Weld backing

[camdigger]

Can someone point me toward a non fusible backing for building up hard surfacing on a mild steel edge? I'm looking at laying a bead of hard surfacing along the leading edge of a log splitter wedge with my AC DC stick unit. The wedge is 1" MS.

I've heard of copper based backing plate, but can't find them. I've also heard of carbon rods/bars, but can't find them either...

[Dawai]

Copper bus bar.. a flat copper bar, it will not stick to the weld and allows a puddle to be built up.

I had a hundred or so feet of copper ground bus to run in a power plant.. they were fill-welding up the blades down in the pit..

I looked, all my copper bus was gone.. they had it cut up into bits and clamped to the blades welding holes up.

A copper sheet allows you to mig up tiny rust holes..

where to get it? well.. enco.. or a electrical supplier. (ohh yeah) breathing copper fumes will make you sick.. I learned that the hard way in a air housing while some copper bus was being welded into place.

Where to get it cheap?? I left that part out... look to a junk dealer, if he has old MCC (boxes with motor controls in them) units from a industrial complex, they have a copper bus bar going through them. I am talking about large ones with plug in buckets.. look like a locker room, except have starters that plug into square holes. Other than that? look to a metal recycler who buys it.. and buy it from them..

[dave5605]

Take a piece of copper water pipe and smash it flat.

You can also find small pieces of copper bar on EBAY. Just do a search for copper bar in the business & industrial section. Lots of it there.

[camdigger]

Take a piece of copper water pipe and smash it flat.

That would be thick enough?? Perfect, there's a major plumbing refit going on in my apartment building. Noone will miss a scrap or two of pipe.

[Willy]

I bought several pieces of copper flat bar 1"x6"x1/4" at an industrial electricians supply store a number of years ago.
Not sure what they were used for but you may want to give that route a try.

Not sure why you need to hard face the wedge though.
I built up a splitter edge on my splitter in 1981 with 7018 and have used it ever since and it only gets shiny, wood's not too abrasive.

[camdigger]

Building the splitter wedge up is a recommendation from an aquaintance of mine who recommends it. I'm not convinced it's necessary either. The wedge is a piece of 1" plate sharpened with a torch. The back of the wedge will be fixed to the cylinder so will have to have wings further back to lead into the cylinder bracket. I used a pin end cylinder because that's what was laying around the shop.

The backing issue arose during the discussion because the hardsurfacing is ...hard and difficult to reshape by grinding. It was something he'd never heard of. Course he welded on oilfield pipe, mostly relatively small oilfield stuff at that.

[Timewarp]

Do you need any hard surfacing rod??

[Carm]

Can't help you with a source of supply for carbon or copper, but some things to consider: copper will need cooling once in awhile or your beads will start to adhere. No worry with short single passes.
Welding with carbon can pickup in the weld metal, not a problem with a splitter wedge.
On that note, if you got a length of 1045 or O-1, either tack on and weld beads on either side with low-hy, or use two hand technique with TIG or 6010. Deposit will be in the high Rc50's depending on admixture, not too hard to grind, if need be.

I've got a mild steel splitter wedge, over 50 cord passed it. I wouldn't bother tipping it.

[camdigger]

Do you need any hard surfacing rod??

No, I have some left over from a long forgotten project. I'd as soon be rid of it, it's bordering on what I'm comfortable with burning on my welder, it's 5/32"

[Errol]

I built up my cutting edge with hard surfacing like you want to do.

It was too tricky for me to weld it up "out of position", so I took the wedge over to the welding bench.

Just run half a dozen passes across, keep the heat down as low as you can to keep the edge as skinny as possible.

When you think you have enough built up, just grab your grinder and sharpen it up as you like it.

When you split through some barbed wire or nails, you will really like that new hard cutting edge.