I have two large bearing balls (I would say 2.5" diameter) that I acquired 22 years ago from a Soviet ball bearing factory. For any reason, I brought them here with me, and could not find any use for them, until now. As of now, I want to use one of them on my anvil for shaping round curved things. To that end, I would need to weld on a 1" square rod to it, to be inserted into the anvil's hardie hole.
The question is what sort of filler rod or arc welding rod to use. This ball will be pounded on, so the weld filler needs to be something that would hold up well.
I suspect it will be fine. The exotic alloy content is lower as SS number goes down, but there is still much more than xx18. Preheat and interpass peening (air powered chipper or needle scaler) can significantly reduce stress from cooling contraction. Try to eliminate any slag inclusion or surface (or root) notches or undercut as these will act as stress risers and starting points for cracking. (Research Charpy notch test or Charpy impact test)
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Always try to 'make do' with what you have, (or can get easily or free). All welders are good scroungers.
Do you know how the stainless steel alloy numbers are allocated?, I wondered if it was a first come first served basis. I've seen people post comments like "exotic alloy content is lower as SS number goes down," before and countered that an alloy such as 310 has a significantly higher chromium and nickel content than 316 for example.
Can't help you there, Iggy, but that brings up an old story.
My dad was a master mechanic at a mine. He used to bring me ball bearings all the time, some with the outer and inner race and the brass colored spacer that would keep all the bearings in place. A lot of them were an inch or less. Occasionally, he'd bring me some that were bigger.
Marbles was a big thing at school. Shooting from a line at a "boulder" (large marble). If you hit it on the fly, it was yours, or you could go behind it and keep all the marbles everyone shot until the next guy hit it, then he'd get to move up and keep the successive marbles. Occasionally, when I'd get one over 1" dia., I'd tell everyone that if they hit it, they'd get a 1" diameter one, of which I had plenty. I'd trade the big ones, but usually for bike parts and good "stuff".
I wish I still had all those marbles. Some days it was just a drag to bring home all the marbles or take some heavy "steelies" as we called them to school. We had bank bags that in those days had little grommets and gold colored drawstrings.
I was a good marble player, and never suffered from a shortage of marbles.
Ahhhh. A stroll down memory lane. My dad used to bring me miles of blasting wire, which I would make into electromagnets and small battery powered electric motors. Those big batteries that were round and as big as a "40" of beer. Screw on terminals.
If some charitable organization really wanted to promote interest in engineering and technical arts they'd just buy up a bunch of bell wire and give it to science teachers to distribute to interested kids. Possibly along with directions for making buzzers and motors and whatnot.
On Jul 27, 2:52=A0pm, Ignoramus11997 wrote: To that end, I would need to weld on a 1"
If you have any large carbide drills, I would drill a hole in the ball, turn the end of the 1" square rod so it is a light press fit, and press the rod into the ball. Add a tack weld if you want, but it should not be necessary.
Or anneal the ball bearing and drill with a normal HSS drill. I've done it to a couple of ball bearings, the largest 1.5" diameter, and it drilled like a tough steel but didn't present a problem. I heated to an appropriate temperature and turned the furnace off to allow them to cool. Next day the balls were drilled, then re hardened, loctited onto some stems and polished. The use was for some metal spinning tools. The process produced little scale build up and polishing them back to a smooth surface was easy.
Don't over-think it. I have a series of different sized bearings from 3/8 to
3 inches welded to 12 inch pieces of 3/8 mild steel rod. I use them for dinging sheet metal taking dents out of tubes, etc. by using them as anvils or hammers as needed. I TIG welded them with ER70S-2 and have never had one break.
I've made a number of texturing dies and and hardy tools using ss balls of several sizes. I'll echo the advice of another poster "don't over think it" . Mine have survived heavy pounding and the general abuse that comes along with such items and have survived. As to the welding, I just grind for good fit/prep and mig hot enough for good penitration, no pre heat, no peening, no paint....temper as needed for use. When smithing your work piece should be red hot (i.e. soft) so it will absorb and be shaped by the forces. This is why you can use mild steel to make hot work tools even mild is harder then the claylike hot steel. Longevity can be an issue but it will get the job done.
I would third the opinion to not over think it. Just weld it with whatever machine is currently closest to you. You are talking about a hardy tool after all (something you plan on hitting with a sledge hammer), not some precision jet engine part. If the weld does crack after years of use, take another 5 minutes to re-weld it.
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