weld cast steel

by kerry mcginnis
(vancouver wa.)

will er70s-6 mig wire work to weld axle tubes to cast steel housing?

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er70s-6 should work just fine.

I get questions pretty regularly about welding axles to cast housings....and a lot of people assume the housing is cast iron and go to great lengths using nickel electrodes, high preheat, post heat, etc.

if it is indeed cast steel, then any plain old er70 type mig wire will work.

one way to check to make sure it is not cast iron is to make a quick arc on an area that can be accessed easily on an outside corner of the housing. IF a file wont cut the arc, it might be cast iron...or at least has carbon to harden severely where preheat and other precautions need to be well thought out.

if the arc spot files pretty easily , no worries.