JPH Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 Howdy!!... I think I may have been out in the sun a bit too much but....here goes another of my hair(less)brained ideas... OK... I have a big old coffee can full of these little cut off ends, bits and pieces of 1095, 1084, 1070 and 1060 all mixed up that come off various projects and SLTT that I save to make little cutters, chisels and other stuff I might need..basically cause I am a cheapskate and don't want to throw them away... So in a spell of sheer madness I was thinking that "Hey...maybe I can make something outta some of these by welding them together..." The big question was how do I do that.... So I got the idea that if I stack them end to end and side to side on a piece of 1/8" 1095 that was laying about and then cover that with some of that 1060 banding, wire the whole Magilla together somehow... I can then simply squish them into one piece... The first pic is of what I started with...all the little bitty bits and the 1095. Noiw I didn;t take off the mill sclae or anything..just slapping them together "as is".... So the second pic is of the pieces arranged on the 1095 end to end and side by side..I did three courses of bitty bits on the 1095. I am hoping to get some sort of funky "hada-esque" like pattern from the weld lines...sorta like what ya get when you weld cable.... The next photo is of the 1060 strapping material that I am using to hold them all in place while I wrap it in the newspaper that they are sitting on...The strapping is 0.032" thick..and taht is 1060.... Photo four is the stack wrapped in newspaper to hold all the little pieces in place while I wrapped it as tight as I could to hold all the parts together for welding using concrete tie wire...THe paper will just burn off and not present any problems at all... Now I was a bit leary on the idea of using my normal 8# welding hammer as the impact would probably move everything around and jar it out of place.. I figured that I will let it soak for a good while to make sure everything is hot all the way through and flux the snot outta it using my "steel glue" flux...and hope for the best... When it was ready to go I just slipped it under Julius Squeezer and let him gently nudge everything together. It was a bit gooey and soupy from all the flux but it looked like everything stuck... The last photo is of the piece stuck together. Those little wire loops sticking out I will grind off once it cools. I figure that 4 or 5 cut/weld/cut courses should give me a solid piece. Now to keep up the volume/mass I am going to add a couple of pieces of some of that 1050 sheetmetal I have left over from my armour making days...May as well out it to use right?? I have no idea what I am going to come up with when all is said and done but it should be interesting. I dunno what I am going to do with this once it is welded but I will be posting pics as the work progresses.. I don't even know what is going on inside the bar (yet) so this should be a learning experience... Gawd I hope the pics come out in the right order... JPH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pkrankow Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 The soft wire welding in is no concern or just a low enough percentage that it can be ignored? I have a bucket of small scrap that is medium carbon and way too small to do anything with by itself, Been planing on learning to weld and make it into a bar for something...I like the idea. Phil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPH Posted October 10, 2010 Author Share Posted October 10, 2010 Phil: There is so much C in this that I might have to add some mild steel/iron to bring the C content down a little to lessen cracking chances during HT. I am not at all concerned about the mild steel wire and there is really, compared to the mass of the piece, very little of it there. By the time I get done welding and all...it'll either be scaled off or homogenized into the structure of the piece. I am flying by the seat of my pants here so....what happens...happens.. JPH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigfootnampa Posted October 10, 2010 Share Posted October 10, 2010 JPH; Your experiment is quite interesting but the fact that you are doing it leads me to wonder if you are familiar with the can welding process that some guys are using? It would seem ideal for just the sort of scrap small pieces that you are wanting to use. For those who haven't heard of it this can welding system basically consists of a closed container filled with small pieces of metal scrap and a dab of WD-40 or something similar. The can is welded shut but has a small vent hole and when the can is brought to welding heat the WD-40 gasifies and forces the oxygen out of the can negating the need for flux. The whole can is then welded as a unit and later the can shell is peeled or ground away/off and the billet is folded and rewelded as any pattern steel would be. I am no expert at this process but find it interesting ... so forgive me if I made any mistakes in describing it (though I think I have it right). I have seen long discussions of can welding on some forums but not here as I recall. It certainly seems like something that JPH would be an authority on... so maybe this is just sort of like Larry Bird playing left-handed... a little extra challenge to make things interesting? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bourne101 Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 awsome post i can't wait to see how it turns out. good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted November 4, 2010 Share Posted November 4, 2010 What to make with it? Well it looks like this is a "fun" project so do something "fun" with it! (There is a cartoon on the wall here at work showing a "prof" looking guy surrounded by chalkboards covered with esoteric equations. He's at a small cleared area doing some simple arithmetic and the caption is "Every now and then I like to relax a bit by doing some simple addition and subtraction". Doctorates in Astro-Physics are a dime the dozen around here so the application is clear...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radharc Posted November 27, 2010 Share Posted November 27, 2010 Jim, considering it's you doing it, I'm sure it will be awesome. Can't wait to see what it looks like when done! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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