Welding cast(steel)

By wallingco Date 01-07-2012 22:04

I have a block of cast steel from a pile driver. It is W=2', H=3', D=14". It has a small chunk of steel that cracked off the bottom about the size of a sharpie felt marker. Not sure what the makeup of the steel is. I am assuming it's mild steel. I wanted to know if it can be filled and ground smooth. I was thinking of using either MiG or stick. Any help would be appreciated.

By Lawrence (*****)

Date 01-07-2012 22:32

Welcome to the forum!

If you can't with confidence identify the material and you are not constrained by code or a quality system, I would go with SMAW, because it will deal with impurities and in general can have better penetration on heavy material than will GMAW.

By Tommyjoking (****)

Date 01-08-2012 05:11

Considering the size of the hammer and the function that sharpie size slice is probably not affecting anything...maybe just leave it be. But if you want to fix it I agree with Law...stick weld it. I suggest after cleaning the area well with a brush putting a torch to it more to burn out oils around the area then anything....once you see the hot little impurity spots go away/burn away ...hand brush it one more time and run a 5/32 or 1/8 7018 for a filler and run it on the hot side in position if you can. Peening the area with your chipping hammer while it is still a little warm would not hurt if you make more then one pass. Should be fine.

By wallingco Date 01-08-2012 17:49

Thanks. That was what I was thinking but it's always nice to get a couple of opions. I think I will go with 7018 and clean and pre heat a little.

By ozniek

Date 01-15-2012 06:23

Hi

I am rather weary of doing any welding on materials that you are not sure of. Obviously you can take the chance, and 9 out of 10 times you may be lucky and get an acceptable result, but sometimes the down side risk is just too big to take the chance. Ask yourself what the repercussions will be if the material started cracking, and you have to discard the component. If the answer is "not much", then go ahead and take the chance. If however this is some critical component that will be very difficult or costly to replace, or there could be serious safety risks, then rather spend a little money to try and establish what material you are going to weld before striking the arc.

Regards
Niekie