Hello,
First of all, I am a novice welder, so please bear with me.
I’m having a problem welding two items together. I’m trying to make a tooth bar for my tractor’s bucket. I bought 7 bucket “shanks” off of eBay to weld to two steel bars which will then be bolted on and off of the lip of the bucket as needed. I decided to try stick welding because the fit up between the shanks and the bar is not the greatest. I figured trying to TIG weld it would be too time consuming (and I’m not so good yet), and my MIG welder is a small light duty unit and I didn’t think it was up to the task. The shanks are to be welded to two cold rolled steel bars 1½”wide x ¼” thick x 36” long, tacked together long edge to long edge, to make it 3” wide x ¼” thick x 36” long. All areas to be welded were prepped/cleaned and then wiped down with acetone.
At first I thought the shanks were cast iron, but looking closely at one I noticed it had the words “Forged Steel” on it. Being unsure what the shanks were really made of, I tried several welding options as listed below. Everything I tried just blew away the metal on the shanks. None of the metal from the electrodes stuck to the shanks either.
I have gone back and looked closer at the shanks, it does appear as if they were cast because there is a definite raised seam 3/8” wide around the entire middle of each shank. You can see in the pictures (listed below) that the shanks are fairly large. From the point of the shank to the rear of the top portion it is about 81/2” long, to the bottom portion about 5” long, and the shank is 11/2” wide. The differences between the pictured shanks and mine are that mine are not painted, and mine have the seam on them.
http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/hamholfarm/
Below are the various electrodes and the DCEP amp settings which I tried to use:
Assuming the shank was forged steel I tried:
5/32” 7014 at 190, 150, and 50 amps = the electrode immediately melted away the metal of the shank, no metal from the electrode would accumulate and stick to the shank
Assuming the shank was cast iron I tried:
3/32” ENiFeCl at 70, 50, and 35 amps = once again the electrode melted away the metal of the shank, and no metal from the electrode would stick to the shank
I also have 5/32” 6011 electrodes that I didn’t even bother trying.
So: what am I doing wrong, and/or what electrode should I try and at what approximate Amp level?
I apologize for the extremely long post; I’m just trying to be very thorough with the descriptions and what I did so you understand better. I thank you all in advance for your assistance.
Chip
First of all, I am a novice welder, so please bear with me.
I’m having a problem welding two items together. I’m trying to make a tooth bar for my tractor’s bucket. I bought 7 bucket “shanks” off of eBay to weld to two steel bars which will then be bolted on and off of the lip of the bucket as needed. I decided to try stick welding because the fit up between the shanks and the bar is not the greatest. I figured trying to TIG weld it would be too time consuming (and I’m not so good yet), and my MIG welder is a small light duty unit and I didn’t think it was up to the task. The shanks are to be welded to two cold rolled steel bars 1½”wide x ¼” thick x 36” long, tacked together long edge to long edge, to make it 3” wide x ¼” thick x 36” long. All areas to be welded were prepped/cleaned and then wiped down with acetone.
At first I thought the shanks were cast iron, but looking closely at one I noticed it had the words “Forged Steel” on it. Being unsure what the shanks were really made of, I tried several welding options as listed below. Everything I tried just blew away the metal on the shanks. None of the metal from the electrodes stuck to the shanks either.
I have gone back and looked closer at the shanks, it does appear as if they were cast because there is a definite raised seam 3/8” wide around the entire middle of each shank. You can see in the pictures (listed below) that the shanks are fairly large. From the point of the shank to the rear of the top portion it is about 81/2” long, to the bottom portion about 5” long, and the shank is 11/2” wide. The differences between the pictured shanks and mine are that mine are not painted, and mine have the seam on them.
http://s113.photobucket.com/albums/n215/hamholfarm/
Below are the various electrodes and the DCEP amp settings which I tried to use:
Assuming the shank was forged steel I tried:
5/32” 7014 at 190, 150, and 50 amps = the electrode immediately melted away the metal of the shank, no metal from the electrode would accumulate and stick to the shank
Assuming the shank was cast iron I tried:
3/32” ENiFeCl at 70, 50, and 35 amps = once again the electrode melted away the metal of the shank, and no metal from the electrode would stick to the shank
I also have 5/32” 6011 electrodes that I didn’t even bother trying.
So: what am I doing wrong, and/or what electrode should I try and at what approximate Amp level?
I apologize for the extremely long post; I’m just trying to be very thorough with the descriptions and what I did so you understand better. I thank you all in advance for your assistance.
Chip
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