What in the heck?

[arandall]

Spyguy:
If I understand your link correctly, you can actually get MIG wire with the Carbide embedded in it for hardfacing etc.. I had no clue about this - guess it illustrates my "hobby" status as a welder. Anyway, thanks for the info.. - you can learn something every day!

Cheers,
Art R.

[matteh99]

Art
It doesn't' look like to me that the carbide is in the MIG wire itself. It is like a carbide sand is added to the weld pool just behind the arc.
eric

[Kiwimike]

I did a lot of hard facing for a track rebuilding shop when I was younger. Eric is right the carbide sand is usually poured directly on top of the weld. You can submerge arc with out a welding helmet as the weld is just a faint glow under the sand.

[samsberr]

Rockmount use to make a hardfacing rod that you couldnt touch with a file...
Very Very Hard...
It was an AC rod you could run with a Old Red Buzz box.
If you had your heat right the slag would come off in a nice roll as it was cooling. no chipping...
Treated Scoops and log splitters with it.

[tigqk]

These things aren't cheap, they are used with larger oa torches and brazed onto washover pipe and surface mills for the drilling industry, ie A drilling rig is drilling downhole and they broke a string of drillpipe, everything downhole is bent up so you can not grab onto it with a grapple because the id is irregular, well you sent one of thse down to grind out the broken pipe till you get to a diameter that is consistent, or if it broke and their is no clearance around the hole to get around and grab onto it you would send down some washover pipe to grind out an area around the drill pipe to grapple onto, can also be used to do the id of pipe also.Some drill bits are made without the conventional design but more like a plug with rounded edges and holes for mud and made of built up tungsten carbe with this stuff. Basically any downhole grinding you can think of can be done with this material.I spent the first couple years of my working life making and machining this stuff, when we used to get it back the surface is usaully babys bum smotth and you can see the tungsten chunks as you laid them in their,they would have to be melted off by heating up the brass and brushing off and adding new or resufacing with new material, company was Homco International,Niskiu alberta, they would make a good hard surfacing rod for backholes and such but much to expensive to use.