Welding Mystery Metal

It's shiny, it has to carry a load, it attracts a magnet -- and I have no other clues what it is!!!

Any recommendations on how to extend a 1" diameter bar of mystery metal? I need to move a spring that probably has about 100 pounds of load on it from about 3" away from its support to about 5".

Try 6013 and see if the stuff cracks? Use something else? What?

Reply to
Tim Wescott
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Try Certanium maintenance alloys, they are made to weld mystery metal. You can buy some on ebay. I have a Certanium catalog and some mig wire.

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Reply to
Ignoramus28336

The 98% nickel rods used for cast iron will work on most anything ferrous related. Pricey though. Your application would require perhaps one or two rods and done. Use the technique Ernie outlined with a backer angle that is ground off. A stainless rod would also work fine.

I'd be a bit leery of a pla> It's shiny, it has to carry a load, it attracts a magnet -- and I have

Reply to
RoyJ

I was kinda thinking that maybe stainless is the way to go. Nickel would be kewl -- I suppose I should swing by the welding supply place and see what prices are. That will no doubt motivate me to see if there's someone off whom I can beg a few sticks.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

It's not chrome-plated steel, is it? Sorry, but I've gotta ask. Doesn't 400 series stainless hold a magnet, too? I think so.... I've also seen heavy-wall nickel-copper pipe that can (almost) hold a magnet....

Have you tried a spark test?

Reply to
TinLizziedl

I could, but I wouldn't know what the results would mean.

The rod has already been extended on the other side of the support, when I filed a bit of the paint & crud off of the weld it wasn't grayish like steel; it was more the white-silver color of stainless. I wasn't thinking 'Nickel', I should go see if it's bluish or yellowish.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

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Gives a good description and half-a$$ed visual of spark test results for various metals-

I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and ask you to look at this next page and see if you think it may be one of these:

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I'll guess that you've got a 410 martensitic stainless piece. But that's just a guess....

Reply to
TinLizziedl

I finally got around to hitting it with a hand grinder. Lots of sparks, very dense at the wheel with the longest ones getting out to maybe three feet, straw to orange (as best as I can tell in my partial color blindness), with small forks at the very end.

From the Wikipedia description this is consistent with 400 series Stainless.

So -- what rod? Can I make the extension mild steel, or do I have to find some 400 series stainless for the extension?

(for folks new to the thread -- I have a Lincoln tombstone AC/DC box, to TIG, no MIG).

Reply to
Tim Wescott

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This PDF file is an excellent resource. It has lots of technical info, from which can be gleaned an exact matching material, but on page 3 it also states that you can use E309-L for welding if matching the toughness of the 400 series base material is not strictly necessary.

I think Ernie stated earlier that 309 can join most stainless steels- I'm gonna try to keep a stock of it on hand....

Do you have an oven or oxy-fuel torch available to preheat the piece? Welding in a temperature range of 400 to 600 deg. Farenheit is recommended to maintain the toughness and corrosion resistance of the base material. It will also help prevent cracking from hydrogen embrittlement.

I would hope that your piece is not in the .2% carbon category. If it is, I would try to bring the completed weldment down in temperature slowly, over the course of several hours. Heat it up with the torch again, and let it cool slowly again, to temper it. Use a welder's blanket or some other high-temperature insulator to wrap the part after you heat it up so that it won't cool too quickly.

Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it turns out!

Reply to
TinLizziedl

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