[TheForge] Welding preheat

[Bruce Freeman]

Paul,

I'm no expert on hammer making, but in my limited experience, the
first step was to punch the hole for the wooden handle.  Once the hole
is there you have a couple options how to hold the piece for further
forging.

One option is to use a hammer-handle-hole drift AS the handle.
Another is to modify a set of tongs so one jaw goes through the hole
and the other grasps the side.  If these tongs are a modified box-jaw
type, you can get a very firm grip while working parallel to the long
axis of the hammer head.

In short, I see no need to weld at all.

Bruce

On Fri, Sep 17, 2010 at 11:44 AM, Paul N <crosspein at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I'm about to make my first largish hammer, and I intend to arc-weld a
> "handle" stub onto it. Since I only have hobby-duty welding equipment,
> I thought I'd get another opinion or two before I proceed.
>
> The hammer head will be forged in a coal forge.
>
> Here's what I've got:
> Material:
>  2.5" dia piece of railroad locomotive spring, about 5" long (around 7#)
>  1" dia A-36 for my "handle" (about 6" long so I can grab it with
> reasonably sized pair of tongs)
>
> Choice of welders:
>  Lincoln 225 AC/DC ("tombstone")
>  Lincoln SP-170T wirefeed (.035 FCAW)
>
>
> Here's the procedure I'm considering:
> I've beveled the end of the 1" piece leaving about 1/4" flat at the bottom.
>
> I was going to use the 225 AC/DC and 6011 rod DCEP to get the best
> penetration
>
> I'm going to preheat both pieces. From what I've read, I should preheat
> the spring to about 300 degrees.
>
> Questions:
> Is this likely to produce a weld that's adequate to hold up to the
> hammering? (Manual, striker with a sledge)
>
> Is the preheat temp critical? More specifically, is hotter better?
>
> thanks,
> **Paul
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-- 
Bruce
NJ