Welding questions

jdm61

jdm61

itinerant metal pounder
Joined
Aug 12, 2005
Messages
47,357
I want to try damascus, but i don't have a welding rig. That is easily fixable with a reasonably priced buzz box, but my question is how do you weld handles onto billets and tack billets together if you don't have a metal welding table? I have a couple of drill press vices. Can you just put the stack in one, the rebar in the other, mate them up and go at it on the concret shop floor or maybe up on some cinder blocks?
 
yes, as long as the ground cable is attached to the work as well.,

the obviousness of your post tells me you've never actually welded before. nothing to be ashamed of and I certainly am not making fun of you. but before spending any hard earned money, find a family member or friend that knows how to weld and have them show you the ropes. for hobby use I recommend a 150 amp Miller or Hobart stick welder and some 3/32" or 1/8" 6011 rod. m.i.g. is cool to but a little finicky sometimes due to feeding problems. a proper weld will look like a whole bunch of "C's" on top of each other. and look similar to this (((((((((((((((((((( and thats also how you do it you gotta hold the electrode about 1/32" away from the work and make little C's with it. your speed will depend on the thickness of the steel (lets say 3/16 in O1 and L6 stacked 7 deep) I'd run about about 1 - 1.5 "C's" per second. Hope this Helps
 
one method i saw in a knife making book was

drilling a hole though all the plates and using a bolt or threaded rod on each end to hold it all together

if you get a welder your going to delay the damascus making process
because you will have a electric crayon to play with

rember welding is almost exactly the same to grinding stock removal, your going to try and then you will screw up and try to fix it and only make it worse

you wont be good at it right away it just doesnt happen after a certain amount of hours you will begin to catch on quite well
 
As i will be using leftover Admiral 1070/1080 initially, I thought about trying it by leaving the center bar long as a handle and wiring the billet togehter, but that just strrikes me as a way to introduce an extra chance to mess up. Plus I would worry that a 1/4 inch flat handle would be more likely to get a bad case of the droopies than a piece of rebar. And yes, I have never welded before.
 
Though most makers I hang with (myself included) will weld the billet together with a handle also welded, it's not necessary.

You can always wire the billet together and use tongs. I've done that a couple of times.
This suggestion I got from the "Complete Bladesmith" ala Jim Hrisoulas. In this book he presents the down side of welding the billet, one of the downsides is putting slag into the billet before you even get your first forge weld started. Also, the weld wire is always low carbon, but that's no big deal due to carbon migration and the fact that you'll probably grind it away anyhow. Another would be thermal expansion of the steel, being different alloys they have different expansion rates.
 
Though most makers I hang with (myself included) will weld the billet together with a handle also welded, it's not necessary.

You can always wire the billet together and use tongs. I've done that a couple of times.

This suggestion I got from the "Complete Bladesmith" ala Jim Hrisoulas. In this book he presents the down side of welding the billet, one of the downsides is putting slag into the billet before you even get your first forge weld started. Also, the weld wire is always low carbon, but that's no big deal due to carbon migration and the fact that you'll probably grind it away anyhow. Another would be thermal expansion of the steel, being different alloys they have different expansion rates.

All in all, you don't need to arc weld the stack before pattern welding.
 
T Blade, jim is amazing and knows his shizzle. i have his damascus video and watch it all the time. i got it when vcrs where the norm and dvd was unheard of ;). i onley wire my billets and to me it makes sence and is very easy to do. i have his video now on my ipod :D. you forge weld the end and cut off the wire and weld your way to the other end and then cut off that wire and finish the weld.
 
stack your billet leaving the center long enough to hold with tongs when you do your first fold have a long bar of good steel prepared with the end hammered in a flat taper, and capture it inthe fold for a handle. I forgeweld in a new handle every other fold now. in between I overlap the billet half an inch on the handle. the ends get a little messy but the handle holds much better than the mig welded ones I was doing

-Page
 
just what ive found to be true, sometimes i'll leave just tie wire together and leave one piece a little long and grab with tongs all ya gotta do is get it tacked then your ok. seems like a real pain to always be cutting and rewelding specially sucks when the billet falls off the rebar and is stuck in the forge. but maybe that only happens cause my welding skills leave little to be desired. i wan hammer weld far better than i can arc weld.

www.takachforge.com
 
learning to arc weld is kind of a neccessary evil imo. although as has been pointed out not neccessary while doing folded patterns. but it would be very, very hard to do a complex mosaic without first tack welding the billet together.

a small mig welder is alot easier to learn to run than a stick welder and dosen't cost alot more.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top