Stick welding thin wall SQ tube

[bobwills]

Ive used them with my lincoln 225 ac and they work great even though its on ac. And I wouldnt guess you would find them locally. Internet is all I would guess. I seen some on weldingdepot.com . They got a good price on all there rods too.

[welderdude]

McMaster caries the 5/32 6013 rods in 1, 5, and 50 pounds packs.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#welding-electrodes/=g7yoxs

[posixPilot]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

[geezer]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

You made the right choice with 6011, 6010 or 13 would do as well, 7014 and 7018 are the worst choices for thin stuff,,,cause they require 30% more amps to burn the same dia. rod and heat is the main problem with thin materials...been there,,done that many times...

My definition of thick or thin is when a material is thinner than the dia of the rod....in which case the choice of a 60 series rod is probably the best.

[Cippee]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

I see you have the power pro 256 why did you decide to stick weld when you have a tig welder on there? Tig welding is very slow but you can't beat it on thin stuff.

[undercut]

I finally tackled this project last weekend (same project with the zinc coated brackets), and everything went pretty well, so thanks for the help everyone. I ended up using 3/32" 6011, and since the area I was tacking was so small, I used more heat than I practiced with. I'm really surprised how thin SQ tube is, and how easily it melts through. I was attaching that bracket to some 2" SQ tube, and I managed to melt a small hole at one point (easily repaired). I'm really glad I practiced a good bit, as it allowed me to back off the heat when I started melting through and still be successful. I think I ended up running most of the beads at 45 to 50 amps.

Thanks
Mike

Hi posixPilot,

This thread is a bit old but I thought I'd put in my questions and see if anyone is still following it. I'm doing something somewhat similar. Will be welding some SQ tubing that is 16 gauge. Where it is different (I think) is that I want to seam weld the tubes together to make a frame - not just tacking to the tube. Do you think 3/32 6011 will also work for what I want to do? I've been trying to research this a bit and it would appear there are a lot of different opinions. I guess partly because of the amount of experience, different welding styles, what each person considers "thin material" and possibly what brand electrodes / welder each person is using. 6013 is supposed to be a low penetrating stick but I'm hearing mixed success with it when the metal being welded is down around 16 gauge.

BTW - Good for you for ensuring you don't inhale any zinc related fumes.