by zane cunningham
(jacksonville florida)
To find your base amps(the amps you start at before tweaking to your personal welding style). take the size of the electrode(1/8, 3/32 ect..) turn that into a three number decimal and that will be your baseline amps.
example 1/8 7018--1divided by 8 =.125
Personally I like to use 125 for hotpasses. Usually I turn it down to about 115 for a 1/8 rod. But thats my personal preference.