Needed or not, I want to try it out. Whether dukes or mb's, is it really that big of a deal to tack some 3/16's round stock on the cast jaws? Aside from possible warping is there anything I should watch out for? Maybe Tom Stalker or Fur Shed Fabrications will chime in?

Thanks for any insight.

no

I laminated some 650's years ago, with just a regular wire welder and never had a problem. 1 1/6 round stock to cast.

How wide a jaw face is the best is the question. Are you working off the idea more is better? Or is there an issue your trying to address?

Yes there is. When you finish tacking, leave your clamps on until they’ve cooled a little. When a weld/tack cools it cools from the outside to the center and while cooling the weld is contracting toward the center. If you don’t pay attention to this and remove your clamps when the tacks are hot, your rod lamination will just roll back away from the edge of the jaws. The heavier/larger the weld the worse this contraction becomes. If the rod isn’t in-plane with the jaw face it’ll become nothing more than a trap jaw decoration for all the good it’ll do. Jaw faces and laminations are suppose to be in-plane with each other to be fully effective.

BTW, Are the jaws actually a cast iron(hard for me to believe) or are they a cast steel? If cast steel than any low hydrogen electrode will work fine.

Draw backs to unnecessary wide jaws
1 more weight which will slow trap down some
2 wider surface to break through tough soil conditions
3 spreads surface pressures out on foot which can allow more sliding in jaws which is main cause of foot damage in my opinion.

Cast seel and cast iron ar two different things. Lots of guys down here do it with no special equipment. Pop the springs, then vice grip the jaws shut do your weld let em cool. That's what most of them say along with buffing the jaw fack it's is smooth as glass

Yup, just plain old cast steel.

Cast steel is used on all current cast jaws made that I'm aware of.....cast iron would be a poor material choice for a trap jaw

Cast steel can be easily welded if desired

Thanks for all the feedback. I appreciate it.