Tig welding filler rod question, rusty

[keith524]

Hey fellas, my buddy scrapped a lot, I mean 80.00 in scrap! of these filler rods, they are all different sizes and types. he gave me a bunch of them, but they have some surface rust on them, is it worth keeping them and before using take some steel wool to them? they where free.

 

[zkling]

How bad is the rust? What alloy are they (stamped on end), probably an ER70S-_. Hard to tell from pics. If the rust is light you will fine.

 

[keith524]

yes most of them, the rust is light, I have put aside the bad ones. I don't see anything on any of them as far as markings? I know the damage is done now, but using scotchbrite or similar is about all I can do now right? there are all different kinds mixed together.

 

[keith524]

here are a couple more pictures.

 

[zkling]

Is one end stamped flat with some numbers on it (alloy). Are you sure they are tig filler and not gas welding filler rods?

 

[kazlx]

ER70 rod is so cheap, it's not worth it IMO. To others...maybe it is. They should be stamped if they are tig rod. If not, how are you even going to know what kind of rod it is? That makes it even more worthless...

 

[keith524]

yea they aren't stamped at all. not like the brazing rods I have. ok, well that's what I wanted to know if they aren't worth keeping, they just aren't worth keeping! I appreciate it guys

 

[lametec]

If it's just for hobby welding, try one and see what the results are.

 

[keith524]

great idea, yea im not building a nasa rocket here guys! I do believe you guys are right though, im going to say brazing rods here. I do have a hell of a tig welder, but still haven't got a argon tank yet, so I do have a lot to learn on the tig welding,

 

[kazlx]

Even more so if you are learning. Use new rod to cut down on variables. There's enough to learn as is with TIG to use questionable materials that will just frustrate you.

 

[keith524]

thank you for your input guys!

 

[CGT80]

I had some filler that was like that in the past. IIRC, it wasn't very fun to use and that was when I was just starting out with TIG.

When you get some good filler, take some 1.5" PVC pipe and make some tubes to hold the filler. I glued a cap on one end and a coupler on the other and then made a top with a short section of pvc pipe with a glued cap. The upper just slips into the lower. It keeps my filler clean and free of rust and the price was low to build the tubes. Mark the top cap with a marker to ID the type of filler.