Welding Iron

[Hammersmith]

My 105 year old dutch barge 'Gideon' is in dry dock, where I'm going to add a 10 feet section of hull and topsides. Anyone got experience of welding old mallable iron? I'd prefer mig, as I'm quite used to it (I'm the set engineer on Junkyard War) but I have heard that I should use flux cored wire and reverse polarity. I've done some spark tests, they look the same as new steel in length and colour.

regards
Richard Curtis
mv Gideon
Hammersmith, London

[MikeJohns]

Many of the so called irons of this age are in fact steel. A grinder spark test on iron will give a very different result to a mild carbon steel and to a high carbon steel. So if your spark tests are the same then weld with your mig as for steel.

You can test simply by trying to weld a bit of mild steel bar end on to the hull plate then try tapping it off, if its iron it will fall off with the first blow, if steel you'll need to cut it off with a disk.

Hope this helps

[Dutch Peter]

Richard,

Contact one of the following, I think they have some experience with old Dutch barges:

http://www.oranjewerf.com/Index.htm
http://www.shipdock.nl/frameset.php?mid=61

[Hammersmith]

Thanks Mike and Pete, the hull turned out to be high quality 100 year old Groningen steel. I cut with a plasma and welded with my mig and Gideon is 90% back together. Because of the sheer line on my tjalk I had to slice the bow horizontaly just under the rubbing strake and raise it 150mm, and now the new steel is in, the lines look perfect. I've taken a few photo's, what's the best way of posting them for you fellows to see?

Richard
MV Gideon
Hammersmith, London.