Identifying old rods

Date 02-02-2008 18:23

Hello all,
I volunteer at the local air museum in their restoration shop, and I'm the only certified welder there.
They have a small machine/welding shop and most of the equipment has been donated thought the years, including all the consumables.
The result of that is there are boxes and boxes of old brazing and welding rods. I've been trying to go through and ID what rods they have and which ones are still useful, so that we can take the rest of them to the scrap yard.
I'd like to be able to ID the rods to the point of saying "this is a stainless" or "this is a carbon steel" so that when we take them to the scrap yard we won't get ripped off.
I realize the only good way to find out what I want is to go get one of those hand held XRF units, but that isn't going to happen.

One of the big batches of rod they have which still has flux on it is a Eutectrode 680 ac.
Anyone have any idea what the makeup of this rod is, and what it would be used for?

Thanks in advance
-Clif

By aevald

Date 02-02-2008 20:36

Hello Clif, if you jump on the internet and post up some of the numbers and brands that you have you will likely be able to figure out many of the electrodes that you have. Use google search and some of the other search engines. As far as the eutectrode 680 goes, I believe that is a rod that was designed for welding tool steels and certain other dissimilar metals together. If it is in usable shape, there are many out there that would love to have that stuff. If it's Bohler, Eutectic, or any of the specialty alloy companies, the numbers only apply to a specific company identification system and you will need to research them as such. The majority of your stainless rods will have a designation such as: E309, E309L, E309LSI type of numbering on them. The three digit number will describe the stainless alloy type and the E at the front will describe an arc electrode, the ending letters will indicate: "L", low carbon, "SI" silicon added. Hope this helps a bit. Best regards, aevald

By Joseph P. Kane (****)

Date 02-02-2008 21:24

Clif
Eutectic 680 is an all around metal joining rod. It is somewhat like 312 Stainless, except it work hardens very quickly with hammer blows of tha cuting action of a saw blade. It is a very expensive rod. You can use it to join spring steel, 4130, Etc. There is no AWS Standard equivalent.

By Fredspoppy (**)

Date 02-04-2008 13:34

Eutectrode 680 is one of those "magic" welding electrodes sold by the maintenance welding rod salesmen for anywhere from 5X to 10X the price of a "production" welding electrode, which in this case would be the 312 type stainless steel.

By Plasma-Brain (**)

Date 02-04-2008 16:16

Wow, so its a very good thing that they have a 25# box of 5/32 rods in pretty good shape.
Theres a bunch of rods up there that have no box and no names or numbers on the rod, is all hope lost for figuring out what they are?

Also, theres one rod up there which has been catching my attention... its a 1/8th TIG/OxAct rod that was packed in a light coating of greese. It seems like some kind of steel but the shop doesnt have at TIG and is running low on gasses so I couldent toy with it too much. The little bit i melted (before one of the older guys yelled at me not to waste gas) fizzed and bubbled under Ox/Act and didnt seem happy about melting. Once I shut everything down i took a look at the rod at the oxide end and saw the normal colors for carbon steel, plus a faint tint of the "rainbow" oxide that you see on stainless.
The things that make me wonder about the rod is the greese coating and the "rainbow" oxide.

Any ideas anyone?
Thank you all for replying,
Clif