[TheForge] disintegrating welding rod

[TodEstesRN at aol.com]

In a message dated 12/21/2004 6:29:52 PM Central Standard Time, 
xlch58 at swbell.net writes:
Justin Fellenz wrote:

>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 
Don't know why that happened but have had good luck Oxy/Acy gas welding then 
forging. 


Time enough for sleep in the grave.
Tod Estes