So I had my first shot at welding cast.  I thought I did OK.  Welds looked pretty good actually, especially coming outta my hands....Alas, they held together for a while, but 25 acres later it all fell apart.  I have to wonder, how I got it to hold together that long, but then still not be "good enough". 

A needle scaler helps to relieve stresses, after welding.

Did you use  nickle rod?

 

Dad......also talked me out of the preheat.  Not sure why.  Not sure why I didn't stick to my guns as I 'know' this......Partly emotional, I know it hurts his feelings when he says stuff and I keep doing it another way. 

 

v-ing the area will be very difficult, as everything is circular.  Going to have to grind off the weld I just put on, so I'll see if I can work in at least some of a v.

 

Don't own a needle scaler......

 

Brazing, I'm actually pretty good with a flame.  However, I believe most of this joint, being sprung such as it was, has too much gap for braze.

 

On the preheating, how hot?  Cherry red?  Bright red/orange?  That dark black to red transition....???

So.....you're welding the steel "patch" to the cast iron with cast rod?

 

It helps to make ONE pass with the rod, then  PECK on it for 1 minute with a chipping hammer. The pecking relieves stress and gives the HEAT time to soak in and stabilize... Then do another pass ( on the back side), and PECK on it and give time for heat soak... repeat, repeat.. etc.  TIME is a good thing.. GO SLOW.

 

 Well,,I'm fixin to get into some cast iron welding on a Massey Ferguson block. After talkin with ole Leon,,he clued me on to using Nickle 55 as it is made especially for this. The Nickle 55 is available for arc or tig welding. I looked it up on the internet and article was very informative. PRE-HEAT is a must but only to 150°-200° NOT cheery red,,,,! Like others say here the prep is most important and cleanliness of the work is right next to the man upstairs. They recommend bout a 1" weld,,change to another area and do the alternating so the work does not get too hot. A slow cool down is recommended. 

 I'm kinda looking forward to the delivery of the weld rod to see how it comes out.

Do as Steve says, "PECK on it for 1 minute with a chipping hammer." or us a punch and hammer.  Like to do a short v stitch and relieve it. and if you can do the back side, do that and get to the center, leave no crack inside the weld. peen weld repeat...till you are done.

 and as usual, leave no sl*g in the welds either.

 

 

 

Cast iron rods are normally around 55% nickel ........ Stainless rods are in the 15% range. Should be easier to weld with less cracking with the 55%.

 

Gosh shameless, if'n' I had your level of money, I would do just that!

Used to work with a guy who before that worked at a glassware company.  When they had to work on that equipment (somewhere on the forming line?), it was a three man rotation.  One would go in there, I forget the exact interval, 2 or 3 minutes I think.  With 10 seconds to go they would pat him on the leg as a warning.  When the timer struck 0, 1 man on each leg would pull him out no questions ask!  Rotate, until job complete. 

Well, "the industry" made it that way to begin with!

Yeah, maybe I should have done that.  I thought there was too much gap to fill with braze.  Now that the weld broke out, there's even more gap.  Should have worked with grinder to get a fit, then braze.  And there's lots of things in my life I "shoulda" done. 

 

I made a modification last night, drilled 2 new holes in the little arms, cut off where the old hole was to make room to fold.  Doesn't fold all the way down now, so looks goofy, but might get me through the season.  If not, may be doing a lot of grinding and fitting and brazing (and swearing!).