That moment my forge weld failed on a 6-foot railing section

I was in my shop two months ago, working on a custom railing for a customer's front porch in Mason. About three hours into the forge welding, I had a big section of scrollwork just pop apart at the joint. Turned out my flux was a little old and I didn't get the billet hot enough in the center. I spent the whole next day redoing that piece, and now I always check my flux supply before starting a big job. Has anyone else had a forge weld fail on a big project like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

nancys9015d ago

You ever have one of those failures that sticks with you forever? I had a similar deal with a gate for a client in Hamilton, about five years ago. My forge weld on a scroll bracket just gave out when I was leaning on it to test the swing. Turns out I used flux that was sitting in a damp drawer for too long and it was all clumpy. Now I store my flux in a sealed bucket with silica gel packs, and I always do a test weld on a small piece of scrap before I start the real work. That saved me from redoing a whole railing since then.

claire_ramirez2214d ago

Does anyone check their flux by smell before using it? That clumpy damp flux story from @nancys90 is exactly why I switched to borax years ago. Had a scrollwork joint fail on a gate in Liberty Township, flux was old and crusty. Now I just refuse to use anything that's been sitting more than three months.