Abstract: Shown is a method to attach a plate to a steel substrate. An iron or ferr alloy disk is fixed at one end of a pipe and wafers of aluminum or other iron reducing agent are stacked in the pipe on the disk. An oxygen lance in the pipe starts a reaction in which the wafers, part of the disk and an adjoining portion of the substrate form a weld body. The weld body bonds to the disk and the substrate and mechanically locks the pipe to the substrate. A plate is placed on the substrate so that the pipe passes through a hole in the plate and then a fastener engaging the pipe is used to hold the plate on the substrate. Instead of the pipe, the plate can have a cavity holding the wafers and the plate can be placed on the substrate before using the oxygen lance. As before, metal from one end of the cavity, material from the wafers and material from the substrate form a weld body.