Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hardfacing welding rods

Anyone use hardfacing rods on their equipment?

I used them for years on backhoe teeth. They never wear out if applied regularly.

I put some on my bush hog 4 years ago. I’ve used it a lot on brush, saplings to an inch and a half in diameter. I had to take stump jumper off to tighten bolts on gear box. The blades were scarcely worn at all. You can see the different metal on cutting edge.

It's been a long time, I've been told a non-machinable cast rod works well.

Sometimes, just building up the surface with steel works well.

I would have been worried about using it on a high speed cutting edge like that.

We have used it in an emergency to reface hammermill hammers when something went through them at plant. The stuff is like woodpecker lips if ya get somebody that knows how to stick weld

Great idea.

How difficult is Stainless to weld?
I have a small crack in the forward face under the in-flange of a magnaflo. And was thinking about picking up a small stainless rod to try and close it up..

This. I would build up the teeth and edges of drill cylinders for an elevator company. Rarely ever did the same one twice.
BP...

I learned to weld at Wiggins pump working after school, they built concrete pumps and the inside of every 90 had to be hard surfaced. I hard surface the points and shanks on my pasture renovator, it's the only time I stick weld anymore.

I used some one time to weld up the drops on a grain drill.

The ones i used has a steel tube with powder inside.

That drill planted 400 acres and is still going.

If put on right it tends to last a long time.

We also used it to keep the edge of the colters on plows from wearing away.

I used Weld-all rods on my stainless roo tray, and on just about anything else I got my hands on.

Stelite

no experience with that,

oilfield cement is almost like flour. blown to transfer.

mix with water its hell under pressure.

90's are blocks to keep from washing out.

Cracks are hard to stop. You have to grind past the crack. Then weld. A stainless rod isn’t hard to use.

What about drilling a hole at the end of the crack before welding?

Good for snow cleats on horseshoes.

cast?

old timers trick of welding cast (i learned) is use stainless rod ( high nickel) and weld. Then peen till cool.

done a few washed out housing (veloute ?) on centrifugal pump housings .

Don't think so it looks pretty thin. May be a skin over a cheaper metal.
Bout a catback off of craigslist and had a "less than impressive" mechanic put it on.
He should have used a hanger, but relied on a base metal clamp, which corroded and the whole thing twisted and melted some body work. Think the crack came from that stress.
It sat for a while and I went for a long drive before noticing the twist.
Figure it is a good idea to strengthen it before it gets worse. It's less than a half inch now.

A friend takes his mower blades to a welder for hardfacing. He has about an acre of grass. They're pretty brittle but he's very careful about keeping rocks, etc off of his grass. He only has to sharpen them once a year.

Yes, always do this.

Even a superficial discussion here will be inadequate. There is a wealth of information on the web for free. Stainless welding alloys are for stainless fabrication and repair, and cast iron,that is a species unto itself. Any of the 316 series are considered to be good general repair for cast iron and unknown stainless parent metal, AC or straight polarity, very short beads peened to relieve stress. Hardfacing alloys and their application are another different species. Primarily they fall into 2 general characteristics. One will be impact resistance, and on the other end of the scale with totally different properties is abrasion resistance. There are some wonderful alloys that balance between the two extremes, the most famous is Stoody 35 and it's imitators. When possible hard facing patterns should be arranged to trap dirt, clay, and rock, then the trapped dried material acts as the wear surface, the hardfacing merely acting to hold the dirt. In the mining world it IS rocket science.
The point of this long winded blurb....be cautious applying brittle long wearing alloys to high speed rotating parts such as mowers, flails, hogs, etc. where body parts could be exposed to shrapnel.

You are correct, hard facing is brittle. I welded lots of hard facing rod, the secret to good hard facing is the base, special rod for underweld also! Helps stops cracking in the surface weld. The welding alloy guru's make some outstanding products!