I found a hard facing wire made just for the 115 volt MIG welders. It
is a flux core wire so no shielding gas is used. So I hard faced the
tiller tines and then did a shovel. My ground here is so full of rocks
that even my expensive tempered shovels wear very fast on the tips.
Tired of this so I tried hard facing one. I did have some trouble
with burn through at first because the hard facing wire needs a
minimum amperage which was really a little too high for the thin
shovel blade. So after welding as if I was using a stitch timer I got
the hang of it and filled in the holes where I burned through. Then I
ground the welds flat and sharpened the shovel. The difference in wear
is huge! Not only is the tip not wearing concave it is staying sharp.
Very handy for cutting through black and salmon berry roots and canes.
Now I am going to do my other shovels. The wire is spendy, 17 bucks a
pound, but is worth every penny. And I got it on sale for 11 bucks a
pound so even better.
Eric

wrote in message
...
I found a hard facing wire made just for the 115 volt MIG welders. It
is a flux core wire so no shielding gas is used. So I hard faced the
tiller tines and then did a shovel. My ground here is so full of
rocks
that even my expensive tempered shovels wear very fast on the tips.
Tired of this so I tried hard facing one. I did have some trouble
with burn through at first because the hard facing wire needs a
minimum amperage which was really a little too high for the thin
shovel blade. So after welding as if I was using a stitch timer I
got
the hang of it and filled in the holes where I burned through. Then
I
ground the welds flat and sharpened the shovel. The difference in
wear
is huge! Not only is the tip not wearing concave it is staying
sharp.
Very handy for cutting through black and salmon berry roots and
canes.
Now I am going to do my other shovels. The wire is spendy, 17 bucks
a
pound, but is worth every penny. And I got it on sale for 11 bucks a
pound so even better.
Eric

That might be a good job for a copper backing plate. I got good
results from it when practicing but couldn't fit it into the tight
curved space I was welding on the car fender.

"Jim Wilkins" wrote in message
...
wrote in message
...
I found a hard facing wire made just for the 115 volt MIG welders.
It
is a flux core wire so no shielding gas is used. So I hard faced
the
tiller tines and then did a shovel. My ground here is so full of
rocks
that even my expensive tempered shovels wear very fast on the tips.
Tired of this so I tried hard facing one. I did have some trouble
with burn through at first because the hard facing wire needs a
minimum amperage which was really a little too high for the thin
shovel blade. So after welding as if I was using a stitch timer I
got
the hang of it and filled in the holes where I burned through. Then
I
ground the welds flat and sharpened the shovel. The difference in
wear
is huge! Not only is the tip not wearing concave it is staying
sharp.
Very handy for cutting through black and salmon berry roots and
canes.
Now I am going to do my other shovels. The wire is spendy, 17 bucks
a
pound, but is worth every penny. And I got it on sale for 11 bucks
a
pound so even better.
Eric

That might be a good job for a copper backing plate. I got good
results from it when practicing but couldn't fit it into the tight
curved space I was welding on the car fender.

http://www.harborfreight.com/welding-spoon-66785.html

-jsw

In article ,
wrote:

My ground here is so full of rocks
that even my expensive tempered shovels wear very fast on the tips.
Tired of this so I tried hard facing one. I did have some trouble
with burn through at first because the hard facing wire needs a
minimum amperage which was really a little too high for the thin
shovel blade.

If you can find one, this is what a powder torch excels at doing.
Remember to only do one side so it wears sharp.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.

On Sat, 18 Apr 2015 22:33:36 -0400, Ecnerwal
wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

My ground here is so full of rocks
that even my expensive tempered shovels wear very fast on the tips.
Tired of this so I tried hard facing one. I did have some trouble
with burn through at first because the hard facing wire needs a
minimum amperage which was really a little too high for the thin
shovel blade.

If you can find one, this is what a powder torch excels at doing.
Remember to only do one side so it wears sharp.
Which Side? On the tiller tines especially. As the tines spin they
describe a cylinder. Should the hard facing be applied to the outside
or inside of this imaginary cylinder?

In article ,
wrote:

Which Side? On the tiller tines especially. As the tines spin they
describe a cylinder. Should the hard facing be applied to the outside
or inside of this imaginary cylinder?

Per the ag engineering department which taught me to weld, you should
apply the hardface to the side (of the edge) which wears more/faster
(when unfaced.) They suggested using it just enough to wear the paint
off the working edges to be sure you were guessing right about that (and
where it was really needed), and to hardface from new rather than
starting with old and dull if at all possible, prevention being easier
than a whole lot of build-up to get the shape corrected, or hardfacing
when it was already dulled to the point of being misshapen (and then
preserving that poor shape with a layer of hardface.

On shovels, I tend to do the back or outside. I _think_ that would also
be true of the "L" shaped tiller tines, but you could do worse than to
reshape them to "sharp", put some paint on, and run them for a minute or
three to verify.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by
Please don't feed the trolls. Killfile and ignore them so they will go away.