Small Welding Rods

[101RRS]

I just bought a small BOC Dc inverter stick welder to do light work on the cars. The smallest rods I have found are 2mm which are just a bit too big for some of the sheet metal I have to weld. 40 amps is barely enough to fire up the arc but more than enough to blow holes in the metal. I really need rods about 1.5mm or even down to 1mm so I can run about 35 amps to fire up the arc and not blow holes.

I have searched the net but cannot see any one that lists rods smaller than 2mm. So any one know if stick rods go smaller than 2mm and where you can get them.

Thanks

Garry

[debruiser]

2mm are the smallest I could get too.... Hence i went to a mig welder

[101RRS]

2mm are the smallest I could get too.... Hence i went to a mig welder

Thanks - I have a mig but it is just too expensive to use with bottle hire etc.

[scanfor]

Hi Garrycol

I too abandoned the MIG in favour of a DC stick inverter based on gas costs. I have also found that it won't reliably do the small gauge stuff that a MIG can handle, even with tiny rods.
I am reliably told that my technique could be adapted to better suit the inverter, and it may help to do short welds to keep the parent metal temps low.

[bretty15]

Welding Electrodes 1.6mm x 60 Stick Pkt E6012 GP Rods | eBay

[rovercare]

MIG for panel work, nothing else, ARC will NOT do the job well, unless you are an excellent welder

[mick88]

Instead of renting mig bottles which is an asolute fortune there are disposable bottles available. I have not tried them yet but a workmate recently got one and it was about $40 bucks plus a one off cost of about $45 bucks for an adaptor fitting. Basically the cost bottle rental alone will buy you five disposables a year!

Cheers, Mick.

[Carnut1100]

I've welded motorbike exhaust with 2.5 rods.......but it was ****ing hard!!!!
Also not terribly neat...
Stopped the bike being so noisy though!

Really arc is too grunty for panels.

[101RRS]

Instead of renting mig bottles which is an asolute fortune there are disposable bottles available. I have not tried them yet but a workmate recently got one and it was about $40 bucks plus a one off cost of about $45 bucks for an adaptor fitting. Basically the cost bottle rental alone will buy you five disposables a year!

Cheers, Mick.

I have them and are not worth it - just too expensive to run as the gas does not go very far. Is cheaper than renting larger bottles etc. That ebay link above also has larger bottles for $85 (nearly $100 with shipping) that may be better.

For the work I am wanting to do arc is fine if I can get smaller rods which it would seem are available on ebay.

Garry

[incisor]

switch the polarity and run gasless wire on the mig