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When welding wrought iron to itself is good ol 20 Mule Team borax a good choice for flux?
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Flux for wrought iron welding
- Thread starter Guy Thomas
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Guy,
I hope I don't put my :footinmou again, but this is just my 2cts.
As this wroght iron is for furniture, and not the blade, carbon loss is not an issue.
I guess if ya got it hot enough, "good ol 20 Mule Team borax" would be an excellent flux.
Larry T
Member of NECKA & NCCA
I hope I don't put my :footinmou again, but this is just my 2cts.
As this wroght iron is for furniture, and not the blade, carbon loss is not an issue.
I guess if ya got it hot enough, "good ol 20 Mule Team borax" would be an excellent flux.
Larry T
Member of NECKA & NCCA
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Beaver: If it isn't one orifice it’s another you are inserting something into.T Blade said:
Guy: By golly I believe Beaver is right.
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Guy,
Wroght iron will weld to itself with no flux but you have to get it very hot.
The silica in it acts like a flux and will allow it to stick. The lower the carbon the less chance of the steel burning, since wrought has no carbon you can get it very hot without ruining it. All this said I would still use borax just to make sure. Allways work wrought at or near a welding heat, it tends to want to come apart and or crack when worked at a lower heat.
I hope this helps.
Don Hanson lll sunfishforge.com
Wroght iron will weld to itself with no flux but you have to get it very hot.
The silica in it acts like a flux and will allow it to stick. The lower the carbon the less chance of the steel burning, since wrought has no carbon you can get it very hot without ruining it. All this said I would still use borax just to make sure. Allways work wrought at or near a welding heat, it tends to want to come apart and or crack when worked at a lower heat.
I hope this helps.
Don Hanson lll sunfishforge.com
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- 934
Guy I am with Sunfish, I have had problems with wi comming apart at low temperature. I have also had a lot of great results turning old WI rail spikes into letter openers. When sanded and etched it cumes up looking like damascus because of the impurities in it. Some looks better than other it is a random kind of thing with each piece.
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yeah they say it welds really easy, not much of a need for flux. i know a guy who's been doing traditional wrought iron work for like 27 years. he usedto weld without flux... even use fine playground sand for welding. i've also read in an old book that you can use salt for welding. but like the others said... borax all the way. don't worry about those crazy fluxes they sell promising great result. borax work just fine.
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Sounds good guys, the out of the box borax is all I've ever used with high carbon steel and I was just curious how it would work for wrought iron. I'm hoping now that my forge gets hot enough to weld wrought iron, I know it gets to at the very least 2000 degrees F since I've melted copper in it. I guess I'll find out!