materials...........

[scotb]

so im building a moggy hotrod,the nearest and most reliable machine shop is fabricating some items for me to weld into a pair of front wishbones,however they only have chrome steel and some of my other items are plain mild. will they be ok to weld with standard mild steel mig wire or am i gonna have to get someone to weld them up with special rods?

 

[BrokenBiker]

i would think they would stick together with mild wire, but i don't know how it will affect the chrome, whether it will dilute over or not. I would use 309L for something like that, but in not a welder or mettalurgist so don't quote me on it

 

[scotb]

im quite a competent welder,but really need to make sure its gonna work as its for a car with around 200bhp and its heavier than a standard moggy,dont fancy it breaking at 70mph!!

 

[BrokenBiker]

hhmmm in that case i would pm someone like @hotrodder or @langy, they are into this sort of thin and know a lot more about it than me

 

[hotrodder]

Thought my ears were burning Man, it's tooooo hot to be a welder today and why does everyone wait until there's a heatwave to bring me a load of ally castings to repair

What do they mean by 'chrome steel'? chromoly? it's shiney? some flavour of stainless? chrome plated? something else? Machine shops love a bit of 'free machining' whatever too which is something to watch out for as adding sulphur or lead to improve machinability screws up weldability and alters mechanical properties too. What are they proposing to fabricate out of it, threaded bungs, sleeves for the wishbone bushes?

If stainless is welded to carbon steel using mild steel filler the result can brittle! The 309L mentioned is overalloyed to 'fix the metallurgy'. TechnicAl explained in a bit more detail in the welding different steels section of the forums tutorials. Chromoly and other flavours are also covered but unless they can expand on 'chrome steel' it's all guesswork

 

[BrokenBiker]

Thought my ears were burning Man, it's tooooo hot to be a welder today and why does everyone wait until there's a heatwave to bring me a load of ally castings to repair

What do they mean by 'chrome steel'? chromoly? it's shiney? some flavour of stainless? chrome plated? something else? Machine shops love a bit of 'free machining' whatever too which is something to watch out for as adding sulphur or lead to improve machinability screws up weldability and alters mechanical properties too. What are they proposing to fabricate out of it, threaded bungs, sleeves for the wishbone bushes?

If stainless is welded to carbon steel using mild steel filler the result can brittle! The 309L mentioned is overalloyed to 'fix the metallurgy'. TechnicAl explained in a bit more detail in the welding different steels section of the forums tutorials. Chromoly and other flavours are also covered but unless they can expand on 'chrome steel' it's all guesswork

always like reading your replies to things like this.

 

[scotb]

the machine shop specialises in hydraulic ram repairs,so assume its some kind of associated steel,i did mention i would be welding it together with other mild steel bits.

 

[langy]

Thought my ears were burning Man, it's tooooo hot to be a welder today and why does everyone wait until there's a heatwave to bring me a load of ally castings to repair

What do they mean by 'chrome steel'? chromoly? it's shiney? some flavour of stainless? chrome plated? something else? Machine shops love a bit of 'free machining' whatever too which is something to watch out for as adding sulphur or lead to improve machinability screws up weldability and alters mechanical properties too. What are they proposing to fabricate out of it, threaded bungs, sleeves for the wishbone bushes?

If stainless is welded to carbon steel using mild steel filler the result can brittle! The 309L mentioned is overalloyed to 'fix the metallurgy'. TechnicAl explained in a bit more detail in the welding different steels section of the forums tutorials. Chromoly and other flavours are also covered but unless they can expand on 'chrome steel' it's all guesswork

Pete you can keep this job, after reading the first post I'm out already

 

[MrFluffy]

the machine shop specialises in hydraulic ram repairs,so assume its some kind of associated steel,i did mention i would be welding it together with other mild steel bits.

Not to be too nanny state, but if your having to research this yourself and they're not telling you the exact spec of the materials (it matters a lot), then thats not good. They should be swamping you with the level of detail that shows you that they know what theyre doing if you are asking pertinent questions, so you walk away glad you took it to someone who knows their onions.

I have lost confidence in getting people to make things when I've quizzed them about grades and processes and theyve fobbed me off without answering, if they can't answer them completely I walk away, and later on I've heard horror stories about others experiences.

Wishbones as you say, one of the critical areas. I like others would be tempted to recommend you get one of the competent rod shops to knock them up in a jig from a drawing if your budget runs to it. If you are clipping it to get rid of the torsion bar and weird ally nut kingpin setup, then quite often you find the more popular choices of front clip (viva & ford spring to mind) already have someone making tubular wishbones for that setup. Maybe even a laser cut crossmember kit which is brand new and ready to assemble in place (wheng parts does one for the fords, but I've never found a HA viva one yet, I'm going to have to measure mine off my Pop and send him dimesions one day) and will make the front end even more professional.

 

[scotb]

think i`ll get someone else to do it,its not a standard mog as its got a custom chassis,so no easy fixes

 

[hotrodder]

Impossible to know but if they do a lot of hydraulic rams it's probably something at least as tough/hard as en19 or en24 they're talking about Still don't know what components we're talking about but i'd have thought you want some EN8 or maybe EN14 which is more associated with 'bones fabricated from a stronger flavour of steel for lightness, like T45 etc. http://www.mig-welding.co.uk/engineering-steels.htm

Pete you can keep this job, after reading the first post I'm out already

Cheers Steve