Welding/Fab General Discussion

Hello - I'm having some cast iron spindles installed in my front garden and they've been welded at the wrong height, so I need to decide what to do. Can anyone offer their opinion? The first attached picture shows the issue. The spindle finial bottoms sit about 55mm above the rail, and the tops are perfectly level with the (original Victorian) post finial. At first I didn't notice anyone wrong with this, but now I can see that the spindle finials usually sit much closer (~25mm) to the rail & a step below the post finials (see second attached pic for examples). I didn't specify the height before welding & my blacksmith is being patient with me, so I'm not…

This is the Hardy stem on my guillotine tool. The base is mild steel. This stem is just a piece of mystery steel I had in the pile which was pretty close to the right size for the hole. It is carbon steel of some sort. I used 6011 and did not preheat the carbon steel first, which I learned later is something you should do prior to welding carbon steel. The weld held for about two years or so, but I can see from the rust around where it broke, it had been cracked for quite some time. Not knowing exactly the type of steel means no one can do more than just guess, but what things could I have done to give it a better chance of not failing? The most obvio…

I've recently acquired an old Lincoln buzz box and need to teach myself stick welding. I have a line on some old welding rod for cheap, and I'm wondering if I might be able to make good use of it while I'm learning to strike arcs and lay down beads. Some of the older threads (like this one , this one, and this one) have what looks like good information about using old welding rods, mostly along the lines of "rebake 7018 for non-critical applications, don't self-sabotage your learning with bad electrodes, and strip the flux from the worst rods to reuse the steel." Any additional thoughts to help me make up my mind? Thanks in advance.

Hello all, I'm looking for alloys that are lighter than Aluminum but still are easy for the average shop to cut, machine, Tig weld, and generally fabricate with. I see that AZ31B is readily accessible for purchase on the web but I've never used it. Is this alloy safe to touch, fabricate, Tig Weld, etc? Are there any precautions I should take? Is it a good alternative to Aluminum? This is for use in the robotics industry. [I always thought Magnesium was toxic to touch or sand and can burn explosively but maybe this is just misinformation I've been led to believe. I'm starting from square one with this material. ] I also saw a company called Allite that has …

Hey everyone ! I don;t know if this is the best place for this thread. . but it has the most people on it at any one time. ..soo Does anyone know anything about welding with Thermite? ( as far as I know that's how they weld sections of RailRoad together seamlessly and it sounds like it could have applications in repairing badly damaged anvils. .and even reattach horns) Has anyone tried it? How do you make it and use it?

Made an S shape tool rest for a wood lathe, in a mini paint can forge from some 5/8 rod. Not enough material for the post. I am trying to buy a small 5/8 piece from metal center, but not sure which to buy, [hot/cold rolled] or if it even makes a difference welding to some unknown steel.

not sure if this is an appropriate place for this but hoping it falls under 'fabrication' and some folks here might be able to advise. I'm looking a good way to cut stainless steel (milk can) without work hardening it and cutting on a curved surface. I don't have access to a plasma cutter and not sure what the best approach might be. Hole drill on low speed? Step drill bit? It's a $130 investment so I'm nervous about ruining it and don't want to experiment. I haven't worked SS before. Thank you!

Does anyone know where I can buy a mini welding table/platten? 16"x10" would be the largest size I need. Anything smaller would be fine as well. Think 1/16 to 1/12 RC Car size. Only one I could find is this, but I can't find out where they sell it. Thanks, Av

Can I use this welder (METAL MAN 80 Amp DC Output, 120-Volt Input Power Inverter DC Stick Welder) to tack together pieces of 1095 and 15n20 for damascus? I’ve welded before but I don’t know alot about the technical side of welding.

Good day to all! We are looking for a certified welding process for welding forklift eyes/collars to blank forklift forks. For some reason, we can't find much info of assistance in the usual sources. Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Not sure if this is the spot for this. There is a Nitrogen bottle for free on the local online shop. It is expired and was wondering if it could be safely cut for use as a bell?

I have made a few things using mortise and tenon joints but when if comes to larger items it is a lot of work to move the whole, partially assembled, piece over to the coal forge and back to the vise just to set one rivet. I have been looking at getting a torch to help with this and was looking for some guidance as to the capabilities of different types. I cant afford a large setup so was looking at a simple bernzomatic style of torch. Does anyone have any experience trying to set rivets with these smaller torches? I usually use 10mm round tenons as I have the tooling for it but I dont want to buy a torch, only to find it cant heat this up enough. Thanks for any…

Hi! I have an old sterling silver candelabra and one of the arms has broken off. I live in Arizona. Any suggestions on where I would go to get this fixed? appreciate any help

Hey all! Been forever since I’ve been on here, but looks like this is still the same great forum with a lot of the same great people. 2 years ago I decided to get certified in combination welding, and I’m now doing metalwork full time. Although, the welding I’m currently doing for a living isn’t art, I’ve been able to keep my artistic side alive with some side projects, so I thought I would share a few pics. Hope you enjoy.

Hi , Name is Steve. I am planning to get into welding business. Looking forward to finding some guidance on this here. Nice to meet you all!

I need to weld some collars onto a few pieces Type S steel FP tooling using my MIG. I am assuming that S St wire and preheat should provide an adequate weld for this purpose. Any information that you have to share would be appreciated.

Anyone weld SS regularly? Ever weld SS to plain carbon/tool steel? If so, did you use 309? If not, did you get cracks? Did you preheat the materials first? Ever make a mild steel blade and them put a several bead pass on the edge part with some 400 series SS or a tool steel filler?? Anyone try taking a flat piece of plain steel and just running beads on the face in a pattern of SS filler then forging it out and etching for some "cheated" damascus?? :confused: :confused:

Greetings! I'm relatively new to IFI and learning about building a forge from a propane tank. As welding will be involved I thought it would be neat to have a welding cart for my welder that I recently upgraded to. I had a HF MIG welder and upgraded to a Hobart 140 Handler. I like the machine, the longer leads for the ground cable and gun and, that I can add a gas mix to the machine down the road. I'm very new to welding and still struggle with making a good looking weld. I seem to have good penetration and everything seems to be "stuck" together well. I looked at a variety of welding carts. The smaller ones were nice and the price was not too bad bu…

First weld ever (not really, I welded once in 7th grade but I’m not counting it). It’s terrible, it’s awful, but I finally got off my butt and tried. About 3 hours before the Governor decided to close the state for 21 days, I was driving past HF, and decided to stop and buy their cheap welder, so I can teach myself to weld. For fun I was just making sloppy lines (very sloppy) and then wanted to see if I could make 2 pieces stick together. They are stuck and they have not yet fallen apart! It may not be a big deal to you but after almost a decade of school and countless years of intellectual navel gazing it is very nice to be doing things rather than thinki…

hello, sorry if I disturb a friend of mine would like me to build a box blade gannon, it is an agricultural tool that is towed like a plow a ripper that is used to fix the dirt roads is like a skip loader, some suggestions thanks

A couple of years ago I designed and built a bottle jack press brake. The difference in my build is that both dies top and bottom can be removed. The 16ga dies in it didn't look this good when I got them. I sanded and buffed them out. All the material to build it I saved from work over the years. The only expense was the bottle jack. Im very proud of my press brake, it took years of thinking about it and a weekend to build it.

Greetings. Can I arc weld wrought iron with 6010 or 7018 electrodes? Thanks

Hey Made these tall jackstands the other day for working on cars. They are not quite done yet but the bases are complete. I made a couple jigs so they all turned out the same and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They are made out of sch 80 seamless pipe some 1"×1/4" flatbar and 3/16" plate. Finished they will be adjustable from 15" to 22". Let me know what you think.

I'm taking on more welding jobs and wondering if I need a welding certificate. Outside of jobs that clearly call for it the only thing I can find in my state that legally call for it under the ORS revised statues are welding on pressure vessels and boilers. Are there any jobs I would be advised to turn down simply due to intrinsic liability? I've avoided a lot of critical structural welding jobs simply because I haven't purchased expensive business insurance yet. Though I imagine if someone (or something) is injured it's not going to matter if you have a cert or not. All that will matter is whether you have insurance to cover the liability and whether or not your negligen…

Okay, I'll admit it. I can't braze anything. And I don't know what I'm doing wrong. In the videos, it looks so easy. Clean, flux, heat, and the joint just sucks up the solder. Done! I'm trying to braze C260 cartridge brass to itself with silver solder. I clean the two surface really well and apply brazing flux. Then I heat with a MAP gas torch until the brass just starts to turn red. When I apply the silver solder to the joint, the silver beads up and rolls everywhere EXCEPT into the joint. I've tried brazing a cooler and hotter temps and get the same results every time. Can someone help me? I really need to learn t…