Twisting and welding a ball-bearing can?

L

Leon Husock

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Jul 17, 2019
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I made a canister with 52100 ball-bearings, and I was thinking of twisting it to make a cool pattern. Normally when I twist I then forge back to square and forge weld the twists shut to minimize post-twist grinding, but I've heard 52100 really doesn't like to weld to itself.

Of course I can always just grind until the cold-shuts between the twists are ground out, but that substantially reduces how much steel I get out of the project. Does someone with more metallurgical knowledge/experience than I have have any insight into whether this will cause problems?
 
I grind the corners down before re-welding. Twists have a nasty habit of not welding backup well.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
I grind the corners down before re-welding. Twists have a nasty habit of not welding backup well.
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Generally I twist, weld, and then grind until I can't see any little black lines between the twist ridges anymore. Do you mean you grind the corners off after you twist and square it up but before you weld the twist up?
 
after the forge welding is done draw it into a roundish bar with square ends, then twist all you want as it is now a solid mass.
if you want (more complicated)Cut that bar and clean and reweld, now after all forge welding is solid, round that a bit and twist again the opposite direction as the first weld..
 
Pinoy Knife said:
after the forge welding is done draw it into a roundish bar with square ends, then twist all you want as it is now a solid mass.
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Are you saying that twisting round stock as opposed to square produces minimal ridging and therefore you don't have to grind nearly as much away/the need to weld the ridges from the twist up is much less? Because that would make sense, I've just never tried it.
 
Yes, forge the square into an octagon and then the octagon into a round. This greatly eliminates the edge shearing. After the twist and forge welding it as needed, grind it clean then square it again.
 
Sounds good, I'll try that. Worst case it doesn't weld and I don't have much to grind off. Thanks, everyone.
 
If the billet is fully welded, there isn't much welding to do. The whole mass twists. The surface gets a bit distorted, but doesn't become a big screw like twisting a square bar. Cleanup is much less.

If it isn't welded solid you will find out real fast.
 
Yes exactly what Stacy said.. im only on here in the morning.......you can count the twists to get them even (looks cool when done)
 
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