Jump to content
I Forge Iron

forge welding tips?


Recommended Posts

I have gotten a good weld once or twice but I dont know HOW I managed to do it

people mention that you must have a reducing atmosphere in order to weld but usually they refer to how to do it with a coal forge

with my blown gas unit i just crank the fuel and leave the air the same as it was running

I have no problem getting the heat getting swirls or movement on the area I want to weld.

I heat to yellow flux and return to the forge wait for the heat then i try to tap the two together

I think my technique must be flawed in the scarf although I try my best or my hammering

or maybe i am not using enough flux usually i add quite a bit

maybe it is burning off?

I have looked though my books and all the info on the web i can find but still i fail to get consistant welds

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"I heat to yellow flux and return to the forge wait for the heat then i try to tap the two together"

You might try fluxing at a lower temperature, a blood red heat, before the temperature gets hot enough to form scale.

Have the metal clean, heat to a red heat, flux return to the forge and slowly bring up to welding temperature. let the heat soak thru the metal. The object is to get the metal coated with flux to keep the surface from oxidizing. By fluxing at a yellow heat you may be applying the flux after the oxide has already formed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having just come from a class on forge welding, I'll weigh in with my newly acquired experience.

After getting the scarfed pieces up to temp, we removed them, wire brushed the area and fluxed them quite thoroughly. for the flat stock scarfs we also used a welding compound called ez flux, that has metal shavings and other interesting but unknown items in it. Darryl called it "GLUE" you put it on after the regular flux then when you put the two pieces together before your first strike, they DO stick together, briefly, allowing you to get that first tap to set the weld. Centaur forge carries the EZ Weld compound. I'll be ordering some soon, though I don't have any major welding projects lined up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...