6010 Amperage: The Complete Settings Chart, Rules & Dial-In Guide for E6010 Rods

A contractor on a shutdown once told me his root pass looked like a string of cold, gray caterpillars — no penetration, constant sticking, and a radiograph rejection that cost him a full day of pay. He had a capable machine and clean pipe; the only thing wrong was the dial, sitting 30 amps too low for the 1/8-inch 6010 in his holder.

Why 6010 Amperage Decides Whether Your Root Pass Lives or Dies

A contractor on a shutdown once told me his root pass looked like a string of cold, gray caterpillars. No penetration, constant sticking, and a radiograph rejection that cost him a full day of pay. He had a capable machine and clean pipe; the only thing wrong was the dial, sitting 30 amps too low for the 1/8-inch 6010 in his holder.

If you have typed 6010 amperage into a search bar, you want one thing: a number to set your machine to. Fair enough. You will get numbers here, in full charts by rod diameter and welding position. But a 6010 rod does not have one correct amperage. It has a window, and finding the sweet spot inside it is what separates a root pass that passes inspection from one that gets chipped out at 2 a.m.

What You Will Get From This Guide

We will decode what the E6010 classification actually means, then hand you complete amperage charts built from manufacturer data sheets: Lincoln Electric’s Fleetweld 5P and 5P+, Hobart’s 6010-P, Hobart Pipemaster Pro 60, and Pinnacle Alloys E6010. From there we cover polarity, position-specific settings, reading the arc to diagnose a setting that is off, how 6010 compares with 6011, 6013 and 7018, and the code compliance details that keep your numbers defensible on paper.

Why Amperage Is the Master Variable on a 6010

E6010 is the classic open-root and pipeline electrode. Its high-cellulose sodium coating produces gas in large volume at relatively low voltage, creating a forceful, spray-type arc that digs deep and clears ahead of the puddle. That aggressive arc is exactly why 6010 will burn through rust, paint, oil and mill scale that would make a low-hydrogen rod spit and sputter.

Here is the part most beginners get backwards: that forceful arc does not run on voltage or arc length. It runs on amperage, which sets the heat and depth of penetration. Arc length and travel speed shape the bead once the heat is correct. Get the amps wrong and no amount of hand skill saves you.

• Too few amps and the arc will not sustain itself. The rod sticks, the puddle sits cold and high on the surface, and the fusion into the sidewall is shallow. On a root pass, this shows up later as lack of fusion on radiograph.
• Too many amps and the puddle turns fluid and runaway, the electrode glows cherry red and curls back toward the stinger, the coating chars ahead of the arc, and you burn straight through an open root.

So how do you start? Miller Welds’ stick welding guidance offers the cleanest rule of thumb in the industry: begin at roughly 1 amp for every 0.001 inch of electrode diameter, then adjust in 5 to 10 amp increments until the arc behaves. A 1/8-inch rod is 0.125 inches, so you start near 125 amps and work from there. That single rule gets you inside the window on almost any machine and position.

Why There Is No Single “Correct” Number

Because four things shift the answer every time you strike an arc: rod diameter, weld position, material thickness and joint geometry. A 3/32-inch 6010 on 1/4-inch plate in flat runs happily in the low 90s. The same rod overhead on a structural beam wants knocking back into the 70s. An open-root gap on 6-inch schedule 40 with a 5/32 rod may need dialing well past the data-sheet midpoint just to open the keyhole cleanly. Each of those can be correct for the situation in front of you.

The manufacturer data sheets handle this by publishing a minimum-optimum-maximum range rather than a single figure, and that is exactly the format we use in the charts ahead. If you are also just starting out on the stick process itself, our beginner’s guide to stick welding difficulty covers the learning curve before you get to this level of detail.

The Practical Approach Used Throughout This Article

Every recommendation here follows the same loop: identify the rod, find the published range, set DCEP, start near the middle, run a coupon of the same thickness, read the bead, and move the dial in small steps. It is repeatable, and it works under job-site pressure. Before you strike that first arc, make sure your welding PPE is up to scratch, because 6010’s cellulose coating throws more sparks and heavier fume than almost any other stick electrode.

Let’s get into the numbers.

What Exactly Is a 6010 Rod? Reading the AWS A5.1 Classification

Peel the paper wrapper off any 6010 electrode and you’ll find a code stamped along it: E6010. That code is not branding, it is a specification defined by the American Welding Society’s AWS A5.1 classification for carbon steel stick electrodes, and it tells you four things before you’ve struck a single arc: how strong the deposited weld metal is, which positions you’re allowed to weld, what the flux coating is made of, and which polarity your machine must be set to. The last two matter most here, because the coating chemistry and the heat you dial in are locked together. Get the code wrong and no amperage setting in the world will save your root pass.

60: A Strength Floor, Not a Typical Reading

The first two digits are easy to misread as a guarantee. AWS A5.1 sets 60,000 psi (414 MPa) as the minimum tensile strength the deposited weld metal must meet. Real rods routinely beat it. Hobart’s Pipemaster Pro 60, for example, publishes typical all-weld-metal tensile results around 71,000 psi (490 MPa) in its datasheet. That headroom is real, but only if the weld is actually fused. An under-ampered 6010 laid on top of the bevel instead of into it fails structurally no matter what the classification promises, which is precisely why the amperage chart in the next section exists.

1: All-Position Means Every Position, Not Every Setting

The third digit, a 1, means the electrode is qualified for all positions: flat, horizontal, vertical and overhead. That is why the same rod can root a 2G pipe coupon, run a vertical-up fillet, and hang overhead on a tank floor. It also explains why 6010 shows up in our overhead stick welding guide alongside rods that struggle up there. All-position qualification describes the rod’s arc characteristics, not your settings. Gravity still pulls the puddle, so you’ll still drop roughly 15% of your amperage out of position.

0 vs 1: The Last Digit Controls Your Polarity

The final digit is the one welders ignore to their cost. A 0 means a cellulose-sodium coating, and cellulose-sodium electrodes are designated for direct current electrode positive (DCEP) only. A 1 means cellulose-potassium, which is the E6011 family and will run happily on AC or DCEP. Sodium boosts arc conductivity and penetration but gives you an arc that will not sustain itself on alternating current; potassium stabilizes it. So a true E6010 on an AC buzz box will stutter, stick and refuse to run cleanly. That isn’t a rod defect or a technique problem, it’s a classification mismatch — swap to a 6011, or get a DC machine.

Fast-Freeze Flux: Why 6010 Cuts Through Grime

Welding codes classify electrodes by arc behavior, and 6010 sits in the fast-freeze family. Around 30 to 50 percent of the coating is cellulose, which burns off in the arc to produce a forceful, digging column of gas and a thin, quickly-solidifying slag. The puddle freezes fast behind the arc rather than flowing along, which is why 6010 rewards a decisive travel speed and a controlled whip or drag. That same aggressive arc is what lets 6010 burn through mill scale, light rust, paint and oil film that would make a 7018 sputter and reject — handy on a dirty tank floor or a shutdown line, and the reason 6010 remains a favorite for tacking and even underwater wet welding, where the arc has to punch through a water column.

Where 6010 Earns Its Keep

You’ll find E6010 wherever deep penetration and speed matter more than a pretty cap: pipeline root passes (often run vertical-down on an open bevel), shipbuilding, storage tanks, pressure vessels, structural tacking, and general repair on rusty field steel. Its companion documents matter as much as its chemistry — pipeline and vessel work ties the rod to a qualified pipe welding procedure and WPS that fixes amperage, travel speed and polarity on paper. Keep the classification straight and the rest of this guide clicks into place: coating says DCEP, position sets the range, diameter picks the number on the dial.

The Complete E6010 Amperage Chart by Rod Diameter

Here is the number most people came for. Below is the master E6010 amperage chart, built from published manufacturer data rather than forum guesses: Lincoln’s Fleetweld 5P and 5P+ technical sheets, Hobart Brothers’ 6010 PM and Pipemaster Pro data, McKay 6010 PM optimum settings, and Pinnacle Alloys E6010 typical values. Everything on DC electrode positive (DCEP) unless noted.

E6010 Amperage Chart: Diameter, Range, Optimum and Deposition

The Lincoln Fleetweld 5P/5P+ numbers come straight from the Lincoln technical data sheet, and the Pinnacle figures and deposition rates from the Pinnacle Alloys E6010 specification. Hobart’s 6010 PM and Pipemaster Pro 60 sheets land in the same neighborhood, which is why you can treat these ranges as the industry consensus rather than one company’s opinion.

Voltage, Deposition Rate and What You Actually Get Out of the Rod

Amperage is only half the equation. McKay lists arc voltage around 26–28 V at its optimum settings, and that number is a useful cross-check: if your machine has a voltmeter and you’re reading significantly below that at a given amperage, your arc is too short or your leads are dropping voltage. Pinnacle publishes deposition rates climbing from roughly 1.30 lb/hr on 3/32 in up to about 1.98 lb/hr on 5/32 in, which tells you something practical — jumping from 1/8 to 5/32 doesn’t just add 40 amps, it adds real pounds per hour of weld metal when you’re filling a heavy root or a fillet on structural plate.

For rough pairings: 3/32 in handles thin-wall open roots and light sheet, 1/8 in is the pipeline root-pass workhorse, 5/32 in covers downhill fill and heavier roots, and 3/16 in and up are for heavy plate, thick-wall roots and positions where you want a deep, forceful keyhole.

Thin Sheet vs. Heavy Plate: Two Different Games

On thin sheet, the chart’s minimum isn’t really your target. Below about 3/16 in, you’ll typically run at or slightly under the low end, shorten your bead, and manage heat input with travel speed and stitch patterns rather than turning the dial down further. Excessive amperage on light material shows up instantly as blow-through and a keyhole you can’t close.

On heavy plate the opposite applies. The middle of the range is often too cool to get the deep, digging arc 6010 is famous for, so experienced welders push toward the upper third, especially on thick-wall pipe roots where you need the electrode to dig through mill scale and tack welds. A good rule of thumb holds across both worlds: aim for roughly one amp per 0.001 in of material thickness, then adjust from there.

And remember that diameter also changes how far you can run. A 1/4 in 6010 at 300 amps is a short, aggressive bead on heavy plate; the same rod dialed down to 220 A to avoid burn-through will run cooler and shallower than you expect. Matching rod diameter to plate thickness before you ever touch the dial is the single biggest way to keep yourself out of trouble.

If you want context for how these numbers sit next to other consumables, how electrode classifications work breaks down the numbering system behind every rod, including the 6010 family. We’ll dig into that classification in the next section.

Polarity Matters: Why 6010 Almost Always Runs DCEP

Before you touch the amperage dial, settle a more basic question: which way is your machine hooked up? Get polarity wrong and no setting on the planet will save your root pass. It is the most overlooked variable after rod diameter, and the reason a lot of beginners decide the 6010 is a “terrible rod” when it is actually one of the most dependable electrodes ever made.

What DCEP (Reverse Polarity) Actually Means

In direct current electrode positive — DCEP, also called “reverse polarity” — the electrode holder connects to the positive terminal and the work clamp to the negative, so current flows out of the electrode tip, across the arc, and into the base metal. In direct current electrode negative (DCEN, “straight polarity”), you flip that: current runs from the work into the electrode.

That flow direction decides where the heat goes. On DCEP, roughly 70% of the arc heat is concentrated at the electrode and 30% at the work. It sounds backward — you want heat in the joint, not in a rod that is burning away — but this split is exactly what gives the 6010 its signature deep, narrow, finger-like penetration. The hot electrode transfers a high-velocity stream of ionized particles into the root, while the modest work heat keeps the puddle fluid but controllable. That balance is why the 6010 is still the classic open-root pipe rod.

For a broader primer on how electrodes are specified, our guide to electrode types, numbers, and polarity walks through the whole system.

Why the Cellulose Coating Is Built for DCEP

The E6010’s coating is loaded with cellulose by weight, plus sodium titania as a slag former. The arc breaks that cellulose down into hydrogen-rich gases and a deep-conducting arc column that works with the DCEP heat pattern instead of against it. Switch to DCEN and you flip the thermal balance toward the workpiece while starving the electrode sheath; the arc loses stability, penetration drops, and the coating chars unevenly. Manufacturer data sheets are blunt about this: Lincoln’s Fleetweld 5P/5P+ sheets and the Pinnacle Alloys E6010 data sheet both specify DCEP with no ambiguity.

The One Notable Exception: DCEN for Downhill Pipe Roots

There is a real, industry-accepted exception. The Hobart Pipemaster Pro 60 data sheet specifies DCEP as the standard setup but explicitly notes that DCEN may be used for downhill pipeline root passes. Flipping to DCEN shifts heat toward the work, which helps the root fuse on thin-wall line pipe where you are running fast, downhill, and fighting gravity at once. This is a qualified-application exception — if your procedure does not call for it, do not experiment on a welder’s test coupon. Code work lives on the written procedure, not shop lore.

Getting polarity wrong in code work is one of the classic 6010 mistakes, and it is cheap to verify. See how this error stacks up against the rest in pipe welding procedures and WPS requirements.

How Wrong Polarity Shows Up on the Coupon

Run a 6010 on DCEN and the symptoms arrive fast:

• Cold, washed-out root — the arc scatters and fails to punch through, even with the amperage cranked.
• Excessive electrode burnback — the tip balls up and sticks because too little heat is driving consumable action.
• Ragged, charred coating — the flux burns behind the puddle instead of shielding in front of it.
• Porosity and erratic spatter — the shielding gas blanket breaks down.

See three at once and check your leads before your settings. A polarity problem “fixed” by adding 30 amps ends up as an undercut-laden, coarse-rippled bead you would reject on inspection. Our piece on undercut: causes, acceptance limits, and fixes explains why cranking the heat to compensate usually trades one defect for another.

Verifying Polarity on Your Machine

Do not trust memory or a previous operator’s setup. Verify it three ways:

1. Read the terminals. Trace the electrode lead from the holder back to the machine and confirm it lands on the positive post.
2. Check the polarity switch on CC machines with a front-panel selector, and confirm it matches the terminal configuration.
3. Run a test bead. On DCEP the arc is forceful and stable with minimal spatter; on DCEN a 6010 sputters and refuses to dig. It takes ten seconds and settles the argument.

Loose or swapped connections compound the problem. Bad cable connections add resistance, drop your delivered amperage, and make a correct setting behave like a wrong one — the subject of our guide to welding connectors.

What If You Only Have an AC Machine?

A buzz box that outputs alternating current cannot give a 6010 what it needs. The polarity reverses 100 to 120 times per second, and the arc never settles into the DCEP heat pattern. Running a 6010 on AC is not recommended by any major manufacturer — it produces an unstable, sputtering arc and poor penetration. The fix is the rod designed for the job: the E6011, a cellulose electrode built to run on AC as well as DC, with a closely matched amperage range. Keep 6011 in your locker for AC machines and stick with 6010 whenever you have true DC available.

Polarity also shapes your exposure — a deeper, hotter arc means more UV and fume output. Cellulose coatings produce significant welding fumes, so verify ventilation and gear before you strike an arc, using the OSHA welding and cutting standard page and our guides to welding PPE and what welders wear.

Short Note: Once polarity is right, the amperage chart in the next section finally works the way it should. Set DCEP first, then chase your number.

Amperage by Welding Position: Flat, Vertical, Overhead and Pipe

With E6010 rods, the number you pulled straight from the middle of a chart will rarely hold true once you leave the flat position. Gravity pulls the molten puddle down, heat builds up faster on thin joints, and your ability to see and control the arc changes with every turn of the pipe or plate. For this reason, dialing in your amperage by position is just as important as picking the right rod diameter.

Flat Position (1G/1F): Your Baseline

Flat is where you should always dial in first. With the work laid out below you, the puddle stays put, allowing you to use the bulk of your rod’s recommended range. For 3/32″ and 1/8″ E6010, this is typically 65–85 amps and 80–95 amps respectively, depending on the brand.

When starting out, aim for the middle of that range and fine tune off of a scrap coupon. This baseline gives you room to drop amps for out-of-position work later. Keep your arc tight and use a slight drag technique to help with the fast-freeze nature of 6010. If you are new to this rod, our breakdown on Is Stick Welding Hard? An Honest Beginner’s Guide goes over the muscle control that flat welding builds before moving to harder positions.

Vertical-Up (3F/3G): Slow Down and Drop the Heat

For vertical-up, your goal is to freeze the puddle in small sections instead of letting it sag down the joint. To do this, run in the lower portion of the range. Lincoln’s procedure guide recommends the lower portion of the electrode’s range for vertical-up and overhead with 3/16″ and smaller E6010.

Both Pinnacle Alloys and McKay instruct reducing amperage by 15% for out-of-position welding. For example, if your flat setting for 1/8″ was 85 amps, drop to around 72 amps for vertical-up. Pair this with a tight arc and the classic whip-and-pause motion. Whip forward slightly to let the puddle freeze, pause to let it wash in, then repeat. This is far more controlled than dragging continuously.

This reduction is vital to avoid undercut and cold overlap. On thinner gauge plate, heat input adds up fast, so test in 3–5 amp steps before committing to your final pass.

Overhead (4F/4G): The Lowest Safe Setting

Out of all positions, overhead demands the most restraint. Gravity is working directly against you, so the puddle wants to drop the moment it becomes fluid. Miller recommends about 15% less heat for overhead work compared with a flat weld, matching the industry-wide 15% out-of-position reduction.

For 3/32″ E6010, dropping from ~70–75 flat down to ~60–64 overhead is common. For 1/8″, 80–85 flat down to 68–72 overhead. Keep your arc length as short as humanly possible without sticking. Many welders find success with a tight whip-and-pause over a long drag, as this limits puddle size. Proper body positioning and coverage fall under solid welding PPE, since molten slag and spatter have nowhere to go but down. For a full breakdown of stance and clearance, see our guide on Overhead Stick Welding: The Complete Guide to 4F & 4G Technique, Amperage, and Rod Selection.

Vertical-Down (3G Downhill): More Amps, Faster Travel

Unlike vertical-up, vertical-down is the exception to the “drop amps” rule. Here, you want enough heat to keep the puddle fluid and traveling down the joint at a steady pace. For E6010, this usually means running at the upper portion of your rod range, paired with noticeably faster travel speed.

This technique shines on open-root pipe and light wall applications where burn-through is a concern, but control must stay tight. Going too cold will pile up a ropey, high bead with poor tie-in. Going too hot with slow travel will wash out the keyhole. When learning travel direction, the comparison in Push or Pull Stick Welding: Which Technique is Right and Why can help clarify why downhill favors a controlled drag with minimal hesitation.

Open-Root Pipe: Find the Sweet Spot

On pipe, every position blends together. For the root pass, many codes call for E6010 due to its deep penetration and ability to dig through light oxidation. Amperage must strike a balance: hot enough to achieve full penetration and a consistent keyhole, yet cool enough to avoid blowing out the land on thin-walled pipe.

Stick to the lower-to-mid range for fixed positions like 5G/6G, lean to the upper range only for true downhill root runs. Heat input considerations grow tenfold on thinner material. If you are working on schedule 10 or light tubing, our advice on stick welding thin metal will save you from the most common blow-throughs. For code-driven jobs, reference Pipe Welding Procedures: The Complete Guide to WPS, Positions, Passes & Inspection to stay within your approved WPS.

Reading the Arc: Signs Your Amperage Is Too High or Too Low

Numbers on a chart get you close, but the arc itself gives you the final verdict. Once the rod is lit, the electrode talks back through three things: how it sounds, how the puddle behaves, and what the finished bead looks like. Learning to read those signals is what separates a welder who dials in from one who guesses.

Symptoms of Amperage That’s Too Low

Miller’s stick welding troubleshooting guidance lists sticking and arc stutter as the classic low-current symptoms, and you will recognize both instantly. A starved arc won’t stay established: it sputters, pops, and then grabs the rod and welds it to the workpiece. Every time you break it free, you leave a lump of cold metal behind.

Visually, a low setting shows up as:

• A tall, narrow bead that sits on top of the plate instead of washing into it, with rounded edges and a high crown.
• Cold lap or incomplete fusion, where the weld toes fail to tie into the base metal.
• A sluggish puddle that won’t flow out until you hold position far too long.
• Excessive rod stub loss, because you end up grinding or snapping unusable stubs.
• Heavy, stubborn slag that fights you on removal.

6010 makes this worse than most rods because its fast-freeze arc needs current to keep the deep-driving core stable. On an open root, a low setting shows up as lack of penetration and a backside that never gets a proper freeze bead.

Symptoms of Amperage That’s Too High

The mirror image is just as obvious. Miller identifies an excessively fluid puddle and a glowing electrode as high-current symptoms. When the tip of the rod glows cherry red and the coating char runs back toward the holder, the machine is cooking the electrode faster than you can control it.

Operator manuals also list excessive spatter as caused by amperage too high for the electrode, and undercut is caused by too much amperage combined with travel speed that is too fast. Add the rest of the high-current checklist:

• A puddle that runs ahead of the arc and won’t stay put.
• Burn-through or blowholes on an open root or thin material.
• Charred, blackened coating flaking off behind the arc.
• A wide, flat, gray-looking bead with cratered toes.
• Arc blow and erratic wander as the rod shortens.

The Bead Appearance Test

The fastest diagnosis is a single test bead on scrap of the same thickness, alloy, and joint geometry as the real work. Set the dial to the middle of the range from your electrode’s data sheet range, lay a 3-inch bead at your normal travel speed, and read it.

A Step-by-Step Dial-In Procedure

1. Cut a coupon from the same material and thickness you will actually weld, and fit it the same way.
2. Confirm polarity first. Almost all 6010 requires DCEP; a polarity mistake will make your amperage readings meaningless.
3. Start mid-range from the manufacturer’s chart, or use the 1 amp per 0.001 inch rule for a rough starting point.
4. Run one bead at a consistent arc length and travel speed so only one variable changes.
5. Read it against the table above, then adjust in 5 to 10 amp steps. Never jump 20 amps and wonder which change fixed it.
6. Repeat until the bead has a flat-to-slightly-convex profile, toes fully washed in, minimal spatter, and no undercut.
7. Re-test in position. Flat beads lie; the same setting that looks perfect flat will need roughly a 15% reduction overhead or vertical-up.

Keep your PPE on during all of this. The coupon runs as hot as the real joint, and repeated test beads mean repeated arc exposure, so stay covered with the gear laid out in our welding PPE guide.

Reading the arc is a skill that compounds. After a few shutdowns or a season of pipe work, you will hear a cold arc through your hood without looking, and you will catch yourself reaching for the dial before the bead is even finished.

6010 Amperage vs Other Rods: E6011, E6013 and E7018 Compared

Setting amperage in isolation is half the job. The other half is knowing you’re holding the right rod for the joint in front of you. A welder who spends a week on pipeline root passes and then gets handed a structural fillet will instinctively reach for the wrong numbers, and the reverse is just as common. Comparing the 6010 family against the rods you’ll actually meet in the same shop puts your dial setting in context.

E6010 vs E6011: Same Muscle, Different Power Source

On paper these two are siblings. Both are all-position, fast-freeze cellulose electrodes with similar penetration depth and nearly identical recommended amperage for a given diameter. The practical difference is the power source. The AWS classification tells you what a rod will and won’t do, and the last digit is where 6010 and 6011 split: E6010 is specified for DCEP only, while E6011 is qualified for AC as well as DCEP. That single digit decides which machine you can use.

Lincoln’s Fleetweld 35 (E6011) data sheet gives a useful AC reference range:

Those figures line up closely with the 6010 ranges you’d find in the Lincoln electrode documentation, so if you already know your 6010 setting, you rarely need to relearn it for 6011. You’re mainly trading a little arc smoothness on AC for the ability to run on a simple transformer or buzz box that has no DCEP setting at all. For more on how these classifications break down digit by digit, see our guide to AWS electrode classification from Hobart.

E6013: The Sheet-Metal Cousin

The 6013 trades the 6010’s aggressive digging arc for a softer, shallower, dome-shaped bead with a smooth finish and easy slag removal. Amperage runs lower for the same diameter because there’s less arc force to control. That makes it forgiving on thin, clean material and popular with beginners, but it also means it will not burn through rust, paint or mill scale the way a 6010 will. If you’re welding thin stock, our thin metal amperage and burn-through guide covers where the crossover points sit.

Rule of thumb: use 6013 when appearance and low heat matter more than penetration, and 6010 when you need to dig, clean or open a root.

E7018: Low Hydrogen, Different Behavior

E7018 is a different animal. Its iron-powder low-hydrogen coating runs on AC or DCEP, produces a wider, flatter, fluid puddle, and deposits significantly more metal per amp than a cellulose rod. You get higher deposition and a smoother bead, but less deep digging action, so joint fit-up and cleaning matter more. It is the standard choice for code work on restrained structural joints, while E6010 remains the root and cleaning pass electrode.

For a 3/32″ rod, start with our 3/32 E7018 amperage settings; for the heavier 5/32 size, see the 5/32 E7018 settings and technique page. Expect to drop roughly 10–20 amps below the 6010 setting of the same diameter, especially out of position, because the flux coating runs hotter.

How to Choose by Joint, Position and Code

Ask four questions before you touch the dial:

• Joint type: Open-root pipe and square groove joints want 6010’s digging arc. Fillet and lap joints with good fit-up suit 7018.
• Position: All four rods are all-position capable, but vertical-up and overhead call for the lower half of the range, roughly a 15% reduction from flat settings.
• Cleanliness: Rust, paint, oil or mill scale points to 6010 or 6011. Clean, prepped metal opens the door to 7018 and 6013.
• Code requirements: Structural and pressure specs frequently mandate low-hydrogen filler with documented amperage. Keep the record on the WPS using the AWS Prefabrication Record form.