There are few things in life as satisfying as melting steel, I recently broke my favorite shovel that has been used and abused the last 20 plus years. I could of course just go down to the hardware store and pick up another but where's the fun in that? I dug out my oxy/acetylene for the dusty corner of my garage and a few minutes of molten steel with half a fill rod later here's the result.
I'll be the first to say this is not my prettiest weld, but it sure as hell is solid.
I know that the heat from welding annealed the steel, so I heated the shovel one last time to red hot and quenched it to re harden the steel. This shovel may not be worth the time and effort but for the few cents in materials and the fun of an oxy/acetylene torch it was easy to justify doing.
Thanks, I hope you enjoyed this article
P.S. I wasn't sure if I would damage my dslr by filming the welding process if anyone has a suggestion of an appropriate way to film intense light such as this please let me know in the comments. Thanks!
Welding is not a skill I have learned yet, need to though! Gopd thought on hardening when you are done.. hope you were able to save that old shovel.
That's a better weld than I can do with an oxy/acetylene torch! I usually use braising rod when I use the torch, for me it's easier to work with. I'm using propane instead of acetylene, so braising is easier. I can't really get the heat that you need for welding rods.
Thanks, if all I had was propane i'd be stuck using my arc welder and that weld would look like a giant gob of shit. Propane is great for many things but welding steel is not one of them.
I dig the blue color of the weld, very neon-ish. And if it's solid and can function again properly, why not?
Yeah the blue is kind of an illusion, it's significantly less bright seeing it in person. Did you find a guitar pedal to try building?
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