Backyard stress relief ?

[Mac]

No, not horseshoes or snowball fights. I mean relieving stress on a welded frame.
My welding book talks about "process annealing" which is pretty involved with careful temp. monitoring, prolonged heating and cooling.
I've read posts that mention "torch wiping" an area after welding. I think it's important especially with mig welds. Just wondering what y'all do?

[enjenjo]

Most of the time, nothing. With mild steel, stress relieving is not usually needed. If I do feel that it's needed, like a butt weld in a steel rod, I heat the welded area to a dull red, and peen it on an anvil. In the case of a frame, just hitting the welded area with a hammer while it's still hot should be enough stress relieving.

With chromemoly, it should be stress relieved after welding. My brother has his sprint car chassis baked to stress relieve it. Bicycle frames are chrome moly too, I stress relieve them with a torch using a method showed to me by an old airplane mechanic. Polish the area around the weld with  emory cloth to remove any discoloration, and then heat with a soft flame until it turns blue, then stop. none of his airframe repairs fell apart, so I figure it must work.

[Mac]

Oh, OK,
Hey, I'm all in favor of not worrying about it. Just thought I read somewhere that mig joints benfited from some judiciously applied reheat because of the very quick and localized heat of the mig weld. Maybe it was discussion related to chrome moly and I forgot that part.  :oops:
Thanks Frank