Anyone built front blade from scratch? + welding ?

[Mith]

I stuck and old speaker to it and it is magnetic, well the bits (legs) I have left are.
Is it supposed to be magnetic or not?

 

[Deerlope]

If it is pure stainless a magnet will not stick to it. I suspect what you have is a piece of mild steel plate with a stainless coating this is why you could weld it with 6013 mild steel rod.

 

[Mith]

Yea that makes sense, Im thinking its just impure stainless because when you cut it the edges dont rust and they would if it was stainless coated steel with steel in the middle. That would expalin how it welds (but reasonably badly) yet doesnt rust.
Either way, it was free and it dont rust so who cares!
Thanks /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Deerlope]

No matter you have a nice looking plow. Nice job.

 

[johnday]

Mith; Most good!! You sound like me when I'm dealing with metal. Good job. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Highbeam]

Ack, I apologize profusely. My post indicating I welded mild steel to stainless should have read that the mild steel was welded to cast without preheating. I made a blunder.

It was the cast iron support leg for the top middle roller of the bulldozer track. A log speared it and broke the leg. I grafted on a chunk of 1/4" thick mild steel in place of the mounting tab.

I still believe that strange things can happen when someone thinks outside of the box. In the poster's situation, I would have tried the weld the stainless to steel and when/if it didn't work I would have looked for fancy rod or tried to figure out a bolting method.

 

[Mith]

John, is that a good thing or a bad thing? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Highbeam, ive welded cast to steel before on my plough but when I plunded it in for its first try it just ripped a huge chunk out of the cast /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif Welded it to some proper steel after that and its still there /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

Bolting would have worked but it doesnt look nearly as neat as welding.

 

[SkyPup]

Mith, usually stainless steel is not magnetic and if you grind it with a high speed grinder it does not throw sparks and the metal turns black, have you tried that to see if it really is stainless or not?

 

[Mith]

Well it is magnetic but there are few sparks when grinding it, just a load of black dust.

 

[MSU_Keith]

Actually there are many different grades and associated properties of 'stainless' steel. All 400 series stainless steels are magnetic and can be easily welded to plain carbon steels using normal practice. The 300 series stainless grades are not magnetic and require special welding practices but still can be welded to plain carbon grades with the proper consumables and process.

I would recommend painting the welds to prevent corrosion at the critical joints. The stainless face does look cool.