How serious is this crack?

This isn't my stove, but someone brought these cracks to my attention. It's steel, so I was thinking a quick weld and grind would have it back to new. Opinions?

I think that would suffice.

Doesn't look too serious. If you are going to go to the trouble to weld it, you may want to drill a small hole (~3/16" or so) at the crack tip. This will eliminate the very tip of the crack and keep it from going further into the steel. May also want to go around and smooth the edges of the opening with a fine file or sandpaper. This will help reduce the possibility or future cracks.

Corey

Ahh right right.

I take a materials science course, and we talk about crack propogation and things like that, but I never think to apply school to the real world. go figure

I knew I saw that crack somewhere...

Crack Photo

-- Mike

PS - I wouldn't worry about it, drill, weld, and grind. Looks like a nice stove if the price is right.

I'm thinking about buying that, swapping that stove my parents for their wood/coal dutchwest and then giving the dutchwest and all of the pipe to the family in philly.

That's why I'm asking

Yep , Good call on the hole drill at the end of the crack . That is most common on "cast steel" cracks to stop them but will work fine on plate steel . After the hole is drilled at the end of the crack , gouge out the crack . ( grind out the crack ) to a "V" bevel to get better penetration when the "V" groove if filled with a weld . I would run a small weld bead on the back side of about 1/4 of the needed filler to close up the open crack and then have the front with the full weld . Some place a copper backer plate to weld up a butt joint ( and not fill the back side ) like this but with the extra heat that the stove gets i would go ahead and fill the back side with the backer weld and run the full weld on the front . When finished ........grind'er smooth , paint her up and non will be the wiser. B.O.L. PS Make sure you get a good weld on the front and no undercut otherwise you will leave a stress line and it will crack again . If you need any help info welding that bugger , let me know . PSS It would also be a good idea to make sure that steel is warmed up before you weld it . ie it cold out side and dont weld that small bead run on cold steel , O/A torch or even a propane torch to hear 'er up around that spot. Not cherry red , but over 100 deg.

Cori I was thinking about the remidies of welding the crack and not the crack itself. Why would there be a crqack in the first place?
Its not like it is a beam holding up a bridge and contineous vibrations and weight caused it? My guess is, that stove got over fired a few too many times. If enough times it cracked the steel, I began to wonder what that heat did to the properties of the other metal?
I thought I should pass along my thought process, before you get involved and to cause re thinking.

I have a feeling that the crack was probably caused by overfiring. Corners, even rounded ones are big time stress concentration areas, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was fatique failure.

Same sense, could have been a crack in the microstructure of the steel that was opened up because of the cycling stresses.

Going to foward a picture to a materials science professor and see what he has to say.