This is harder than I remember

[Liquid Metal]

The only time i find myself using DCEN while stick welding is with a 7016 welding a root pass (a real rarity lol).
Usually 7018 or 7024 for structural. One 6013 ive liked before now are FincordM which couple of places ive worked have used them for general purpose sort of welding, but any pipework thats not specced for LowHy has been the same across the board, the good ol' faithful, Murex Vodex 6013.

 

[Memmeddu]

I always run DCEP whatever the rod I use
I found that the Arc is steadier than DCEN

 

[Morrisman]

Well that was an education. Went to see a chap I know at a local fabrication place. He tried a couple of my rods before declaring they are junk. To be fair he made a much better job of welding with them than I did and he was using less power too. He reckons I was probably vapourising the rods with too much power but even with his skills he said they were very hard work even under ideal conditions. I bunged the rest in his scrap bin and he sold me a box of the ones he uses, oerlikon is the brand. I’ve never heard of them to be honest but we shall see over the weekend.
Lessons learned, eblag is littered with junk, much research needed before purchase.

When I lived in the Far East welding rods were bought off the shelf in the hardware store, wrapped in little bundles of ten, in newspaper......

I laboured on with them, blobbing and burping and spitting.... until I was able to blag a sealed box of GP3.2 rods off the ship I worked on.

The difference was like night and day......