[TheForge] disintegrating welding rod

[Ralph Sproul]

Justin, I found unless you do a full penetration weld the material on the
inside that is not welded stays put (the core) then the skin moves around
it - stretches and will make most welds fail.  On something like 2 1/2" bar,
your tig is maybe penetrating 1/8 - 316 of an inch....... That would
certainly come apart unless you V'd it to the center and worked your way
out.

Ralph

----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin Fellenz" <sunironworks at yahoo.com>
To: <mspencer at tallships.ca>; "Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 6:19 PM
Subject: [TheForge] disintegrating welding rod


> 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
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