[TheForge] disintegrating welding rod

[Justin Fellenz]

All,

I've been finding that electric welds, especially tig, disintegrate in
the forge. Last session I cheated and tigged a couple of pieces of bar
together rather than forge-weldng them. I used a general purpose mild
steel gas welding rod (probably RG-45, copper coated) and 2 1/2" round
bars of 1018 or 1020, or, my supplier said, maybe a38. I cleaned the
rods up with a flap wheel, beveled the edges, and burnt em together.
Looked like good penetration,a little sparking from junk on the metal
but not too bad. But when I heated it up and beat on it with a hammer,
the filler just sort of diappeared leaving gaps between the bar ends. 

Maybe I didnt get it all the way clean and carbon or scale deposits or
whatever heated up and blew the filler or the HAZ metal out. My best
guess. Anyone else experience this? I find that mig welds hold up ok as
long as the penetration's really good, but where it's not it looks like
the HAZ again just kind of powders and the bead pulls away from the
bar.

Thoughts?

Cheers,

JRF