Who can help?

[Lindsay]

Please who can help to welding steel on my wooden corner bench to repair for $10,-?

[LazyPup]

Lindsay,,

The question is very vague and we would require some additional information to offer a solution.

First of all, it is impossible to weld steel to wood. There are a number of different glues or mechanical fasteners that could be used but we would need a better desciption of what you are working on.

Is this perhaps a wooden topped corner bench with a steel frame?

[Lindsay]

Why it is impossible to weld steel to wood?

[Moonmaedyn]

Uh, well for starters, "welding" uses flame...i.e. as in fire. When you apply fire to wood, POOOOOOFFFF! Bye bye bench...you get the picture. It doesn't weld. You'll just have to trust us on this one.

[LazyPup]

Why is it impossible to weld steel to wood?

Welding is the process of heating two pieces of metal to the melting point at which time metal from each piece flows across the joint to mix with the melting metal from the other piece, Athough not always required, normally an additional piece of metal (welding rod) is melted into the joint to provide additional fill metal. The minimum temperatures at which welding can be performed is in a range of about 1800 degF. + depending upon the melting temp of the metal in question.

By contrast wood burns at about 500degF so the wood would be long gone before you even approached the melting point of the metal and given that wood does not melt into a liquid state it is impossible to fuse the wood to the metal.

conventional welding technigues such as Oxy-Acetelene torches or Electric Arc welds can only weld ferrous metal to ferrous metal. (Ferrous metal is metal containing Iron -iron or steel)

MIG Wlders (Metal inert Gas) are a specialized type of arc welder which has a nozzle surrounding the electrode wire to dispense a noble gas (normally Argon) under high pressure to surround the point of the weld to push the atmospheric air away from the point of weld. By pushing the atmospheric air away, it deprives the weld area of free oxygen in the atmosphere. In this manner thinner guage metals can be welded without oxidizing the weld. (Oxidizing weakens a weld by crystalizing the molecular structure of the metal.) This method also keeps the heat concentrated to the point of the weld which reduces the amount of heat warping or distortion of the pieces being welded.) Most typical homeowner grade MIG welders will only weld materials up to about 3/16" of an inch thich.

There is a variation of the MIG welder that uses flux coated wire instead of regular fill wire as the electrode, and it will weld light guage steel without the use of the inert gas, but the trade off is a rougher weld of less strenght and more scale and fouling.

MIG welders are normally only used on ferrous metals, although they can be used on stainless steel and with varying degree of success on thicker aluminum with special electrode wire.

TIG welders (Tungsten Inert Gas) welders are a type of Electric welder that uses a pointed tungsten rod held in a gas dispensing nozzle, which is flooded with a noble gas (Argon) to produce heat by means of an arc gap. The TIG torch is held in one hand and a fill metal rod is held in the other. During the welding process the Tungsten arc torch heats the weld area and the fill metal is manually fed with the other hand in the same manner as gas welding with an Oxy-acetlene torch.

TIG welding is the preferred method of welding stainless steel, and when operated by a truely skilled welder, they can weld dissimilar metals such as steel to stainless steel, Steel to aluminum and some brass materials. Most hommeowners never get much opportunity to use a TIG welder as they are very expensive. The cheapest one I have ever run across was a TIG conversion for a MIG welder that ran $1800 and required you to first have the MIG welder. A quality TIG welder would run about $2500 an up, I have seen commercial units that cost in excess of $10,000.

Soldering Silver soldering or brazing is a technique of fitting two pieces of metal closely together, then melting another piece of metal to fill the gap. Think of soldering and brazing as a method of hot glueing metals, but again, the minimum temperature range of the soldering, silver soldering or brazing is nearly double the burning temperature of even the hardest wood.

You might have some limited success with gluing the wood to the metal with epoxy, but i doubt seriously if it would hold up as wood undergoes extreme dimensional changes with humidity and the steel will not move with it, so in time the movement of the wood will break the bond of the epoxy.

The only reliable method of attaching wood to metal is by means of mechanical fasteners (Screws, bolts, rivets, etc.) You may be able to drill holes in the framing on the underside or backside of the wood and install screws that would not be visible when completed.