[TowerTalk] Cadweld

[NV8A]

On 07/09/06 04:54 pm Nick Pair wrote:

> A Cadweld is composed of aluminum powder copper and a fluxing material. When fired it makes a alloy of the surface of the steel rod and the copper in the shot. All the copper wire, copper plating, and copper in the shot alloy together and create the molded cap you see. You can get carbon molds to weld to just about any combination of rods, structural steel, or copper wire sizes you can think of. The thermite (aluminum powder in suspension with oxidizer) was used in WW II and after to disable large guns by melting barrels or important parts of breach area

And I recall a photograph in an old chemistry textbook showing Thermite 
(TM?) being used to repair damaged tram/streetcar tracks _in situ_.

73

Alan NV8A