How to ensure cable is fully welded?

L

Leon Husock

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Jul 17, 2019
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I have a whole bunch of 1 3/16" cable (seems to weld down to about an inch thick), and I've just gotten the hang of welding it, or so I thought. It sounds like solid metal when struck, it moves like it's solid, but I just ground into a knife I made with it and found it full of tiny delams. By and large the piece seems solid, but I can't seem to get it 100% welded. My only idea is maybe I didn't twist it tight enough at the start, or I just need to flux/heat/tap a whole bunch more cycles.

Edit: would cutting/stacking/re-welding help, and if it did help would it also ruin the cable pattern?
 
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I like to use anhydrous borax with cable. The anhydrous borax soaks in and covers all the wires. It makes the wire easier to weld.
 
It might require a power hammer or a press to get complete welds. Higher temperatures might help but I don’t recommend it.

Hoss
 
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Hmm yeah. It hadn't occurred to me really that the cable might just be too thick to do by hand. Maybe I'll try getting it as welded as I can and then fluxing and taking.a sledgehammer to it or something.
 
Another thing to try (if you haven't already) is getting some squaring dies (or making a spring fuller) so that when you strike the billet with the hammer, it's compressing the cable from all 4 sides at once.
But if you can twist tighter, I'd try that first.
 
I was using the rounded edge of a swage block, so it wasn't compressing from all sides, but it was holding it together so it didn't just spread out like it would on a flat surface. I have a guillotine, so maybe I'll make some round dies for it and see if that works.
 
You probably already do this, but cleaning the cable is important.
Weld the ends up with mig/tig/stick.
Sok in gasoline or brake cleaner and wre brush well to remove any crud or surface grease.
Heat to cherry red and clamp one end in the visde and untwist. Wire brush well. Re-heat and re-twist.
Add flux and start the welding heats and tighten the twists. Make sure the cable is fullly soaked before setting each weld.
Keep tightening the twist as you start to set the welds.
Weld and re-weld.

Even then you may find some places where the wires don't weld together.
 
I'm not a forger, but it sure seems like if while it was untwisted a little, soaking the cable in hydrochloric acid would get it extremely clean and it would weld better.
 
I have a love/hate relationship with wire rope. I've had the best results from cutting a bunch about 6" long, taking apart and soaking in a bucket of diesel for a few days to a few weeks, cleaning with gas or mineral spirits. I wire up a bundle of 9 most times and wire together and a little welding on the ends and a rebar handle. Soak in clean diesel and flux the crap out of it. Soak at heat a bit longer than I would for a normal laminate and then smush in the flat dies on the press and make a big square. Then brush and flux, heat and soak for a few minutes, and keep working it down on the press, once small enough I got to the 1 1/2" squaring dies, then the 1" squaring dies. Cut several inches off the ends and forge as close to shape as I can, if there are any flaws they will be in the middle of the billet/blade.

One step I may or may not do once I consolidate the billet down to about 1 1/2" or so is to twist it. Doesn't seem to make much difference at this stage except changing the pattern.

Even then I'm subject to have a few small pin holes. It's very hard to get a 100% flaw free wire rope blade. From my experience it really needs a lot of reduction to close up the gaps.
 
If your doing it by hand, take your time, weld a section an inch or two at a time. Make sure you keep it at welding heat the whole time, and overlap your welds on each heat.

Plus all the other stuff that everyone else said.

Oh and be willing to change your knife design to use the section of billet that actually turns out to be welded.
 
I stuck a 1” cable into a 1 1/4” mild steel tube. Soaked it in diesel overnight, then pressed each end down enough so it wouldn’t twist, but left open enough to expel any crap in there. I pressed the who,e th8ng flat, until it was down to 1/2”, then ground in to see if it welded up. It was mostly solid, but the 1/4 to 3/8” at the edges didn’t fully weld. I ground those off, and it seems to be pretty solid. It has a mild steel san Mai jacket too, which looks pretty cool. There are a few spots I’ll flux and tap by hand, to see if I can get it more solid.

1E275ECE-0853-494E-A51A-8A409BFCBA64 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr


A096BC1C-67A3-4C73-8451-5CB20DFA81CB by Wjkrywko, on Flickr

7672FD4A-8847-4761-9395-6444EEAD66B9 by Wjkrywko, on Flickr
 
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Here's one I finished last month. I use a press with v dies to compress the cable, then go to the power hammer.
 
Can you soak the wire in acetone or other solvent to get the innards clean without having to take the wire apart? Seems like once you unwind it, it would be hard to get it woven tightly back together the way it is when in cable form!
 
Thanks, Alan, stop by sometime when you are in town.
As far as soaking the cable. I bought my cable new from a mine supply store in town. I have never soaked it in anything. It seems to have oil on it, but the oil burns off and the anhydrous borax seems to clean everything up.
 
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