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Welding with plain steel filler?

RobbieKnobbie

Plastic
Joined
Jan 17, 2007
Location
Philadelphia, PA
I need to weld some parts, followed by a whole lot of machining, milling, drilling and tapping. 1018 HR. The welds do not need to be all that strong, they are not particularly stressed, but the problems with machining the 'hard spots' from the weld and HAZ could be a real pain.

Someone suggested using 1018 as the filler material.

Has anyone tried this, how did it work out?
 
Post some pix of the parts you are having trouble with.

Also, what procedures are you proficient at ?
 
I've used metal coat hangers to gas weld in a pinch. Works OK.

Used exactly that to weld a chunk of metal on the back of a shop truck many years ago so we could mount a taillight (the entire panel holding the taillight got knocked off and lost) and pass inspection. The truck was going to be replaced soon but was needed for a few more weeks. The jerry-rigged taillight they were using wouldn't have passed inspection.
 
TIG welding you should not have issues with hard spots on 1018 and ER70S2 rod. I haven't had issues with 309L, either, when joining dissimilar low carbon steels. You should no have to worry about things getting hard until you get a good bit more carbon in there.

Check out "Metals and How to Weld Them" from the Lincoln Foundation. I think it is like $10-20 and has a ton of information on stuff like this.
 
A little off topic but since welding with coat hangers came up then here goes. When I was in Asia I saw "construction" guys welding banisters with car batteries. It actually seemed to work pretty good. I assume they had a lot of practice however.
 
If the parts are going to have subsequent work performed, why would you risk that work with an unknown filler? If you are going to stick weld, use 6011. Wire, OA, or Tig weld use er70s6.
 
What steel is being welded? I just minutes ago tig welded some O1 using 70s6 and did have the O1 harden as one should expect. The filler Wasn’t the problem—-the O1 was simply responding as designed to the heat of welding and then fairly fast air cooling. Bringing the weld and HAZ up to 500 F solved the hardness.

Denis
 
I've used metal coat hangers to gas weld in a pinch. Works OK.


I'd say more than just OK in both gas and Tig.
Tip one, sand off the coating before use.
Was a lesson in my first welding class as the instructor threw a bunch of coat hangers on the desk and said this is your rod for the day.
Many did not clean it first and the lesson was about contamination.
What I did learn was the importance to clean any filler rod before use even if it looks clean already.
I like to weld with the same or very close to the parent metal. Sometimes you can weld with almost or no filler rod at all. Love those.
If you want to rebuild 4140 at 45-50 Rc and want the same hardness as original in the welded area you have to use something funky.
Bob
 
Coat hanger wire is not cheap crap wire, it's actually a good quality wire in order to take the tight winding and bending required to make coat hangers in a hurry, that's what makes it a good mild steel welding rod. ER70S-2 wire is about as mild steel a wire as you'll find for welding, there isn't anything in it that would cause hard spots
 
Would you give an example of "something funky"?
No, all I will say is a rod that goes on at the hardness needed with no additional heat treat be it high 40's, 50's or 60's and compatible with the parent steel. Each of these hard a different rod.
Sorry but many, many years and thousands of dollars spent and I'm holding it as a trade secret with that investment.
Have 8 different filler rods at the TIG bench, each with a use and some very expensive. All this just to repair and rebuild toolholders, mill cutters, and cartridges.
As a start point think that this is a air hardening process going on with no quench. In my case you want the rod to go on as laid at the right hard and not produce seams or porosity.
Bob
 
Years ago I had a young man in my Welding Metallurgy class that was one of those really curious types that liked to dig into things. I told him about (gas) welding with coat hanger wire. He tried it and it worked pretty good. Later in class we talked about what the flux coating on arc welding rods did to help the welding process. The next class he brought in a small weldment. Not a very good weld but it was a weld. He had coated some coat hanger wire with several different types of MUD for flux and tried them.

Whoever hired this young man didn't know what a good deal they were getting, curious minds are rare.
 
Years ago I had a young man in my Welding Metallurgy class that was one of those really curious types that liked to dig into things. I told him about (gas) welding with coat hanger wire. He tried it and it worked pretty good. Later in class we talked about what the flux coating on arc welding rods did to help the welding process. The next class he brought in a small weldment. Not a very good weld but it was a weld. He had coated some coat hanger wire with several different types of MUD for flux and tried them.

Whoever hired this young man didn't know what a good deal they were getting, curious minds are rare.

If you go way back in history when we starting arc welding the welding rod's where bare metal the end users started mixing up all kinds of stuff for a coating, it was a short period in time right after the departure of large plate welding with Oxy/acetylene and riveting. Some E6010 cellulose electrode actually has a percentage of suger in it.
 








 
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