Welding Tips and Tricks

I'm working on a piece right now where a hardened component will be welded to a carrier. The cutting edge of the hardened component will be about 1-2 inches away from the weld. Heat treating the assembly after welding is out of the question.

As a hobbyist I currently have access to a MIG welder that I use on most projects.

Is this a good time for me to venture into TIG welding? Does it produce more localized heating compared to MIG?

Any tips will be greatly appreciated.... Only thing I can think of other than TIG is going very slow and potentially cooling frequently with wet rags in order to keep temps below the parts tempering heats.

Thanks!

clamp a heatsink to it. eg big chunk of aluminum.

I can’t envision any welding process that wouldn’t generate significant heat from 1-2” away. The mass of the hardened part will greatly influence its susceptibility to heat as will the assembly. Heat sinks are a good idea to help minimize heat absorption, but their use also requires more heat input.

As a “hobbyist” welder, experimenting with new/different processes is not encouraged with these types of parts. If you could provide more details, perhaps beyond a “heat sink” other ideas could be offered?

Sorry for the lack of information... I was thinking that TIG could give me some more control, and if I intermittently laid down weld maybe would be able to keep the part cool.

I'll see if there is the potential of localized heat treatment on the cutting edges post welding... this may be the way.

TIG or MIG both generate heat locally. The mount of heat depends upon the duration of the weld bead, the size/dimensions of the bead, and of course the amperage used to weld.

Using wet rags to rapidly cool parts is not advisable. This is more akin to “quenching” which increases the brittle nature of steel and can impact its temper. That method is suitable for thin sheet like body panels, but it can induce distortion.

Clamping chill blocks as Tweake mentioned is probably best if you can do so on both sides of the weld bead to help reduce the heat expansion. Be mindful of distortion though.

TIG can control heat better than MIG, but it takes a lot of practice to get that kind of control.