Can a hard bearing ball be welded to mild steel

I use drillpress vises, visegrips and sometimes magnets.

I used a magnet and the welding clamp to set that stuff on the table aligned. Then I tack welded them (required no physical contact and no movement) and then I could do whatever I wanted with them.

Great Suggestions on how to keep things in place while welding them...

I used a 45 degree magnet and similar stuff to hold a number of pieces together but I did notice that the magnet will certainly melt with any substantial heat from either the torch or the MIG. I'm going to try a few things and see if I can't come up with some kind of 'Third Hand System" to assist with that...

One thing that drives me nuts is that I always seem to have a problem getting metal pieces at the proper angles ('straight up and down or across').... An example of this would be tacking and subsequently welding 4 - 36" angle iron pieces to plate steel to be used as legs on a table. I can never seem to get the SOB's perfectly (or near perfectly..) straight ! Is there a trick to welding legs onto plate or other angle while keeping them really straight ?

Cheers,

/Jman...

I tack weld the pieces lightly, then bend them into position and hold them there with diagonal braces clamped to the other tack-welded parts.

Jig things so the legs are square in two dimensions. Tack weld. Correct out-of-square condition with taps and bumps. Finish weld. Correct out-of-square condition with large hammer and/or hydraulics.

And P&W has a contract to re-engine the Joint-Stars 135's (aka 707) with the JT8D-219 (19 x 4 + spares). First application of the JT8D to the 707 family.

scott

| >> In mass production, this would be welded by spinning the | >> rod very fast, then forcing it against the (stationary) ball. | >

| >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. | >

| >---------------------------------------------------------------- | >

| >You have no idea! | >

| >This is actually how the long shafts on many modern day jet aircraft engines | >are joined. I'm not sure exactly how many are, but I have seen the Pratt & | >Whitney promo video on this being done on the JT8-217 engine, and was told | >at the time it was also used on it's little brother, the JT8-D as well. | >

| >Theses engines were made famous on the McDonnell Douglass MD-80, and Boeing | >727 aircraft. | | And P&W has a contract to re-engine the Joint-Stars 135's (aka 707) | with the JT8D-219 (19 x 4 + spares). First application of the JT8D to | the 707 family. | | scott

They are going to hang 4 - 219s on the old 707 tankers?? What a hoot! They will probably be able to fill the entire fuse with fuel.