Cutting cast iron

Not yet, I thought DCEN will be hotter on the cast iron.

OK, here's the result.

DCEN works better. The best setting was 3/16" 6010 rod, DCEN, 300 amps.

You really need to get the hang of it and use the "sawing" motion, "pushing" metal out of the cut. Once you do get it, cutting is as easy as eating pie.

Dip each rod at least twice, before cutting and when it is half burned.

The first casting took me almost an hour to cut.

The second, my guy cut in only 15 minutes because 1) We understood how to do it and 2) we realized that we only need to cut ribs and hit the casting with a forklift counterweight.

I have loads of 3/16" 6010 so I am all set for the current and some future jobs.

When I re-read my post I realized I got it backwards. DCEN works better than DCEP for cutting.

But try the water dip trick. It really does help.

Yep. I tried both and found that DCEN works better. This is what I thought from the beginning, DCEN gets work hotter.

DCEN and 300 amps work wonders. I putzed around a lot and found that a sawing technique works great. The electrode blows out everything on its path, maybe 1mm of material at a time.

I would say it is about 2:1, 2 cubic inches of molten metal for each cubic inch of electrode -- just my feeling.

This thread has made me curious. One question is why 6010? Another questi on is wet 6010 better than a carbon rod? And the last is how does wet 6010 compare to using a Arcair torch? No biggie if you do not answer. I do no t have anything that needs cutting. But inquiring minds want to know.

Dan

I might add, Will any other rod work?

Greetings Dan, I have done air-arcing removal of hardfacing. It was really loud. Especially for me, the operator. It also blew the metal removed into a fine, obnoxious dust cloud that expanded rapidly to fill the surrounding air. I was able to control it to the point of just removing the hardfacing and not the underlying metal. It's a good thing I was doing it outdoors so all the dust settled outside. Using welding rod to cut metal is not something you would do if you needed a clean cut or needed to just remove a layer of metal. But it generates way less dust, is way quieter, doesn't need large volumes of air, and doesn't need special electrodes. Eric

Yes, it is an easy and relaxing process. The only minus is that it emits a lot of smoke.

The water is electrolyzed in the arc heat and adds oxygen and hydrogen into the arc to make it even hotter

A simple carbon rod will make an arc, but without an air blast it doesn't do much.

By running in DCEN you the added jetting effect of the arc force.

An Arcair torch is an amazing tool, but it takes a lot of amps, a huge air source, and it is incredibly loud and messy. If you have it tuned in, you can carve steel out like a melon baller on butter. You can used bottles of compressed air for small jobs.

I have used actual scarfing electrodes and I found 6010 had about the same cutting ability, but the flux on the scarfing rods kind of encapsulated the slag and prevented it from sticking back to the base metal.

Thanks. It is alway nice to get information from someone with a lot of experience.

Dan

We used to use Arcair underwater cutting torches. They had a porcelain covered copper alloy tubular rod, about 3/8" in diameter, hole in center about 1/8". Pure O2 @ 60 psi over bottom pressure came to the handle, and would spurt out the center hole when the handle was squeezed. It was hot/cold by a knife switch operated by a topside tender. They only did a splut splut noise underwater, but cut like nothing else I have ever cut with. We used them occasionally topside, and they were much louder. They would cause accelerated degradation of chrome, and other helmet metals, and lots of guys had a beater helmet they used for burning.

Steve