Posted by Dan Shockley on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at 7:38PM :
In Reply to: Re: it's cast steel, all steel is cast posted by John Foster on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at 2:34PM :
Though at some point all steel, because steel does not occur as a native metal, is cast, the material deformation that occurs during: forging, rolling, or other deformation processes fundementally changes the properties of the material. To say all steel is the same because it is all cast is very flawed thinking!
Even if all steel is at one time cast, that deffinately does not imply that all castings are Steel. John is on the right track wanting to determine what material was used in the housing.
I would agree with Paul that a spark test is a good way to check the material. Cast iron welds very different from steel. Though for some alloys, you may be able to lay down a weld on the cast iron with a mig welder and it would look okay, you would more than likely here some pinging afterwards. This is the steel weld breaking away from the cast iron base material as they cool. Most cast iron alloys will exhibit terrible puddle fluidity during welding. More than likely if you didn't notice a significant difference, you are safe, and it is a steel casting. Some Nodular irons weld okay. This is where the spark test will help you verify the material. A spark test is a very valuable tool.
As far as the engineering discussion above, I am darn glad that that isn't the way it goes down in Detroit!!!!!
Have a great day and good luck John!
Dan
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