PLAN No. 1149. FOUNDRIES
In steel foundries the process is extensively used in cutting away risers, gates, and heads from castings. As compared with the old method of cutting with a saw, the gas process is much quicker and much more economical. This sort of cutting work is simple and does not require great dexterity. The welder should be capable of bending over or assuming more or less cramping positions, as he has to work on the castings in positions in which they have been left on the floor. Welding is almost universally used in the reclamation of defective castings, and by this process castings are saved which for some slight defect would have been consigned to the scrap heap. The process finds application also in the welding of blowholes, cold shuts, porous spots, and cracks. It is used to some extent in manufacture, two parts being cast separately and joined by welding.