Forgot to flux the weld on a gate hinge and the spatter looked like a spiderweb

I was rushing to finish a set of hinges for a garden gate yesterday and skipped the flux on the final forge weld. The spatter shot out in these wild, thin strands that cooled into a weird web shape stuck to the anvil horn. Took me twenty minutes with a chisel to clean it off. Anyone else have a simple skip turn into a weird mess?

3 comments

3 Comments

victor_jones9912d ago

Sounds like your forge was trying to do some Halloween decorating a few months early. I've seen some ugly spatter, but a spiderweb is a new one (honestly, kind of a cool effect, just not where you want it). That's the universe's way of charging a stupid tax for rushing, I guess. Bet you won't skip the flux again anytime soon.

dakota_burns8312d ago

Read an article last week about how spatter patterns can actually tell you a lot about your gas mix. That spiderweb thing sounds like it could be from moisture in the metal or maybe the tank line cooling down too fast. Makes a mess but it's a pretty good lesson learned the hard way. Flux is definitely cheaper than a ruined piece of work.

bennett.mason6d ago

Yeah, moisture was my first guess too. Dakota_burns83 is right about the gas mix thing, but I've had that exact spiderweb pattern happen from a tiny bit of condensation in the line. It looks wild but it means you're basically boiling the metal. Flux would've soaked it up before it could pop like that.