My repaired cast iron

[boykjo]

Here is the axle with the prep work done for my murray riding mower. I used a rotary file to gouge out the welding area at the crack and use my 4.5 in grinder to bevel the angle on the axle.

[boykjo]

Here is a repair I made on a cast iron front axle for my murray riding mower. I was undecided how i was going to repair it. My Freind had some welding rods for cast but I was preferring to tig. I had some nickle braising rods and scraped the flux off and tried tigging with that but it didnt work. Had some 1/8 ss filler and I remembered someone tigging stainless with cast. I was lazy and preheated with my tig torch up and down the weld prep area and proceeded to tig with ss.
If the axle breaks again in another place the lawnmower is trash. Time to go buy a new one......

[Hotfoot]

What gas? Did you cover it up for slow cool down? Did you mean to say MAPP torch for pre-heat, or how did you pre-heat with TIG??

I'm about to try the 309L wire with 92/8 on some cast iron (ala YorkiePap), so I'm curious about cold MIG for CI..

Yorkie is 92/8 correct? My LWS says that, and not 98/2??

[boykjo]

What gas? Did you cover it up for slow cool down? Did you mean to say MAPP torch for pre-heat, or how did you pre-heat with TIG??

I used straight argon. Now I dont know what mixes are in the cylinders. I just exchange my cylinder when it runs out. I assume its 100% argon.
I didnt cover it up for slow cooldown. I let it cool by itself. I figured by heating the cast with the tig torch the heat would stay close to the weldement area and the ss would take the flex when cooling. I started an arc until a puddle formed on the cast, then I ran it along the weldement area on both pieces, both sides of the V just to get the cast heated a little. I didt want to get it too hot with my O/A torch preheat not to burn my hand through the gloves while tigging. Tacked it in place on four corners and proceeded to weld fast. Had it set around 140 amps and had the pedal down most of the way until I got to the ends. Didnt see any cracks but that doesnt mean they are not there. I was pleased the way the stainless flowed into the cast and with the repair but I would not guarantee the repair if I had to do it for a customer.

[yorkiepap]

Hey Hotfoot,
No....92/8 is NOT correct. Don't listen to those at a LWS who don't know what they are talking about. You need 98/2 for optimum results or any mix not exceeding 5% CO2(95/5).

Denny

[BC Iron works]

i use ni 44 rod when tig welding cast iron

[vicegrip]

Looks like some mariage has occured, I follow a bizzar
proceedure with stick (stainless) at work. NO preheat!!
two 20lb. halves joined for temporary hold for machining.

Then separated.......it works imagine that.
As long as it looks like it was working,
I think if it were me, I'd have built-up the welds
about 20% over the surface, but that's just my 2 cents.
Cool
vg

[Rocky D]

I think Phil is right, it would be better to have the weld over the surface. You must have put enough heat into it, by TIGing it for it not to crack...it also looked like a quality casting, no sand pockets, etc. You can also use stick rod, and remove the flux for TIGing cast. Excellent prep job, I must say!

[boykjo]

You can also use stick rod, and remove the flux for TIGing cast. Excellent prep job, I must say!

What kind of stick rod?

[Rocky D]

What kind of stick rod?

Any cast iron welding rod, since we're discussing cast. I use Certanium 889, but any of the others will work as long as you remove the flux.

[boykjo]

[QUOTE=Rocky D;375730]I think Phil is right, to would be better to have the weld over the surface. QUOTE]


Should I go over it again with some more ss rod. I filled in a pretty large V gap. Those are two pass welds on each side. One root and another on top (each side). I used 1/8 diameter filler rod and walked over the rod

[Rocky D]

No, I would just leave it as is. It should be ok. Just in the future, try not to undercut.