Welding Tips and Tricks

That rod I was talkin about- Cronatron Cronacast 211, part number CW1034.

Website-http://www.cronatronwelding.com

kermdawg, I just looked up the rod you referred to. It's apparently for cast iron, while I expect the steering knuckles he's working on are cast steel. Cast iron has a high carbon content compared to steel.

The formulation of the cast steel and the axle tubes should be similar; It's the crystal structure that differs. This leads to different shrinkage rates upon cooling, and carbon infiltration from a mild steel filler is a likely cause of the cracking. I think this is why I've had success using 309 to mig and tig cast parts. I've never had to do this weld in a critical application, however.

jpence has the best suggestion. Find someone with experience with this particular application (a site for rock-crawler builders should have good prospects), or get an analysis of the alloy and consult a pro at one of the major welding suppliers.

Steve

DOH! lol nevermind me. I saw cast and thought cast iron-must be the plumber in me. Sorry!

Welding axle is complete. I bought Ni lincoln rod but it would not run worth a shit. I ended up welding it with 7018 an inch ir so at a time and jumping around quite a bit. It welded very nicely and with no cracking. I preheated at 350 and post heated down to room temp over 24 hours. Seems they may have used a high quality cast.

Sam

Congratulations!

"Perfect" is anything you don't have to do twice.

Steve

The motor heads really do some dodgy shit. But They don't show what happens days and weeks later when parts give up because of crap welding techniques.

Samydavisjr,

Now that your project is done, I've just noticed that on the semi-trailer axles I encounter the cast is welded to the tubes with what appears to be a dual-shield process. Admittedly, these appear to be done robotically, but this might be worth filing away for future reference. (If you can MIG, or if you can do flux-core, you can do dual-shield.)

Steve

I am agree with Otto Nobedder. I think also same.