Willie, buy your wife on of those vacu seal plastic bag thingamajigs and repack your rods in 6s or 3s or 1½s if you prefer.
I don't know why I get away with just leaving my rods in the opened box they came in and can't tell the difference between the performance of the last rod in a 6 or 8month old box to the first rod out of a new box.
Mayham, nice post, and yes those things can be a real "Temper" saver.! Lol
Somewere on a welding site quite awhile ago i saw a number of different designs/shapes of them. Neat Stuff!
Willie - a lot of people pick up old toaster ovens that get tossed out for use as a rod oven. An old welder told me just to strike and then 'stick' the rod, and let the rod 'glow'. He said if that doesn't dry the flux nothing will.
My welding rods i kept in the "warming Oven" at the top of my cookstove,, always dry.
(10-27-2012, 07:17 PM)Mayhem Wrote: [ -> ]An old welder told me just to strike and then 'stick' the rod, and let the rod 'glow'. He said if that doesn't dry the flux nothing will.
When he lends me HIS welder, I'll give it a try.
About the same time the rod starts glowing, so will the main control board on my Syncrowave. Buying a new box of rods is much cheaper than replacing that board. My old Lincoln A/C farm welder I used to have (a battle tank in disguise) probably wouldn't have broken a sweat doing that though.
However the explosive steam release from the rod would probably have blown the flux coating to bits.....
I never said I tried it!
Well, not intentionally
I did turn a rod into a pretzel once whilst trying to break it free! It got to a nice orange colour before I won! I was using an old oil cooled transformer welder that belonged to my Dad. He had it as far back as I can remember. No boards to blow in that thing - not even an on/off switch!
(10-27-2012, 07:17 PM)Mayhem Wrote: [ -> ]An old welder told me just to strike and then 'stick' the rod, and let the rod 'glow'. He said if that doesn't dry the flux nothing will.
Hmm.
Maybe that's why I don't have problems with "wet" rods
Unfortunately, I don't intentionally "stick" the rod.
My problem is my damp basement shop that has cinder block walls. Leaks like a sieve during heavy rains. The humidity is terrible.
If I could afford to move into a different house I would but.......
The vacuum seal bags wouldn't be of much use because the rods would need to be sealed up immediately after being dried. By the time they cooled off enough to put in the bags, they are already absorbing moisture out of the air.
It will just be easier for me to load up the oven about an hour or so ahead of time to dry out the rods, and then pull them out as I use them.
Can you seal the walls Willie?
No. That would be like throwing money into a burning wood stove.
It needs a complete new foundation, and that isn't going to happen. It's an old house and not worth putting the money into it.
I keep hoping my daughter will marry a guy with a contracting company some day.....
Either that or the San Andreas can take out the house so I can collect the insurance. And yes, I've got coverage for that.