Stellite Tig Welding Rods

I used to Oxy- Acetylene stellite No 6 on to my cam followers using 1/4" diameter rod.

Due to problems with insurance my Acetylene in the workshop has been got rid of.

I now use tig and would like to purchase a small quantity of Stellite No 6 Tig rod about 3/32" or 1/8" diameter.

Does anyone know where I can buy a couple of rods about a metre long? as to purchase a pack is expensive.

Windy

hi..what insurance problems...I asked about this recently and everyone said it wasnt an issue?

cant help with the rods, sorry

The the local second hand shop here has got half a box of hard facing rod for stick welding, about a kg, they are either 3 mm or 3.5 mm rods, all for $NZ6. Ian S C

Never heard of this before. Are these stellite rods you use to put a 'blob' of hard material onto something and then grind it down to shape?

Neil

Hi Neil,

Stellite has been used depending on the grade for hard facing many types of machine parts.

Valve seats and valve faces can be built up with it when they are worn.

Cutting tools with another grade.

Edges of excavating buckets.

My friend when grass track racing had a hard faced steel sole on his boot for cornering.

It can be applied with arc welding, gas welding, tig welding and other more specialised processes.

Windy

Edited By Windy on 20/11/2012 15:40:04

Another place Stelite rod can be used; horse shoes, for horses used in horse trekking, ie., touring the roads on horseback, often with a pack horse as well, if on the journy a lot of sealed roads have to be used ordenary shoes wear quickly, but if they can be hard faced, they will last many more miles, it's good to build up old shoes. Ian S C

I have seen them used to build up plough shares, layers put on in rows and they last a long time!

Clive

Yes Clive, some times it needs a layer of ordenary steel rod first. One thing I did, when Igot my stick welder, it came with a cheapo chipping hammer that each time it was used I had to grind it back into shape, so a little run along the chisel edge, and a spot on the pointed end, grind to shape, and its still ok , nearly 20 years on, and there's 3 or 4 inches of rod somewhere around the workshop if it needs renewing.

   I wounder if it would hold an edge sharp enough to work as a lathe tool, might just try it, I know there are some alloys that can make tools.   Ian S C

Edited By Ian S C on 21/11/2012 13:39:25

I came across this regarding Stellite and other similar materials for lathe tools.

**LINK**

Windy

Perhaps I'll practice first until I can build up some weld with a convetional stick

I upped the amps recently and found that improves things with my 1/16" sticks. I'm amazed at how un-simple something as simple as arc welding is!

Neil

Hi, back in the 70's and 80's and when I worked for my old company, we used Deloro Stellite with the ground finish quite regularly, but not for welding. We used to have it in abundance in 3/16" diameter in the stores and it made very good scribers. It was in about 10" or so lengths, but the downside was it was a bit brittle and if you pushed on it too hard you would break the point off and had to resharped it, but it would cut through the mill scale on blue steel a treat.

I made a couple of simple trammel points using a couple of short bits for the points back in the mid 70's and have still got them. See photo below.

I can only ever remember welding with Stellite once and that was at college as part of the course work for C&G advanced gas welding. We had an exersize of bulding up lathe tools for the college machine shop.

I think I've still got a couple of lengths in my garage somewhere. Windy's link is usefull, and if you click on the Deloro Stellite like within it and then on hard facing alloys and then welding rod, you can download a PDF with all the specs.

Regards Nick

Fascinating, thanx W

Robin

Have a search for a local toolmaking company as they use stellite to repair dies etc .

They may have a welder onsite so may be able to sell you some rods .

If not they may know of a company that does stellite welding that may be able to help you .

Ian

ring around all the local welding suppliers, as some will split packs and sell what you need

Found this while looking for stellite so be aware if you are building a nuclear reactor in the workshop.

While Stellite remains the material of choice for certain internal parts in industrial process valves (valve seat hardfacing), its use has been discouraged in nuclear power plants. In piping that can communicate with the reactor, tiny amounts of Stellite would be released into the process fluid and eventually enter the reactor. There the cobalt would be activated by the neutron flux in the reactor and become cobalt-60, a radioisotope with a five year half life that releases very energetic gamma rays. While not a hazard to the general public, about a third to a half of nuclear worker exposures could be traced to the use of Stellite and to trace amounts of cobalt in stainless steels. Replacements for Stellite have been developed by the industry, such as the Electric Power Research Institute's "NOREM", that provide acceptable performance without cobalt. Since the United States nuclear power industry has begun to replace the Stellite valve seat hardfacing in the late 1970s and to tighten specifications of cobalt in stainless steels, worker exposures due to cobalt-60 have dropped significantly.

Windy

In the early days when not so well off I made virtually all my boring tools by just getting a piece of ordinary steel, heating one end with the oxy torch to red hot and whacking it to offset it and form a bulge.

This was ground up to resemble a worn boring tool, ie. ground below centre and then a blob of stellite welded on, again with the Oxy torch.

Once cool this was then ground up to be a proper boring bar. Sounds a bit long winded but if you do a good selection all at the same time it doesn't take long. Used to do these at work at slack moments as we had a god supply of stellite in 1/4" rods for gas application.

These bars lasted me for many years and it was only the advent of cheap carbide sets and indexable tips that moved me away from the home made ones.

WOW

Scary stuff, So who is for Nuclear power?

Robin

My Weldwell "Arc Welding Electrode Guide", a book that came with my welder, has a bit describing how to make lathe tools; mild steel or low alloy steel shank with a Di Tool HS deposit for the cutting edge. They suggest making a bit of a mould around the tip area to retain the molten deposit on the tip. Puddle the weld metal into the mould untill the desired depth is reached, and allow to air cool, it's self hardening. it also tells how to make an edge fot a shear blade, building up with PH 400, and facing with PH 600. Ian S C

B***r

Does that mean I have to re-face all the valves on my home cold-fusion plant?

Neil