In the process of building my own spliter. Soon will be welding the foot plate to the eyebeam. I know the welds need to be strong but how strong? Will this require the use of low hydrogen rods or will a mig with multiple passes get the job done (hot and deep). I have access to a lincoln arc welder that will go up to 225 amp or a larger miller mig. Low hydrogen rods would likely require some one with bigger equipment doing it for me. Any recomendations welcome.
Does your 225 Lincoln have reverse polarity? DC+? Or strictly an AC machine?
If DC+ you can use 1/8 6010 for root passes. It will DIG giving excellent penetration and break ground for the almighty 7018. 6010 is good for tack welding your pieces together too.
With those root passes cleaned up, the 1/8 7018 fresh out of the hot oven will be the rod of choice. It's what some people call a "drag" rod as you can tip it slightly forward and literally drag it -- keeping a short arc length and really have control of that puddle.
If only AC is available, you can substitute 6011 for 6010 and 7018 AC for standard 7018.
For heavy welding like what is on a wood splitter, run the heat as hot as the rod can tolerate without it looking like a spent sparkler before it gets used up. 130 DC+ for 1/8 6010 and 140 DC+ for 1/8 7018 for some starting points.
Any vertical welds -- weld vertical up. Any welds where you can "cheat" do so because welding at a slight incline (uphill) is ideal.
The 7024 as ezs mentioned is an awesome rod but probably more for production welding than you need. It takes an AC machine with a lot of heat to run. He gave some excellent advice.