More heat

[Lurchwv@BJS]

Just starting trying to weld/fuse two pieces together, I know I need to have the pieces almost or whitehot. I am using coal but I just can't seem to generate enouhg heat to obtain that whitehot apperance. Do I need more air or is there something else i need to be burning? Also I have been told to use borax as a flux any other suggestions? I may take a while to respond I've been working 90+++ hrs a week


Thanx RICHARD PineGrove W(BG)V

[Doug C]

I make a beehive fire and poke a hole in the front. put the stock in and bring to an orange heat. Pull out, brush, apply borax. Put stock back in the fire. When you are looking at the fire in the beehive you will see three shades of yellow. Heat the iron, using a low air flow, until it is the same as the of the three colors you see in the fire. The surface of the steel also looks oily. When you pull the stock out it should be smoking pretty well (that's the Borax burning off). Use lights hits down the center of the area to weld. Brush at orange, apply more flux, repeat process for entire surface to weld. I also find I get a stronger weld if I work the welded area at a near welding heat. Working it cooler than that seems to cause the welds to fail for me.

[JohnW]

Lurch, if you're not sure of the heat, maybe try a science experiment. See what it takes to burn up a piece of steel. Just put it in there and crank it up until it starts to spark. As you know, welding heat is somewhat less than that.

May the gods be with you.

[Mills]

How deep is your coal bed? Having 4 inches under the steel and a couple or 3 over it with low air is how I bring mine up to temp. When the steel disappears in the fire That is pretty close to right.

[Frosty]

Let it soak at heat for a while before you try welding it. The outside may be at heat but the center takes a while to catch up.

There is a soak per inch rule of thumb but I don't recall it at the moment, someone will fill in this little hole for me I'm sure.

Frosty

[welder19]

I put a piece of steal in the fire to get hot and right before I'm ready to weld I pull it out and put it on the anvil then put the pieces I'm going to weld on that, this way the anvil doesn't suck the heat out of the metals that I'm going to weld.
Not that I'm very good at forge welding but I'm practicing when I get the time and that is just one of the little tricks that I do, I picked that up from someone here at IFI, can't recall who but thanks because I never really had a successful weld until I started doing that.

welder19

[Doug C]

On my prior post I meant to say heat the iron up to the middle of the three shades of yellow. If you are going to be Heating until you burn the metal, as JohnW suggests, do it in a controlled way. A slow constant air flow so you cause as little oxidation as possible, use the same size stock for your experiments etc. One variable changes at a time. Keep trying and you get there.

I can consistently do a fagot and loop weld. Will start playing with others. Oh and don't forget to scarf. Lot's on the web and in various books about how to do that. I was ready one article that basically said welds that are not scarfed will fail at a much higher rate and welds done on metal where the on of the surfaces is concave will almost always be too weak to last for long.

Anyone else got detailed technique to share. It would be interesting to know how other folks do it.