Mig welding to 52100

Sam Salvati

Sam Salvati

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Aug 6, 2007
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anyone have any info on welding to 52100? would I be safe to get it preheated glowing a dull red below non mag, and run it hot? This is about a 5" square block, I am adding a horn to, already drilled the L shaped hardy, one face fly cut the other precision ground......
 
Sam you don't have to get it that hot. About 550 will do what is more important is a post heat. this is where you should take it up to 950 or a little hotter. then a slow cool. or better yet, do three full normalizing cycles and then a spherodizing cycle. welding blows up the grain in weld zone real bad so it need to be refined again.
 
I've done a bit of welding to tool steels, though not to 52100.

Welded areas experience localized yielding as they cool and shrink. The problem, especially with air hardening steels, is the welded zone has low ductility so it cracks. Preheating the work piece addresses this problem through a few mechanisms.

Sometimes you have to use a filler material of the same base materials such as building up a mold. But if you don't need that, I have found that stainless filler works more reliably.

You will want very clean joints to hedge your bets against cracks, and I find it better to use high heat and move quickly. If MIGing, short bursts with high power do the trick.

Some "unweldable" materials, such as cast iron, are welded with a very high nickel filler.

If you run into trouble I'd be happy to TIG it for you.
 
One of my challenging jobs was to weld tool steel [A-10] .It was hardened and they wanted to maintain hardness after welding . Preheat and postheat at 600F .No cracks and good hardness !!
What's the horn made of and what rod are you using ? What are the shapes ,drawing ?
 
A C Richards said:
Hey Sam

Finally doing something with that chunk of 52100. Let's see some pics
Click to expand...

YEah :D i'll have some shots next week, home for spring break and it's at work. I drilled a blind hole into the block, then forged a horn that starts at about 2", tapers to 5/8th but on the 2" end it necks in (with a nice radius) down to about 13/16" round. The round shank goes into the blind hole (press fit) then will be welded to the block. I will have on the hardy hole side, a 5/8", 1/2", and 1/4" L shaped hardy holes for punching over and such, they go about 2" deep then L out the side. Will be nice to make hardy tools with a 5/8th shank instead of a 1" hehe. I might end up forging a heel the same way with the shank and blind hole, and maybe a tapered square horn out the 3rd side.
 
Thanks for the info Nathan, I have a buddy at work who Tigs real well.

Robert, the horn is 4340 that you gave me.
 
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