I've heard welds can be hard but this hard???

[YYCHM]

I've gotten it into my head to salvage this piece of 4" X 4"X 1".

The challenge is to get rid of the weld wart that's on either side of the piece. So far that thing has defeated the band saw, power hacksaw, shaper with HSS tooling, and the mill with HSS tooling.

The only dent I have been able to make in it was with a solid carbide endmill but even that is terribly tedious.

Any suggestions? Grind it off? Write it off as unsalvageable? I thought maybe there was some nice metal to be had once you were through the weld but maybe not.

 

[Tom Kitta]

Yes they can be this hard. So hard that you can burn off few inserts on a facemill.

If the weld is on all 4 sides maybe just mill / grind the weld only - not remove all metal.

Some coupons on which someone tried stick or MiG welding with say 400 amps+ (so a lot of metal) I just discarded - send to scrap yard.

Is it worth killing a 12-14 CAD end mill for that scrap metal to be saved?

I killed my large bandsaw blade with some hard metal - it lost its teeth. Do not even try HSS - the stuff you are dealing with is marginally softer then HSS tooling.

You need harder grades of carbide - professional carbide endmills that are uber expensive even on aliexpress - like 50 or 80 cad for 12mm. to machine RHS 50 or so.

One way to do it is anneal it and then cut.

Also when fixing my large lathe few years back I tig welded on a new gear to be part... lets say cutting gear with HSS was no fun at all... and it ended up grinded by hand... makes lots of noise now but at least its indestructible.

 

[Dabbler]

I think you should use it in fabrication or recycle it.

When you weld an unknown alloy you get an unexpected result. There are 'hard milling' carbide cutters. I have one - a 1/2" diameter X 5/8 long flutes. It cost 80$ and I wouldn't want to risk it on your $.20 piece of steel.

The value in this is the learning you got by doing it. For further experiments, I agree 100% with Tom - you should heat it up to dull red and anneal it. (the forula is 2 hrs per inch of thickness - so for at least 1/2 hour before slowly cooling it) You will find your shaper cuts it like butter afterwards.

 

[CalgaryPT]

Could be from a hard facing rod—they are used all the time in the mining and farming industries for repairing excavator shovels, dragline pins, even driveline sprockets in heavy equipment.

 

[Janger]

I think you should use it in fabrication or recycle it.

When you weld an unknown alloy you get an unexpected result. There are 'hard milling' carbide cutters. I have one - a 1/2" diameter X 5/8 long flutes. It cost 80$ and I wouldn't want to risk it on your $.20 piece of steel.

The value in this is the learning you got by doing it. For further experiments, I agree 100% with Tom - you should heat it up to dull red and anneal it. (the forula is 2 hrs per inch of thickness - so for at least 1/2 hour before slowly cooling it) You will find your shaper cuts it like butter afterwards.

That sounds like a lot of fuel for a torch. How about a kiln?

 

[YYCHM]

With hung head, I threw it in the recycling bin..... darn

 

[Tom O]

Well you can put it in my kiln if you want.

 

[kevin.decelles]

+1 to annealing it. I have used my kilns for that purpose previously


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[YYCHM]

Ya, I don't think this piece is worth expending any further effort on. It's had a 2-1/2" hole drilled through and a shaft welded in place on both sides. Once you have it cleaned up it will most likely have a round seam running through it. @Tom O Thanks for the offer though.

@Tom Kitta gave me a section of round stock that appeared to have had a mounting bracket welded to it at one point. I didn't have any issues turning the weld wart off that piece with HSS, so this one kind of surprised me.

 

[Dabbler]

If it was welded with a soft rod, the weld will be soft. Or if it was MIGged with normal wire.