Comet J50N welding rods?
I’ve been a professional welder since 1989 and I can honestly say that there isn’t many working days that pass when I don’t do any stick welding.
A few years ago I took the step of becoming a “Coded Welder” which, for the benefit of those non welders, means that I have a professional qualification in welding. My coding is BS EN 287-1.I have written another article on welding codes if you are interested.
Right! ….The Comet J50N welding electrodes are made by a company called “UTP”. These are owned and made by “Bohler Thyssen” who have a huge range of welding consumables. The J50N is a “Low Hydrogen” class rod which is numbered as a 7016 all positional rod.
If you are interested in what the codes mean on the end of the rods, click here.
If you are in the business of carrying out welding repairs to plant and machinery then you will probably already be using low hydrogen rods as a matter of course. They offer far superior strength and resistance to cracking over ordinary 6013 rods and as with all electrodes, they must be kept dry at all times. I recommend using a plastic rod container called “Rod Guard” when you are on site.
I’ve used many types of low hydrogen rods over the years and was introduced to the J50N by my welding inspector. They are a brilliant rod to use and are really easy to control in positional work.I use the 2.5mm & 3.2mm sizes all the time and have had the 2.5mm rods running down as low as 40amps !! How many low hydrogen rods do you know that will run at that setting. The slag goes glassy when set and releases very easily which is a useful attribute if you are laying in multiple runs. I just run the end of a file over the weld and the slag pops off really easy followed by a quick rub with a wire brush.
As with any low hydrogen rod, you will need to use a welder with a high “open circuit voltage” (OCV) to enable the rods to be easily struck. If you have a modern, good quality inverter welder or a DC set you should be fine but just check to see what the OCV is on the data label on the welder. As a rule of thumb you will need 75-80 OCV to run low hydrogen rods.If the rods are continually sticking to the work piece when you strike, you are using the set at the right current setting and the rods are dry then I would say that it is because of insufficient OCV. Try changing the welder for a decent one.
I can recommend a Kemppi Evo Minarc 150 or a Lincoln Electric Invertec 150.I am going to write more articles on other rods I use…
Happy Welding!Look out for these beauties in my online shop.
As with all my articles, I encourage you to do your own research into these subjects. These articles are my own point of view and are not intended to be advice in any way.