Welding Tips and Tricks

Ok so I'm workin on this 24 yard PC 4000 bucket again, the side cutter on the one side has 3 or 4 pieces of wedge bar staked up on top of each other and they are all cracked, the owner and the operator want me to cut them off and rebuild it. No problem Ive done this a lot, I generally cut it out get a piece of 3 inch AR plate tack it up V it out and have a blast runnin self shielded wire for a awhile til its welded. Well there is no 3 inch AR plate readily available and they want it done in just a few minutes like always. There is some manganese plate will be here tomorrow, 3 inch thick. Supplier has been after the owner for years to try this stuff, but no one else will even try it.

Ive done it before on an old hendrix dragline that had a manganese lip and I put a new floor in it that was 1 1/2 inch thick, and the lip was 4 inches. This was in 1994, I looked at it last year that weld is still there and has no cracks and looks good yet. The problem Ive got is I cant remember what wire I used to weld it, 308 or 309 stainless seems to stick in my head but I I'm not sure and I don't even know if it really matters. All I know is the weld was mostly vertical and I didn't weld it fast so as to keep it from getting too hot.

Yeah I know its sounds like eversomuch BS but that's the truth. I'm thinkin of getting some of wires and see which runs best a piece of old scrap iron. Any of you metallurgic types have any ideas?

This one is gonna be fun, I plan to take pics of this as I go.

It sticks in my mind, for some reason, that 312 is the better choice for this, but I have nothing to back up that suggestion other than a gut-feeling from a vague memory. Lacking evidence, 309 is always a good choice for dissimilar alloys.

Steve

Vague memory...must be part of the aging process.

All I remember is a bunch of folks tellin me it wasnt gonna work and that it was vertical. Old Owen Horn, God Bless his soul was the only one said I could do it and told me how to do it, old boy taught me most of what I ever knew. I put it vertical so I could do both sides without rollin the bucket over and to keep it from getting too hot on one side...4 inches is helluva lot of weld. Don't have any choice this time, the bucket is on the shovel and the motor is being worked on, and for some reason they don't wanna flip the whole shovel on its side. Duh. Hell I don't like welding flat anyway.

But you look at these old buckets in the old shovel graveyards around here with manganese lips they all are welded with stainless something or other. What kind I couldn't say and for the life of me I cant remember what it was I used. Cant quite remember what gas it was either...thinkin it was a tri mix but not sure. Now these guys are telling me I'm nuts for even attempting it....most of em are mechanics and operators and not welders and are lacking the brass balls to try something different. Me..its a challenge..I enjoy a challenge. Whatever the case its gonna be fun

Yes, if it's done GMAW, and a stainless wire (whether 309, 312, or 340), you're going to want Tri-mix gas, 90% He/7.5% Ar/2.5% CO2. It's the best way to generate the heat it will take to penetrate.

Steve

Only times I had to weld wear bars of that type on we used a Eutectic rod I think the number was 646 ( it's a while ago so maybe wrong ) - it's commonly used for anything manganese bearing either to itself or other steels - not sure you can get them where you are but I imagine there is something similar - try looking up rods for rail track prior to it all being thermite welded - likely can get the same alloy in cored wire though it won't be cheap - I also have that nagging thought like Otto that someone once said 312 works if that's all you have - it would make sense if the welds you've seen appear to be stainless - probably a job where super missile would work well.

Super Missile?? Did that chubby little North Korean prick make another rocket only this time out of a weld rod? Seriously...never heard of it...enlighten me, please.

I have yet to see this chunk of manganese. It wwas supposed to be here last Thursday. I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to happen...sometimes these miners have big ideas until they see the price tag, and I know stainless flux core costs a lot of money, not to mention manganese plate isn't exactly pocket change...maybe ill end up just gouging the cracks out and wedling them up for the time being until there is some regular AR plate availalble

Popeye the old miner wrote:Super Missile?? Did that chubby little North Korean prick make another rocket only this time out of a weld rod? Seriously...never heard of it...enlighten me, please.

Super Missile tig rod!

I finished this up in july here it is