Hello all,
I am new to welding and am starting with Gas to get some experience there before going to MIG or TIG. I am havig trouble finding fire brick in the Marietta area. But I thought that maybe a few layers of ceramic tile might do the trick in it's place. Is this a STUPID idea? If this is not a good idea, what should I buy online to do the trick?
If you can't locate a brick/stone dealer selling firebrick in Marietta, try looking in Atlanta. In a land of brick homes with fireplaces, where it's a rather common building item.
No, ceramic tile won't work as a substitute except for soft soldering.
Harry C.
"GregL" wrote: (clip) If this is not a good idea, what should I buy online to do the trick? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Ceramic tile will crack from the localized heating. However, if you put a stel plate behind your work, you may not the tile or brick.
What for? Unless you do realy minute work 2 double-Ts on a saw-horse (iron) are a versatile welding table.
Nick
In several of the welding books I have it says you need to insulate your work from the steel plate used for support or the plate will rob the working area from heat needed to create a good weld. I have a triton sawhorse that I plan to hold the support plate with, but thought I needed a few fire bricks on top of that to insulate the work.
As far as the fire brick - I have spoke to a number of fireplace, masonry and HD type stores. It's all pre-fab large sheets now, no indivual bricks. Nothing like progress.. :(
Still looking though...
Porcelain tile can certainly take the heat.
Depending on the size of the tile and localized heating gradients, you may get broken tiles from expansion, but porcelain tile is amazingly tough.
I've used tile scraps to build Nichrome resistance wire heaters, and they'll take a red heat without problems. This is what commerical power resistors are made from, and they are designed to sustain horrific overloads.
The key is the degree of firing to *porcelain* status, which means a hot and long firing that fully fuses the clay, not like cheap tile that is just fired enough for partial, porous fusing. Kind of like casting molten metal versus sintering a powder.
With O/A-welding, that's sometimes right. Only when I was trained at, we had a kind of grating. just several upright flat irons, distanced about
1" apart and welded in a frame. Looks like your first project? :-)Later, I never needed something like this. Nick
"GregL" wrote: In several of the welding books I have it says you need to insulate your work from the steel plate (clip) ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you are using a heavy plate, and clamping the job to it for alignment/support, this can be true. On the other hand, if you can put a couple of spacers behind the work, so it is not in firm thermal contact with the plate, the problem is very slight to nil. If your work is resting on fire bricks, you are not clamping it down, anyway.
Another solution I sometimes use, where clamping is necessary, is to use TWO plates with a gap between them, and position the weld over the gap. Each project has its own solution, and you have to be willing to try different things.
Thanks all... All are excellent suggestions... Just made my first puddle.. (kinda)... found out I need a bigger tip for 1/4".. :) Back to the store.. Also made my first cut... worked pretty well.. a little slag... more practice needed.
Try asking for broken or used sheets. This stuff is fairly fragile and there must be broken ones around. lg no neat sig line
My welding table is a 1100# scissors table from Harbor Freight with its top lined with firebrick, permanently glued down. A nice wood top fits over the firebrick for normal use as a lift table. A supply of additional firebricks serves as building blocks for the occasional "furnace" built on top of the firebrick base.
One of the handiest things to have, is a chunk of walkway grid. mounted on legs. My first welding table was this
Gunner
"Pax Americana is a philosophy. Hardly an empire. Making sure other people play nice and dont kill each other (and us) off in job lots is hardly empire building, particularly when you give them self determination under "play nice" rules.
Think of it as having your older brother knock the shit out of you for torturing the cat." Gunner
Larkin Furnace Construction in Conyers; They've got a warehouse full of refractory goodies.
My first welding project was to make a welding table. I designed it with a top that was made from 2" by 1/4" steel flat stock with gaps of about 2" between each piece. This allows me to use C-clamps anywhere on the surface of the table, simply by sticking them between the steel slats and clamping the work down to the slats. For sections that need to be insulated from the table, I arrange the section to be over the gap between the slats.
Works great and requires no special materials to construct.
Yep, porcelain is very close to glass. Glass also likes to crack, though.
I would be inclined to think porous materials have better shock resistance, for the reason that the pores give more flexibility.
Face it, splashing three thousand degree metal on *anything* is going to crack it in no time. Even made mincemeat of a shock-resistant mullite tile I made myself.
Tim
-- "California is the breakfast state: fruits, nuts and flakes." Website:
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.