February 9, 200917 yr wow finally got some time in the smity and welded some cable! So is it a good thing when you cut the cable with a cutting hardy and the air cooled portion drops to the ground and it shatters like glass?:o
February 9, 200917 yr Um, not sure what your sayin, but no, its not a good thing. Can you explain further
February 10, 200917 yr I don't know exactly what you did. One way to tell if your cable has a high carbon content is to heat the very end to non-magnetic, and quench in water. At that point, if it is high carbon cable you should be able to lay it on the anvil, tap the end with a hammer, and the fibers will break off. What I would assume if someone told me this, is that they had heated, and , possibly worked the cable. Quenched it. Then heated a spot to enable it to be cut across a hot cut hardy. A cable (wire rope) to work as such, needs to be tough, and flexible. What did you do, between acquiring it and cutting it??
February 10, 200917 yr I can safely assume it is high carbon , as he said it air hardened, and shattered when it hit the floor. But what little I know about cable, they don't normally air harden, where did you find this cable, and are you sure it was not quenched?
February 11, 200917 yr Ive never had a cable air harden on me. Im wondering if he tried to cut it too cold and the welds came apart
February 11, 200917 yr I am wondering if it wasn't welded at all just stuck together with flux. We really could use some pictures of it though.
February 11, 200917 yr Author ok so you have a 30 foot section of cable and no oxy/acet. to cut it what would you have done? Put it through your forge get an area really hot pull it back out and chop it off with a cut-off hardy! thats what i did and then stick the short section back into fire and anneal it to the point you can mess with it. the portion that was allowed to air cool fell off the stump and shattered
February 11, 200917 yr ok so you have a 30 foot section of cable and no oxy/acet. to cut it what would you have done? Tape the cable off good and cut it with a side grinder with a cut off disc. Do you know what type of cable you have go a head and forge some up and see if it air hardens before you quench. Bob
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