Twisted steel cable.

[rcs7]

Since I haven't posted in several weeks I thought I would ask about some sections of steel cable i picked up a while back.

I know it's fairly hard, a hack saw would only scratch it. I'm guessing after working with a section of it today I should probably anneal it before trying to work it. It also seems to be magnetic too since it was picking up filings after cutting off a chunk with the chop saw.

There are 7 strands .200" in diameter each. I was hoping to make some handles out of and perhaps a knife at some point. Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

Russell

[CurlyGeorge]

If you are going to forge weld it to itself, heat it, twist it open a little, flux, and repeat several times to get it cleaned out down inside, first. I didn't with my first cable knife weld. It didn't totally weld because of some dirt and oil that didn't get cleaned out. Now I heat, twist and flux a couple or three times, first. Now the blade comes out more solid. Also, be careful. IT WILL splatter flux, when hit with the hammer!!. Good luck.

[rcs7]

Thanks, I did try to apply flux, but only to the outside.

The other problem i have is keeping it all together without falling into individual pieces. I tried welding the ends, but my arc welder just wants to melt everything which was sorta what I wanted.

Did you take the temper out it before welding?

Russell

[brucegodlesky]

Russell , sounds like you have some structural cable there. Good stuff! I been working with it this summer and find that it welds pretty easy.
If your pieces are long enuff(2'+), ya only need to weld one end to start with. Otherwise just tack the ends a little. Cut the heat back a bit on yer arc welder. 3 heats should weld up a piece about 6", enuff for a blade. Then take it to the anvil and hammer it well while rolling. Hard part is closing up those places between the individual strands. Seems like it takes a little more work than fine stranded cable.

[racer3j]

Thanks to Bruce who kindly sent me some sample pieces of cable. I used my aircraft safety wire pliers to bind at the ends. That was before I re-carbureted my generator so I could power up my mig. I did the reverse twist after wiring and dumped the flux in it. A couple of pieces went into an engine block cooker-speed shop relationship from the old days. Bruce sent me one honker with 4 strands of about 3/16 diameter- torch welded the ends on that devil.mike

[rcs7]

Sounds like a plan. I do have a few pieces that are more than 2ft long.

I could just kick myself for not getting more of it. They had piles of it laying around. There was guy walking around with a monster cutting torch chopping it up into smaller chunks.

[brucegodlesky]

The stuff I have is made by Scanada and hes .89 Carbon.

[rcs7]

The stuff I picked up was ala Comal Ironworks/scrap yard.

[Fruityloops31]

i have been trying to weld some cable together, to say the least i am having a very hard time. Ive only been able to weld a small part of the cable (using 20 mule team borax) and it seemed as if it were only partly welded. i see you mentioned unwinding it and cleaning it up, i will try that. Ive also seen a video on you tube where a guy melts some kind of metal in a crucible and dips the cable in it before welding it? just wondering about that technique and what type of metal it was. (YouTube - Cable forging 002)

[NateDJ]

According to the guy in the video it was brass, I have no idea how well it works but it seemed to do ok in the video.