7018 amperage
Stick / SMAW · E7018 low-hydrogen on carbon steel
Pick your rod and position. What you get is the published range and a starting point inside it — not a single number, because no honest chart can give you one.
How to use the number
Set it, run a bead on scrap, and read the puddle rather than the dial:
- Rod sticking, arc stubbing out, tall ropey bead — too cold, go up 5–10 A.
- Undercut at the toes, rod glowing red, wide flat puddle you're chasing — too hot, come down 5–10 A.
- Sounds like frying bacon and the slag peels itself — you're there.
Why a range and not a number. Manufacturers don't agree. ESAB publishes 90–160 A for 1/8 in Atom Arc 7018; the ranges repeated across most welding sites start at 110 A for the same size. Both are "correct" — they're describing different rods, and neither is describing yours. The number printed on your electrode box wins over anything on this page.
The rule of thumb behind it
Roughly 1 amp per 0.001 inch of rod diameter. A 1/8 in rod is 0.125 in, so ~125 A sits mid-range; 3/32 gives ~94 A, 5/32 gives ~156 A. It's a decent first guess and it's how most of these charts were built in the first place. It knows nothing about your position, your plate thickness, your fit-up or your machine's actual output versus what the dial claims.
Not sure whether it worked?
The amps are the input. The bead is the evidence. Bead Score photographs a finished bead and scores it against D1.1-style visual criteria — undercut, crown height, ripple consistency — and tells you the one thing to change next pass. It is practice feedback, not an inspection.
Sources
- ESAB Atom Arc 7018 — 90–160 A (1/8 in), 130–220 A (5/32 in).
- WeldingTipsAndTricks — 7018 vertical up amps, on running cooler out of position.
- Commonly published ranges (80–110 / 110–160 / 150–210 A) as aggregated across welding suppliers — shown here as the upper band where they differ from a specific datasheet.