Welding rims

["John Hofstetter" <hofs@domain.elided>]

Devin, 
The lack of heat was the reason I suggested a TIG, with maybe a MIG
possibility. A friend of mine repaired the fastening point for the steps of
my trailer with his TIG, and where he was welding was less than 2 inches
from a visqueen (boy, I don't know how to spell that word) vapor barrier
that covered that bottom of the trailer and he didn't melt the plastic. 
The cracks that you need to repair are from the holes out to the center
cutout if I understood you correctly. In my opinion, you will be able to
fuse those cracks and get a minimum of heat up in the main wheel area where
warpage would occur. Down where we're talking about you should have no
problem and if you get a little warpage, set that part of the wheel on a
mandrel and straighten it back out. 

In gunsmithing, we often weld new bolt handles on rifle bolts. We do this
with an arc welder (sometimes) and we wrap the bolt in wet asbestos and put
wet asbestos inside the bolt and go to it. Lots of heat because there is
quite a bit of metal where the bolt and the handle are joined. No problem!
Protect the rest of your wheel with wet something or others if you are
concerned. I honestly believe that if you work carefully, you have nothing
to worry about.  Localize your heating, meaning keep it in one small place
at any given time. Another approach that I wouldn't use would to use the
welding cast iron approach where you heat the whole area red hot  and then
weld what you want to weld. 
John Hofstetter
----------
From: owner-ihc-digest@domain.elided (ihc-digest)
To: ihc-digest@domain.elided
Subject: ihc-digest V6 #473
Date: Thu, Jan 14, 1999, 6:16 AM


John,
This was my original plan, but I was told by several people that the wheels
would warp, rendering them completely out of balance. I have a mig in the
garage. Simple enough job, about 2 seconds really, but will they warp?
Devin Smith
'65 Scout 80 turbo