[TheForge] Arc welding advice sought

[jerry Frost]

Good deal, I think you're on the right track now.

I use Kaowool, refractory ceramic blanket for annealing if I don't just
leave it in the forge till cool. Great stuff, I keep extra around just
because.

Frosty

-----Original Message-----
From: TheForge [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Mike
Spencer
Sent: Wednesday, June 3, 2015 3:15 PM
To: theforge at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [TheForge] Arc welding advice sought


Follow-up to my problem of brittleness & fracture in the HAZ when welding
m/s to truck helper spring stock:

   + Cut off a test piece of the stock.

   + Pre-heated in gas forge.  Turned kinda purple-ish but not a
     carefully controlled heat.

   + Welded while hot with 7018.  Just a butt weld, no V but reversed
     polarity.

   + Post-heated in gas forge.

   + Wrapped in ceramic wool batts until dead cold.

Once cool, I put the test piece in a heavy vise and tried to bust it with a
12# sledge.  No sign of cracking.

So today I repeated the process with the actual work piece.  Almost too big
for the tube-type forge but I git it in and turned around several times.
The m/s part was already tacked in place and it got dull red but not the
much heavier 2x3x8 inch spring stock.

It'll take all night for it to cool in the batts so we'll see tomorrow.

An aside: That ceramic batt is great stuff. Set a hot workpiece on it so the
welding table won't draw heat.  Lay a piece over the top and you can rest
your gloved hand on the hot workpiece without getting burned. 

Thanks all for the suggestions,
- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^