# Cadweld



## joe-nwt (Mar 28, 2019)

I routinely dry moulds before I use them with a propne torch. They will be fine. If you open a vial and you still have powder you should be fine as well. But I would label the vials to be checked before using.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

If the powder is more than a year old, toss it, end the frustration


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

Oh hell yeah. They looked old AF when I walked in here two years ago. I never considered they might have an expiration date. Thanks


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## Signal1 (Feb 10, 2016)

I wouldn't save any shots that have been wet/ or expired. 

The molds are fine just make sure they are dry, and buy the product as you need it so you're always working with new stuff.


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## Southeast Power (Jan 18, 2009)

We switched over to the battery-fired type with the K-Cups. Never looked back


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## VELOCI3 (Aug 15, 2019)

Southeast Power said:


> If the powder is more than a year old, toss it, end the frustration


I recently used 20 year old powder. Still works. 


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## paulengr (Oct 8, 2017)

It's iron and aluminum powder with a little magnesium to make it go. No "gunpowder". As long as the spark is hot enough it will go off almost no matter how old it is. Moisture causes major issues but not so much with the material as it causes steam pockets and just messes with the material so it doesn't flow properly. Same problem you have with metal castings. Even in the foundry business a lot of shops just do a "heat up" run where they make the first shot and intentionally dispose of it knowing it is just going to heat up the mold and get rid of any moisture without actually intending to actually make a product. These are often called "warm ups" if you see them on a QC report.


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

Southeast Power said:


> We switched over to the battery-fired type with the K-Cups. Never looked back


I saw those in a drawer here. I wanted to try em but no reason to yet. They use the same molds ?


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## Flyingsod (Jul 11, 2013)

paulengr said:


> It's iron and aluminum powder with a little magnesium to make it go. No "gunpowder". As long as the spark is hot enough it will go off almost no matter how old it is. Moisture causes major issues but not so much with the material as it causes steam pockets and just messes with the material so it doesn't flow properly.


Dang. I was gonna try to make thermite or something with em. 

I had a buddy that dripped a drop of sweat into one. He said it pretty much exploded on him. 

Thanks for the info


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## SteveBayshore (Apr 7, 2013)

Southeast Power said:


> We switched over to the battery-fired type with the K-Cups. Never looked back


We bought the battery ones when they first came out. Every other shot in the first 10 or so cases were duds. My distributor was replacing 50% of what I was buying. Haven't used it since. Went back to the original shots. Usually do a couple of hundred shots a year. We don't use the strikers at all to ignite them. We just hit them with the propane torch to ignite since the torch is already out to warm up and dry the molds.


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## SteveBayshore (Apr 7, 2013)

Forgot to add a note. We work in a factory that blends and packages luting sand. Its used to pack the weld molds that are used to assemble seamless railroad tracks. What we use duct seal for. Watched them run test shots years ago. The rail molds they were doing the tests with were only used once. They smashed them off of the completed weld. Not sure if that was just for the test or if all molds were one shot. There are hundreds of different rail shapes that require individual molds.


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