Can a hard bearing ball be welded to mild steel

I think most any way to weld it would work. Also silver , brass , silicon bronze brazing.

Dan

Sure, this should be easy! I'd TIG it, of course. Not exactly sure what to use as filler wire, I don't think it is critical. It might be good to grind any Chrome off the ball if plated, but an actual ball out of a bearing shouldn't be.

Jon

The welders at work do this all the time. 309SS stick and all works well.

I have a set of ball bearings from 2.5 inches on down to 1/2 inch, TIG welded to 3/8 mild steel rods. I use them for dollys or anvils, straightening tubes, hammer forming sheet metal into curves, etc. Haven't broken one yet.

Why don't you tap the balls and thread the rod? I guess you could anneal the balls first to make it easier.

Seems a waste to me when you can just heat and upset the ends of the

If the rod end is planar, I'd TIG it. Easy weld. If the rod end can be made concave on the lathe, cone would do, then I'd silver-braze it. The silver-brazed joint would be about invisible and have more than ample strength.

Thank you Don.

I welded it with 410 stainless filler that I had, the choice of filler was made "because I had it". I posted a link to pictures separately.

Isnt it amazing how much work gets done, even after the plans have been changed to reflect "whats on hand"?

Gunner

all work is done with what is on hand when you think about it. :-)

On Wed, 29 Oct 2008 02:56:06 -0700, the infamous Gunner scrawled the following:

That would be "most everything" around these parts.

-- Change is the process by which the future invades our lives. -- Alvin Toffler

That's how i get things done. Very small shop and very far from a metal supplier. Boss says "make a few of these", so I draw it up. Then, i re-design it a few times to reflect materials available and tooling. Sometimes it takes longer to get ready to make it than actual machining time. If I absolutely have to have metal ordered it could be 2 weeks to 2 months before i see it.

Hey People,

Concerning this "Attaching a Bearing to Mild Steel" thread.... does anyone have any good suggestions for tools that can be made or tools that can be bought so that a person could HOLD these ODD types of metal together WHILE using both hands to BRAZE with ? I seem to be having a difficult time "CREATING" or "FINDING" decent Clamps or 'third hands' that can hold "AWKWARD" objects firmly in place. Any suggestions on how to HOLD items firmly together such as the Bearing and Rods or SIMILAR 'weird shaped' steel objects would be greatly appreciated !

Cheers,

/FC....

I used a magnet to restrain the ball, and miscellaneous junk to raise the rod to the proper level.

OK let's take Iggy's example of 9/16 rod and a 1' ball. If you have a chunk of 7/32 material this will raise the level of the rod so the center is in line with the ball.

If you were to dimple the end of the rod, it would set snugly in the ball. You can clamp the rod down to 7/32 plate sitting on the top of the welding table, and then use another block > 1/2 inch to restrain the ball against the end of the rod.

If you had a bunch of them to do you could make a dedicated fixture, but for onesy twosys this method works just fine.

In mass production, this would be welded by spinning the rod very fast, then forcing it against the (stationary) ball. Friction heats it, scrubs away any oxides on the surface, and welds it tight. It'd take some fiddling to get the speed/time/forces right, but it always sounded VERY slick to me. Has anyone here with a VFD lathe ever tried this?

Reminds me of the guy who opened a bordello and had to run it by hand until he found some girls to work there.

Jeff

I tried it with a belt-driven lathe, couldn't get the metal red-hot without the help of a propane torch. The pieces stuck together but broke apart easily.

Unless the rod is well and closely supported it tends to bend and run eccentric once the surfaces start to gall together.

Even before that, he took it into his head to make money. Gerry :-)} London, Canada