Turning weld metal?

A

Aqua-Andy

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So in the past couple of months I have had to repair some parts and on a few occasions it was decided that we would build up wend on the part and then turn down the weld to the correct dimensions. I have been having an issue with the weld metal ruining the cutting tools. I have tried both HSS and carbide tooling. It just seems that the weld metal is so too hard, most of the filler metal we use is in the 70K PSI strength range. Also the welds are not cooled rapidly, they are just left to cool down naturally in the air. I was thinking next time I could maybe wrap some insulation around the part so that it cools slower. One particularly nasty part was a pulley that was spun on a shaft. The pulley was welded on the id and I had to turn the weld metal to the required ID. I had a heck of a time as the weld was so hard that the 3/4" boring bar would just flex and chatter while trying to cut. How have other dealt with these issues?
 
Barn Lime??? I've never heard of this. Is it just regular Lime or something special?
 
Sifted fireplace/stove ashes work as well. I sift it through 1/8" hardware cloth. I do a lot of part making and keep a sifted bucket in the shop all the time. Plus I may need to make soap someday!
 
If that pulley spun on the shaft once, it's going to do it again. If this is a standard vee belt pulley, replace it with one that has a taper lock bushing. I guarantee it won't spin. Or modify the existing one to receive a split taper bushing.
 
When rebuilding a part , I usually pre heat before welding since we cant be 100% sure of which alloy the part is made of. Especially rebuild carbon steel , for example 1045, the dilution with base material hardened the welds. I do a simple test by welding with 7018 electrode 1 single pass then I try to file it down. If the file doesnt goes through , it means that you'll have hard time machining...
 
When the weather is cold I have put welded and burnt out pieces right into the fire in my wood stove. They will get a nice cherry red and sometimes even more orange. I just let it cool with the fire and remove it the next day. The only thing is the parts are typically covered with a scale after doing this so it might not work out for some parts that are already to size or have a good finish you are trying to preserve. It does a nice job of softening burnt edges from a cutting torch when I burn out a piece of stock for something making it from scratch.

Ted
 
Uglydog said:
Would ashes have a high carbon content and potentially contribute to the hardness?
Looks like Barn Lime is carbon neutral, and cheap.
https://www.farmandfleet.com/blog/what-is-barn-lime-why-do-i-need-it/
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/waukesha-lime-barnlime-50-lb-bag

Daryl
MN
Click to expand...

I personally have not found this using my wood stove technique. But, it might harden them if you removed while hot and did a quick quench... interesting. I'll have to try that to see if I can case harden that way. That would be awesome!

Ted
 
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