Forney Welding Rods?

[Don A]

Our local Farmer's CO-OP carries Forney Welding Rods.

I normally buy Lincolns from Lowes.

Are the Forneys any good?

Any different?

Thanks,

Don

[Thomas Dean]

I have used Forney rods in the past with excellent results. Lincoln mainly sales to 'Welding Supply stores and not too much to the smaller 'catch all' store. From what I understand has to do with QC. I would not hesitate to use them.

[John Martin]

Not to hijack your thread Don A. , but I am picking up my new arc welder, and I was wondering if Hobart welding rods are good?

[Travis Covington]

Everyone has there favorites, all rods are made to specs. Some are better for different peaple and different situations. Most companies make cheap rods up to the highest quality so it's really up to you. Forney and Hobart both are exellent companies. i have used both. My personal preferance is Lincoln but I know wich ones work best for me.
Travis

[Thomas Dean]

Ditto what Covforge said. Just because it doesn't say Lincoln, McKay, Sanvick, etc. doesn't mean they are an inferior rod. Shoot both Forney and Hobart have been in the business for 75yrs or so. They HAVE to meet specs., otherwise they would have been out of business years ago. Buy 'em and don't worry about it. If they are a low-hydorgen rod just remember to keep the unused rods at 250F once you have opened the container. (They will collect moisture and result in poor welds if not reconditioned before using. That's a whole new thread....)

[welder19]

Honestly, I have never really found any rod to be any different than the other and I have used most every one at one time or another, as long as you have the right rod for the job and it is not damp or so old that the flux is not performing as it should then there should be no problem, for the most part a rod is a rod as far as who made them.

welder19

[GrandLordKhorne]

The only thing I haft to say about welding rod is packaging. Normally, welding rod is welding rod, there is a set of min specks they haft to meet and they all pretty much work just as well as the other (Suffice it to say, there is some top quality premium rod out there that is a bit better but that is besides the point unless your doing something structurally supercritical and not overbuilt). At any rate, the one thing I always tell people asking me about any brand of welding rod is look at the packaging for that brands 7018 rod. 7018 rod is sensitive to moisture being a low hydrogen type, so it is important that the rod remain dry and as a result the packaging needs to be of reasonable quality to assure your getting good fresh rod. So what I have always said is if they give enough of a care to make sure there 7018 is in a pretty good air tight sealed pack than, they care enough to make descent rod. If the packaging for there 7018 is complete rubbish (and I’m not talking about beat up by shipping and customers, I’m talking genuinely cheap), there rod is probably only barely built to spec.

Having said that, I have only run into one case of truly cheap packaging for 7018. It was some cheap china rod from some local welding shop. They carried Lincoln and other weld rod but the guy had a shelf with rod labeled “economy”. Needless to say, the 7018 on that shelf was in a black cardboard container and when I took the top off the container the rod it’s self was only loosely rapped in paper and in a plastic bag that was folded but not sealed over the top. The rod had yet to reach it’s expiration date and had turned nearly black with moisture (for thaws of you who don’t know, the older and/or wetter 7018 gets the darker the flux turns), all I could do was chuckle at how cheap it was. Than a welder walked in saw me chuckling at the rod stuck up a conversation with me and stated that he had bought some in a pinch and had put it in his oven to dry out, when he went to use it the flux just fell off like powder in most cases and he compared it to welding with coat hangers when it didn’t. I think the box was labeled “Thunder Rod, China’s #1 welding rod” or some junk like that, he only had it in 7018, 1/8”.

[aametalmaster]

I burn anything i can get cheap. I have used them and they are fine, they are like everybody else, someone makes them and they are packaged for Forney...Bob

Forney Industries

[hammerkid]

I saw those in the co-op yesterday . I had to get some of that brand mig wire cause I ran out and won`t be able to get to the LWS or hd soon LOL