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- Feb 2, 2013
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- 3,538
in high school, i learned oxy/acetylene welding and brazing operations.
when i went to community college in the late 80's, i spent 2 years and a semester learning welding processes.
gtaw and smaw. i learned a ton of stuff from a master welder who ran the program.
i would use a mig welder at work, get off work drive to school,show up early to class, and learned smaw on monday,wed
learned gtaw tuesday,thursdays. i couldn't get enough :welding:.
needless to say i got a lot of welding in and became addicted to joining metal together.
i came across a process that's very old- carbon arc welding...
i have been intimate with a gouging torch may times, but never even considered carbon arc as a welding process.
come to find out that it was first discovered and used in 1800 and is effective on ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
DCEN (straight polarity) is used.
i then remember my welding teacher talking about brazing and welding with twin carbon arc on AC.
there was 1 half page explanation of the process in our textbook and i had forgotten all about it entirely.
i recently reread some of the textbooks and ran across some notes that i had taken on the subject.
the first thing that jumped out at me was the process was extremely effective for repairing cast iron, both as a welding process and a brazing process.:thinking:
i came to the sudden realization...
i never had the pleasure to twin carbon arc braze or weld anything:angry: this was a hurdle i had to jump,
here's why...
i recently found a deal on a complete vintage 1972 wards(century) 230 ac welder w/ a twin carbon arc torch set up complete with some electrodes .
i have an old school JET 370 power hacksaw that has some cast iron in need of repairing...:biggrin:
the miter clamping bolt goes into a cast iron clamping plate with poor threading...
i got lucky on one side i was able to put a stud into the clamp on one of the clamps, an easy fix.
as for the other clamp, i wasn't so lucky.
it was poorly drilled from the factory and not much of the thread profile remained.
a stud was out of the question for now...
i thought to myself, what an excellent opportunity.... to try a new old thing
i fired up my recently acquired shop oven(on casters) and preheated my damaged clamp to 300*F
i took out the Twin Carbon Arc Rig, slapped a couple 3/8" carbon rods cranked er' up to 90 amps and went to town on a brazing operation to fill up the hole in the cast iron. the process is slow , but, i was amazed that i didn't need flux on the brazing rod to get the puddle to stick. after a few minutes of brazing, BaddaBing ...
i put the casting on firebricks inside the oven to cool overnight.
i'll post more as i finish the repairs!
stay tuned for part 2
thanks for reading!
when i went to community college in the late 80's, i spent 2 years and a semester learning welding processes.
gtaw and smaw. i learned a ton of stuff from a master welder who ran the program.
i would use a mig welder at work, get off work drive to school,show up early to class, and learned smaw on monday,wed
learned gtaw tuesday,thursdays. i couldn't get enough :welding:.
needless to say i got a lot of welding in and became addicted to joining metal together.
i came across a process that's very old- carbon arc welding...
i have been intimate with a gouging torch may times, but never even considered carbon arc as a welding process.
come to find out that it was first discovered and used in 1800 and is effective on ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
DCEN (straight polarity) is used.
i then remember my welding teacher talking about brazing and welding with twin carbon arc on AC.
there was 1 half page explanation of the process in our textbook and i had forgotten all about it entirely.
i recently reread some of the textbooks and ran across some notes that i had taken on the subject.
the first thing that jumped out at me was the process was extremely effective for repairing cast iron, both as a welding process and a brazing process.:thinking:
i came to the sudden realization...
i never had the pleasure to twin carbon arc braze or weld anything:angry: this was a hurdle i had to jump,
here's why...
i recently found a deal on a complete vintage 1972 wards(century) 230 ac welder w/ a twin carbon arc torch set up complete with some electrodes .
i have an old school JET 370 power hacksaw that has some cast iron in need of repairing...:biggrin:
the miter clamping bolt goes into a cast iron clamping plate with poor threading...
i got lucky on one side i was able to put a stud into the clamp on one of the clamps, an easy fix.
as for the other clamp, i wasn't so lucky.
it was poorly drilled from the factory and not much of the thread profile remained.
a stud was out of the question for now...
i thought to myself, what an excellent opportunity.... to try a new old thing
i fired up my recently acquired shop oven(on casters) and preheated my damaged clamp to 300*F
i took out the Twin Carbon Arc Rig, slapped a couple 3/8" carbon rods cranked er' up to 90 amps and went to town on a brazing operation to fill up the hole in the cast iron. the process is slow , but, i was amazed that i didn't need flux on the brazing rod to get the puddle to stick. after a few minutes of brazing, BaddaBing ...
i put the casting on firebricks inside the oven to cool overnight.
i'll post more as i finish the repairs!
stay tuned for part 2
thanks for reading!
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