Just learned welding rods have a shelf life that's way shorter than I thought

I was digging through some old rods in my truck yesterday and found a box of 7018s from 2018. Looked up the specs and turns out low-hydrogen rods can go bad after just a few hours if the seal is broken and they soak up moisture. Anyone else ever ran burnt rods and got hosed on a weld test?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_dylan4d ago

Man that "just a few hours" thing caught me off guard too when I first heard it. I ran some old rods from a toolbox once and they were popping and crackling like bacon in a pan. Failed the bend test hard and wasted a whole afternoon redoing it. Now I keep my 7018s in a rod oven or at least a sealed PVC tube with a desiccant pack. Learned that lesson the hard way.

hunt.rowan4d ago

I read a welding engineer's blog once that said 7018 can absorb enough moisture in just 45 minutes to fail a bend test in high humidity. That's wild when you think about how fast it happens, especially for something that's supposed to be a low-hydrogen rod. Your PVC tube trick is smart, I started doing the same after losing a weld test myself.