Just realized my teacher was right about flux ratio all along

I spent the last 6 months fighting with forge welds that kept coming out brittle or not sticking at all. My old instructor in Tulsa told me I was using way too much flux, said I was starving the weld. I figured he was just being old fashioned, so I kept loading it on thick every time. Last week I finally ran out of borax mid-job and had to make do with a light dusting. The weld came together cleaner than anything I'd done in months, no cold shuts, no scale pits. Turns out he was right, most of my flux was just boiling off and trapping air. Now I'm testing a few different ratios on scrap mild steel to find the sweet spot. Anybody else get told something years ago and only now realize they should have listened?

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patricia9051mo ago

My first forging teacher back in Ohio told me the same thing, and I spent a whole summer burning through a 5 pound tub of flux thinking more was better. I even argued with him once, told him he was stuck in the old ways, and he just laughed and said I'd figure it out when I got tired of wasting money. Twenty years later, I finally get it, and now I feel like a fool for every crusty, brittle weld I blamed on bad steel or cold weather. It's almost embarrassing how much simpler everything gets when you stop drowning the joint. Guess some lessons just need to hit you in the wallet twice before they stick.