paul in MN

6011 is for welding dirty rusty metal,and deep penetration welds.You can even cut with 6011 if it doesnt need to be real neat of a cut.To weld thick metal thats been veed out 6011 is used for a root pass to burn completely through the plate uphill,then you grind out the slag and finish welding the rest of the weld with 7018 uphill.Thats about as strong of a weld that you can make with an AC welder.Ive even welded truck frames like that.

I think every body else missed your point on diameter of the rod. 6011 is 6011 and it like most other rods come in 1/16, 3/32, 1/8, and 5/32. The smaller the rod the lower the amp setting. Say its 3/32 you would weld some place down around 75 amps or lower. If 1/16 even lower. Most rod boxes have the rated amps for the size marked on them
Hobby farm

For all intense purposes 6011 is a better and stronger rod than 6013. It was designed to be an AC version of a 6010 rod but welds slightly different and doesn't have quite as much penetration. 14 gauge should be fairly easy to weld with any 3/32 rod. 6013 is good for sheet metal or jobs that don't require a lot of strength. It has a smooth bead but that's about the only benefit. It has low penetration and is almost non existent in any welding shops. 7014 would be a much better choice over 6013 and for best strength 7018 would be the preferred rod. 6011 for the same size of weld, would be somewhere between 7014 and 7018. For a weld under stress 6011 would be a better choice than 7014 but not as strong as 7018. Dave

The first two digits: 60 = 60,000 psi core filler rod metal strength, the next digit: 1 = "all position" meaning fast-freeze, flat, uphill, overhead, the next digit: 1 = powdered metal additive to the flux coating to maintain arc stability for use with AC output welder. (DC also) . The 6011 is the AC "crackerbox" welder's counterpart to the 6010 "pipeliner" welding rod for pipefitters. Same can be said for 6012/6013 rods. The 7018 is higher strength (70,000psi) and way harder to use with an AC machine. 7014 works smooth with an AC box but does not penetrate as well as the 6010/6011.

I agree with old.........diameter has nothing to do with AWS (American Welding Society) rod number. The diameter will affect your amp setting, normally thin rod-thin metal, thick metal-thick metal, up to a point.

WOW if you learned anything from the posts, other than there are a lot of experts out there with different ideas about welding rod them I'm surprised.
6010 is for AC welders and good for flat welding
6011 is for AC welders and is good for all positions
6013 is for AC welders and can be used on old rusty farm equipment without loosing the strength value of the rod.

7014 and 7018 are for DC welders since you have an AC I would stick the 60 series rods for best welding.
You should get a welding rod chart that shows the amperage for each rod. Any welding shop should have one.
You have to know three things type of rod. Size of rod and thickness of the metal. Just think bigger more amps.
6011 1/8 rod is the best for all around home welding with an AC welder. Cheap does a reasonably good job and works in all positions.
It might help to take a night school course on welding to learn the basics. Its not an easy thing to do to learn how to weld by just playing around as you need to know how to move the rod for different welds.
Also next thing get a good 4 1/4 or 6 in. offset grinder you will need it. Harbor freight has some good ones and also an air needle slag remover is always good to have to make better welds.
Walt

I have welded 16 ga with the 6011 rods at 90 amps since the 60's. Learn to control your arc. If you are burning holes it is because you are holding in one spot too long.

Your local college or schools may have welding classes like Walt mentioned or ask at local welding supply store too. Welding supply probably has a good chart you can get from them covers the different kinds of rods you would need later as they want to sell stuff to you. Just google search the welding rod number or for welding rod chart.

http://www.duluthdecal.com/weldingtrainingposter.htm

http://www.aws.org/

Lincoln Electric, Miller and Hobart have some online tutorials also.
Lincoln welders

I beg to differ, 6010 is NOT for AC welders, just try and weld AC with them......and the 3rd digit is the position (flat, uphill, downhill,or overhead) 2 is flat only, shipyard type, as in 7024, on rod designations, just check the American Welding Society (AWS) specifications. They set up those number standards years ago.
I am not an expert, but I did graduate tops in my community college welding program class and have made a good living at it since 1973.

Also a rule of thumb is the fraction size in decimal is a good rough starting point for amps: 3/32" = 94 amps, 1/8" = 125 amps, 5/32" = 156 amps, 3/16" = 187 amps .......just a rough start for settings and fine tune up or down from there.

I've been a welder for over 25 years and what surprises me is that non welders will try to answer questions without actually knowing the correct answer. Sometimes they do give the right answer and sometimes not. First, as far as rods go;
6010 is for DC+ current 99% of the time. It is good for welding in any position and is designated as an all position rod.
6011 was introduced to provide a similar type of rod to 6010, that would work on an AC machine. It will work on DC as well but most people with DC would just buy 6010. 6010 and 6011 are the best choice for dirty steel because they have a deep penetrating arc that burns through the dirt and rust easier. The flux on the rod makes it harder for the weld to get contaminated from the air. That's why 6010/6011 can be whipped all over the place without getting porsity or impurities. The slag is also light and much easier to burn through.
6013 is easier to burn but has low penetration and is the weakest rod available in terms of strength. Yes it has 60,000 psi tensile strength but it doesn't have any other properties for strength. It is often referred to as farmers rod because it is easy to use. It is OK for sheet metal and very light duty welding.
7014 is a far better choice than 6013 and welds just about as easily. 7014 can be used on AC or DC either polarity.
7018 is the strongest of the mild steel rods. It is designated as a DC+ and AC rod. However, on cheap AC buzz boxes, it is harder to use, so rod manufacturers came up with special AC versions of 7018.
Whether the rod is a 60, 70, 80, or even 120,000 PSI rod makes no difference to a welding machine. Almost all shops will use DC welders and I have never been in a shop that has a chart on the wall that says what amps to burn the rod. It depends on the job. You can't go by the dial on the welding machine. The only time specific amps/volts are listed is in a procedure qualification. This is only done on the most critical work like pressure vessels and piping. Even then it will still give a range as no 2 welders (people) will weld exactly the same. On a procedure qualification, an external meter is hooked to the cables to accurately measure the volts/amps. Some shops will have their welding machines calibrated and rechecked so that the dials are more accurate for doing critical work. A grinder or needle scaler does not make the weld any better. They can prep the material so a better weld can be done but don't make the weld stronger. It used to be common for inspectors to want all welds ground so they look real nice. Now the inspectors prefer a weld with as little grinding as possible. An untouched perfect weld looks better than any ground weld and is an indication of the skill of the welder.
Welding rods(electrodes)come in many classes for a reason. Different jobs have different requirements. The numbers of rods tell all kinds of things about the rod. First 2 or 3 numbers are tensile strength in thousands, second last number is the position the rod is for and the last number and sometimes additional numbers and/or letters, tells all about the rod composition, polarity, mechanical properties etc., etc. The 1 designation as in 60(1)0, 60(1)1, 60(1)3, 70(1)4 and 70(1)8 (6010, 6011, 6013, 7014, 7018) all indicate that the rods are for all position. A 2 would indicate for flat and horizontal only. However, if you were to try and weld vertical or overhead for example with a 1/4" 7018, or any xx1x rod, you would not have very much success. When doing any welding job, you need to think about what the piece your welding will be used for and then choose the approprite rod for the particular job. The most important question is if it's a static or dynamic load on the weld. 6010, 6011 and especially 7018 are for dynamic loads where there is stress put on the weld. An example would be a dragline boom. It is under a lot of twisting and pulling forces. A static load on the other hand isn't under a lot of stress. An example would be foot on the bottom a table leg. It just sits there. These are pretty extreme examples just to give a comparison between dynamic and static loads. A lot of people have never heard these terms used before. They are however used a lot in aircraft. A static display airplane just sits there and doesn't ever fly. A plane that is being built to fly will have the wings and other components subjected to 100%, or more, dynamic loading in order to be certified for flight. The same way that any car to be put on the road and registered has to be crash tested. 959 Porsche's weren't allowed into the US because they were specifically built as a rally car but were never crash tested. I hope this clarifies some misconceptions about welding and welding rods. Welding is probably the most tested trade there is. Dave

Teddy,

I agree with you, and I could weld 16 gauge with a smaller 6011 rod, but I was trying to recommend something to a person whom I perceived is a beginner welder. My goal was to recommend something to him that would be successful without a lot of practice. And then I've got to admit that as the years have crept up on me, the hand is not as steady and the eye is not as focused and thus my welding skills have begun to slip. So I need to heed some of my own advice and use the 6011 on thicker stock, and I know I can still do it on 14 gauge, but that is getting a bit tricky too.

My compromise was to buy a nice Esab (very smooth arc) wire feed welder. It has a lot more tolerance for shaky hands than the old AC stick machine ever had. But 45 years ago when I was learning my arc welding skills, I couldn't have afforded such a fine machine. Then I had a steady hand and a good eye, but no money. Now I don't have the steady hand and where did the good eye go?? Can't remember where I left it!! Thankfully I could scrape up the coin to buy one good welder. So I am still able to fix and make "stuff".

OT, just a bit here, but a neighbor had very good arc welding skills especially on thinner square tubing. He was always creating something, both functional and frequently artistic. Due to a heart attack, he was fitted with a pacemaker and warned to never get near an electrical arc. The Docs said that it could false trigger the pacemaker and maybe kill him. Now he sits in the Lazy Boy and watches CNN all day long. It surely isn't what he wanted out of life, and not what I want either. I'll be happy with my shakey hands and imperfect sight and hopefully make many thousand more welds that may not be quite perfect either. Something about being happy with what "ya got".

Take Care!

Paul in MN