railwagon axle

[brian]

hi,
Can anyone tell me what sort of steel rail wagon axles are made of?
I'm using a 3 inch diameter axle as the anvil for a power hammer and want to know what sort of welding rods to use to weld it to the base plate.I only have an arc welder,no mig or tig .

Here I go, making another machine

[ApprenticeMan]

Interesting idea. Please post pictures of it in progress and when it is done!

[one_rod]

It will certainly be some kind of medium carbon alloy. So 7018 rods and a low pre-heat (if possible) will see you through.

A good technique is to use short stitch welds at opposite diagonals. Imagine the axle is a clock face. First weld at the 12 o'clock position. Then at 6 o'clock, then at 9, then at 3. Then start to fill in the gaps, again working short beads on opposite diagonals. This avoids the cyclic stress that you would get if you just started at one point and went all the way round in one bead. Might be a bit of overkill on a small diameter piece like this, but this is one place where you really don't want contraction cracking to start.


one_rod.