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I Forge Iron

Using a Mig To Weld Copper to Copper Using Steel Wire


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Ever wonder how when you get burn back when mig welding, the steel wire sometimes melts into the copper tip and renders it useless?  Well I experimented and found that you can take any penny from 1982 or older (95% copper) [1983 - present pennies are mostly zinc] and you can weld them to another piece of copper or to mild steel by turning the heat down pretty low and using a cold piece of steel plate as a temperature mediator for the copper because of it's lower melting point.  I welded a penny to an 0.35mm tip and once cooled the steel weld took the color of the copper and blended into the copper.  I put it in a vice and tried to knock penny off with a shop hammer and it will not break.  I use 92% Argon 8% CO2.  

The question I have is if these two metals mix what is the metal called as a result.  If somebody has tried this before please fill me in.  I could not break the penny away from the weld.  I imagine it has the tensile strength of the copper

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Technically, what they are doing with cars made of boron steel panels is MIG brazing. More akin to solder or glue than a true welding process. The filler wire serves as a gap filler and bond between the parts.

It is not really 'welding' unless you achieve fusion of the base metal with the filler. And boron steel crumbles after welding.

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I have Tig welded stainless steel to bronze using a 312 rod, seems fine.

The only named iron based alloy I can think of is Cor-ten, the so-called weathering steel which gets a bloom of rust which then prevents further corrosion. It is used for sculpture and building facades.

Some of the copper alloys have iron in in small quantities to yield influence on the properties and usage.

Alan

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  • 3 weeks later...

Mig welding with silicon bronze wire is the thing to do when welding galvanized materials.  It is brazing and the advantage is the minimizing of the zinc fumes created.  Production manufacturing of galvanized gates etc is so much easier and safer with the silicon bronze wire.  The hiccup is the cost, wire cost more and argon has to be used.

Cor-ten is some pretty cool stuff.  It's what shipping containers are made of.

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