Drying Welding Rods In Kitchen Oven

First you can t open the door from inside many old refrigerators so any curious kid prowling around the job site can climb in and suffocate.

Drying welding rods in kitchen oven.

For drying remove the electrodes from the container and spread them out in the furnace because each stick electrode must reach the drying temperature. Low hydrogen electrodes like the commonly used e7018 must be dry to perform adequately once the original package has been opened they must be stored in an electrode oven at 250f 300f. If someone s told you that you can dry wet welding rods in your oven or put rods in a freezer if they are old you ve heard two welding myths. Filthy rich will teach you how to save your welding electrodes if they have collected moisture after not being stored properly.

Another myth is that you can put a light bulb in an old refrigerator and store your welding electrodes in it. Too much humidity in any rods is not good check for funky discoloration mold and any obvious things that dont look right. An oven that s too hot will remove the flux coating and an oven that s not hot enough won t adequately dry the rods. Different rods sometimes need different temperatures for example lo hy 7018 rods should be baked at around 250 for best results.

Preheating rods dries them and minimizes cracking and stress risers during welding. I would bake them in the rod oven or spread them out on a cookie sheet in your household oven and bake at at least 220 degrees for a couple hours them package them again. Ideally you want your welding rod ovens to be between 250 350f for optimal performance. I don t see why you couldn t use a home oven for this although you do raise a good point about.