Welding Tips and Tricks

I need to make a couple of skid feet for my ATV plow, and was wondering if I could mig weld some A2 tool steel to make them as it's a hard steel and more wear proof than regular hot or cold rolled. I have some in stock to use if possible. The manufacturer of my plow is out of stock so I need to make my own. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

A2 isn't very hard in the annealed condition, and that is how you need it, for welding. Heat Treating could result in the assemblies being too brittle. You might be better off using a steel in the 50K class to make the pads, then using a hard surfacing rod on the bottoms.
That gives you the advantage of being able to resurface the bottoms when they wear.

VA-Sawyer wrote: ↑Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:19 pm A2 isn't very hard in the annealed condition, and that is how you need it, for welding. Heat Treating could result in the assemblies being too brittle. You might be better off using a steel in the 50K class to make the pads, then using a hard surfacing rod on the bottoms.
That gives you the advantage of being able to resurface the bottoms when they wear.

Exactly what I would suggest.

I highly doubt this will work. Welding A2 is very difficult. I would be surprised if it didn't crack and fall off within minutes of welding.

Consider brazing it if you really need to do this. The welds will be harder'n the hubs of hell, but the balance of the material would not be. So, the end result would be the part that matters would still be soft, and the part you specifically didn't want hard would be brittle and crack.

If you've got the A2, harden those parts after machining them ready for being bolted on, (drilled and tapped, etc) and weld on some structural steel mounting plate so the skid pads are the only hard part. They'll outlive us all if you do that and the A2 was left at 62-65rc.

Yup, as others have said, annealed unhardened A2 is just going to cost you a whole lot more money than anything, I'm not entirely convinced with the right filler and such welding harder steels to mild steels tends to be perhaps quite as brittle as it has a reputation for being. I've welded random high carbon steel plow blades back together, to mild steel, Ar400 to mild, to plow blades etc and just tried to beat it all apart.

I literally CANNOT manage to either break the two pieces of AR400 seperate from each other nor from the mild steel that piece itself was welded to, I folded and then busted off a similar size piece of mild I'd welded on the other side of the base plate as a pseudo control, but that Ar400 just slowly starts to mildly bend in one direction until I'm exhausted and then I beat it back to roughly straight again. Maybe one day I'll crack either weld.

So, if you could get it heat treated after welding, it may have a chance of holding, but it'll probably way way way harder to get a stronger weld that slightly less extreme steels like Ar400, T1, or even 4140. Probably still strong enough for a lot of applications but a plow has a good chance of not being one of them. Hard surfacing is a safer bet

Speaking of AR plate though, have you considered going with AR500 skids instead, abrasion resistance is literally in the name. I don't know just much more of a challenge AR500 might be to weld than AR400, but if AR400 is any indication, weld it with either 309L and 312 and if you ever manage to tear the skids off without ripping the mild steel it was welded to apart first I'd honestly be shocked.

SBaker,

I think what you're doing above is confusing A2 with high carbon steel. A2 is a high Chrome tool steel. All those high carbon steels that you were discussing will get hard if you work at it a little bit, but they'll never be in the same realm as hardened A2. When I'm talking about being brittle after welding, I mean like it's still hot and you grab it with your glove on and snap it off with your hand. Maybe not having time to push on it before it falls off in your hand. As in you extinguish your arc and the post flow hasn't stopped and you hear it crackling and snapping before you lift your hood. Keep your glasses on because razor sharp shards can come flying off.

If you want a couple pieces to experience it for yourself, send me your address and I'll send you a couple small pieces to try. It's a bit pricey to just go buy. A year-and-a-half ago it was over $30 a pound so I can't imagine what it is now. But I will give you a few pieces anyhow.