Hillbillysmith

BINGO. Plastic fishing lure box. no need for foam. That ceramic is tougher than you think. -Hillbilly

Problem: female portion of the item being welded shrinks, making hole too small for male portion to fit properly. All metal shrinks, distorts, warps, twists, bends, buckles, goes funky, etc. This is called thermal expansion and each type and grade of materials have their own rate of thermal expansion. Stainless steel is HORRIBLE. I have done an exceptional amount of fine tolerance fabricating (sub .005") due to aerospace and military specifications are nice friendly. :-) Solutions: 1) Play in favor of the shrinkage. Oversize the female orifice and let it shrink to the size you want. 2) Correct the shrinkage after welded. Either increase the size of the female (machine, file, bore, sand, grind, polish, drill) to fit the male shank or reduce the size of the male (machine, file, grind, sand, polish) to fit the female orifice. -Hillbilly

Old man told me once, anybody can make anything with all the proper tools but it takes a real person of ingenuity to make whatever they want having to improvise. You now have good experience with having to "make-do". -Hillbilly

I have made several RR anvils in the past, and I have cut a piece of a RR plate (the piece the rail sets on) for the end of the anvil utilizing the square hole as the hardy hole. Then you can use RR spikes as the shank for all those kustom (spell it with a K makes it worth more money. lol) hardy tools you'll be making in the future. Hope this helps! -Hillbilly

Preheat, preheat, preheat.... Railroad rail is a high strength low alloy material with high(er) carbon content with added manganese for toughness. Plus, it is such a large section being welded (especially with a 110V welder, even if it is stick) it sucks the heat right away from the weld joint. 350 degree minimum preheat for the rail before you weld. As far as any post weld heat treatment goes, long as your shop isn't Jack Frost cold, just leave it cool down in the ambient air. -Hillbilly

I find that 1 or more of the 3 basic principles are the culprit here: 1) Cleanliness of the bas material. Excellent rule of thumb, cleaner the better! 2) Angle of the rod during welding. Straight in with 0-15 degree drag angle. Rule of thumb, if there's slag, you drag! 3) Polarity of the welding machine. Always go with the manufacturer's recommendation. Rule of thumb, stick with DC current! If AC current is all you have, either get Lincoln Electric rods or get E-7018 AC welding rods. There are other factors but I find these 3 to be the most common culprits of this issue. Of course quality of the rods, whether put in rod oven or not, and doing a root pass are also factors. If I ever have to weld a root pass with 7018, I try to either have a backing strip of some kind (aluminum, copper, brass, ceramic, fiberglass, etc.) or, if I'm able to weld the backside of the joint, butt it tight after beveling and back gouge/grind to sound metal before proceeding. -Hillbilly

What method of welding are you suggesting?? The method of using flux in the manner Glenn has mentioned can be used in gas welding (oxy-acetylene) but not with SMAW (stick, arc, MMA, etc). used in the past was dampening newspaper and wrapping a bare, clean wire with it and letting dry before lighting it up... Today, commercial electrodes for various alloys have cleaners, scavenger, and other alloying elements within the flux as well as particles that break down under the heat of the arc to create a plume of shielding gas to protect the molten weld pool from elements in the atmospheric air; hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen. In theory, yes, it can be done. In practice, I think you would be surprised at how well it will work. The flux on E-6010 and E-6011 is classified as a "cellulose-based" flux such as newspaper (as stated in the example). E-7018, 7014, 7024, etc are classified as rutile-based, lime-based, iron powder-based fluxes and so on. No harm in trying this as a home experiment. See for yourself what it's like. Report back your findings. -Hillbilly

Typical procedure that I have run into with this is either 7018 (or 8018, 9018, 11018, etc depending on the strength of base material) then GRIND TO SHAPE/SIZE (you don't want to be the guy grinding hard surfacing) then hard surface. Depending on the type of surfacing rod you get, only single to three layers are used because of cracking issues. Check with the manufacturer before you do. There are also filler materials made that is meant for building up a surface before it is to be hard faced. Again, check with the manufacturer or the welding supplier for proper filler for the application you will be subjecting it to before it goes back into service. *Just as a reminder* hard surfacing is not a magical "fix-all" to wear issues, just a way to help prolong the wear that is inevitable. -Hillbilly

I have PERSONALLY welded 1" thick steel together using a 110V FCAW (flux core) machine; Lincoln Electric Weld Pak 100 to be exact and I have also used a 110V Millermatic 135 sold wire machine to do the same thing. I would have absolutely no fear of having it held over my head! Preheat and joint prep are the 2 key ingredients for the recipe. You can either fillet weld the legs by preheating both the plate and the tube both to 350 degrees minimum or you can bevel the end of the tube slightly over half way through at a 45ish degree angle and preheat the plate to 350 minimum... Depending on your pocket book, your local welding supplier has an item called "Tempil Sticks" and they are basically high-temp crayons that melt at a specified temperature. A secondary, cheaper route would be to hit up Harbor Freight for an infrared temp gun. Lastly, and the cheapest way for preheat, would be to grind the metal clean (which you should do anyway ESPECIALLY with a 110V machine) and get a blue color moving through it up to a dull red color. Hope this helps, post pictures and results! -Hillbilly

First; It looks great! Very appealing. Secondly; using a plug weld in this fashion has been used time and time again. Long as your weld has complete fusion into both members of the base material, you'll have nothing to worry about. Plus, typical hand railing is not meant to be "structural" meaning it is not intended for consistent service at or above 200 PSI. -Hillbilly

VERY interesting about the graphite!!! I've used aluminum, brass, and copper on numerous occasions but have never heard of using graphite before. Thanks again! -Hillbilly

I have used railroad rail many times. -Hillbilly

Oxygen @ 40 psi is not dangerous...... oxygen can be used at practically any pressure setting. Its acetylene that is dangerous at/or above 15 psi because it can become volitile...... According to the video, the "popping" you hear when the torch ignights and extingueshes is normal. -Hillbilly

Very nice. -Hillbilly

Looks great. -Hillbilly

What was it that made you decide not to take on the project?? -Hillbilly

Technically, almost anything will work. Just some things work bettter than others and HOW you use it makes a difference as well.... Standing that I-beam upright with a decently heafty plate welded to the "top" will work better than just leaving the beam horizontal. Do what you can with what you've got until something better comes your way. Best of luck. -Hillbilly

Also, I would still stick with 100% CO2 for a shielding gas. If the machine gets set properly, you get very little spatter with it, CO2 also provides the deepest penetration, and its the cheapest gas to buy. Don't get me wrong, 75/25 (75% Argon/25%CO2) is a good gas, I just dont prefer it personally. -Hillbilly

If your dryer is all electric, thats a 220v outlet, wrong power source for a 110v welder.... Just replace a standard outlet in the garage with a 30 amp one and replace the corresponding breaker to a 50 amp breaker. its simple to do. then just designate that particular plug for the welding machine. Mod alert warning this is dangerous and may be illegal ! As far the ability to weld above 3/16" material, I've welded 1" with my buddy's little lincoln. All it takes is proper metal preparation and some preheat. -Hillbilly

That would be the one! In that case, I would just spent the money on a Lincoln 110v mig welder from Home Depot. Get one that is shielding gas compatable so you have the option to run both flux core (self-shielded & gas shielded) as well as solid wire mig. My professional opinion would be to stick with self shielded flux core and CO2 for the solid wire. My buddy has little Lincoln like this and it works great. I've only overheated it once the rest of the time, i pop the breaker because his outlet isnt enough amperage so it pops the breaker. -Hillbilly

An oxy acetylene set is very nice to have byt you can do SO much more with a welder.... You can always use an angle grinder to cut metal (unless its stupid thick). Recently, Miller has come out with a 110v cc/cv machine (stick, mig, and tig DC output only). If it were my choice, with no 220v power source, I would look into one. -Hillbilly

Cement, over time, will eventually crack and break out. It's a great structural material but not hold up to shock loading, which is what kind of force you'll be applying with the hammer.... Use the wood cribbing method. Much cheaper, much faster, much easier, and MUCH lighter. -Hillbilly

By crystalline structure you mean like face-centered, body-centered, and hexagonal close-packed cubic lattice....? -Hillbilly

What makes copper so "universal" with other metals?? You can braze practically any other metal with copper wire, use a copper strip in transition joints, etc.... Can anybody explain this to me?? -Hillbilly

A "deadening gap" between the layers will absorb the force if your hammer blows rather than allowing the energy to be focused onto the piece you are forging. Filling those voids with lead not only elk make that situation MUCH worse, but it will also create a reduces health risk when you try and weld it together with the lead inside..... Lead becomes a risk when it reaches a point to where it vaporizes and since steel melts at a much higher temperature than lead, the weld itself can make the lead stubborn airborne... -Hillbilly