Can You Weld Cast Iron??
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- Опубликовано: 3 фев 2022
- Sometimes cast iron welds crack. Sometimes they don't.
Here are some pointers I've picked up over the years.
Caveat: I'm a stunt welder, not a real welder.
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Music: Hovering Thoughts - SPENCE 
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The best cast iron repairs that I have seen involve meticulous cleaning, followed by placing all the pieces together in the trash bin and ordering new.
Truly funny!
Hey thats my method...
The positive here is that you don’t get grease in your bin!🇬🇧
Didn't you even watch the video? He clearly stated that children and campfires are an essential part of the process.
Wd-40>elbow grease
Chalk that up on the white board as new lesson learned
"The carbon in the cast iron will migrate to that heat zone, like little children falling into a campfire" You're analogies are impeccable, never change Tony, never change...
As a child that has fallen into a campfire, this analogy helped.
After welding hundreds of cast iron parts with stick welds, the best stress reliever is a needle gun. Weld a little. Needle gun it. Weld a little. Needle gun it. From engine blocks to wash pots to machinery handles. It works. By the way Tony, I am a 70 year old machinist. I’m just another old Tony and I love watching This Old Tony.
Can cast iron be brazed?
Yes
@@jasonhood8607 Is it a good alternative to welding?
@@alext8828 Also yes. It mostly holds up even betten because of the lower heat input and better ductility of the brass/bronze.
@@mruberkinger8701 Thank you.
Almost 20 yrs ago now when i was a rig welder i asked an old guy how to weld cast iron. He said "just use 7018 rod, run it a hair hot and a hair slow". I had an old vise the mounting ears broke off so decided to try his trick. I honestly never expected it to hold very long. No preheating, drilling holes, peening, nickel rods or controlled cool down. I didn't even grind the base smooth i just wire wheeled both vise base and table to get the chunks off (again not thinking it would actually work) and sewed the base to my weld table. That vise is still welded on the table to this day. Over the years I've cut that vise no slack and beat on things in that vise with a 10 lbs sledge. Dont ask me how or why it works i just know that vise is still rock solid!
Using that trick i have also fixed many a cracked/broke cast iron manifold, never had one come back for a failed weld either. I even welded up a crack in the exhaust manifold on the same machine i was using to make the weld. He passed it on to me now I'm passing it on to all of you.
I was about to mention the 7018 too but I was kinda shy someone might say I'm nuts but anytime I needs to weld cast iron that's what I use it's cheaper too than the nickel rods
i woodnt , BUT and however . watch an expert road warrior from fort plain NY , weld a 2290 Case rear end and PTO housings BLOWOUT .... root passes were nickel short welded and needle scaler peened and hammer peened . and continued with 7018 and same back peening , welding chunks together and aligning mating face , bolt holes .etc . he said might be cast steel of POOR quality or cast , he didnt care . saw 3 times , a s i remember . none returned .
Man, that was a nice, sharp bend in the 1-inch square bar. I didn't realize how important WD-40 was for the process!
Seriously, thanks so much, Tony, for another brilliant video!
WD-40 is as key to bending, as eye droppers and karate chops are for parting metal. 😁
TOT's deadpan on this one actually had me wondering. And honestly, I'm still not quite sure what he really did!
I love that you guys follow one another and comment on one another's videos
I'm not smart and I do get joke part but help me, there's no way that little bender bent that square bar right?
@@scottwilliams895 it was a "Photoshopped" bend. you can tell by the material on the outer radius not looking like it was stretched like a normal bend would do
My family have been professional photographers for over 140 years.... your opening segment with the flash cards is the funniest thing I've ever seen! Remember though, old photographers never die... their F-stops! Rest of video was top notch as usual and answered lots of questions I had Tony. THANKS!
I'm not a professional photographer but I remember 8th grade class in the darkness breaking open a 35mm cannister and the entire class spent in a red lit room. So the opening segment just made me laugh out so loud that I woke the dog up.
I laughed my ass off, I still have my darkroom stuff
I was wondering what the sd card was doing. Then I saw the trays and I suddenly realised what was developing. Get it?
I love ToT's cinematic bent. Always a welcome variation on the usual matter-of-fact style so ubiquitous to the content from doers and makers.
@@fprintf I’m actually building a film camera right now. Saves me from such accidents with flash cards.
My father has told me several times how people would bring their cast iron to my great grandfather to weld. After my grandfather my passed away, I was a little shocked to find my great grandfather's welding books at the bottom of a junk box my grandfather's widow gave my family. You can tell these books were definitely used. These books are more prized than my signed copy of Tony La Russa's One Last Strike.
Cool story, I love hearing that kind of stuff! They should make a book containing 100s of those kinds of stories.
Tony, I know I’m a little late to getting on the comments of this video, I just want to say this real quick. You are such an inspiration and such a model in my life that I have seriously taken a completely different outlook on material and material sciences as a 21 year old. I can’t even express the appreciation that I have for not only your witty humor, but the amount of education that you provide in each of your videos. You have forever influenced me in such a way where I aspire to be a hobby machinist and fabricator. Even with a little experience I have, I itch to get my hands on any material that I can to work on. Projects like these just make me smile. Endlessly grateful for what you do, sincerely appreciate you and I hope life is treating you in the best way that it can!!
Second that all of it, plus 18 years. Damn, i'm old too, without a workshop, but sure i'll get tgere until i'm 70))
This video brings back memories of a departed friend's shop. He specialized in repairing cracked or severely damaged engine blocks. His shop had 6 large platforms for engine blocks and each platform had a box shaped kiln that lowered down onto it via small pulley arrangement. Electric elements would preheat the entire engine block and when ready, they would lift the kiln off, and he'd oxyacetylene weld the cast iron while his assistant would man a massive rosebud heating torch and a small ball-peening hammer which he'd follow the welding tapping it and post-heating it all. When all welding was complete, the kiln would be lowered back down and put on a cooldown cycle. They were lunatics and would be working in this small dark shop shirtless in winter because of the heat from everything going on. Quite a sight to behold.
He did it the RIGHT way.
Great story - thanks for sharing!
the forges of Hell got nothing on that workshop
Modern day Hephaestus.
That description gave me some serious soviet workshop vibes.
My dad taught me how to stick weld cast. We had an oddball 11” pump housing on a water truck freeze and break. We dug a pit in the sand and started a huge fire and threw in the pump housing. After it sat in the coals for a while, we used a nickel welding rod on a Vantage 500 welder. We used small tack welds that we immediately peened with a ball peen hammer and kept jumping around until everything was welded. Mind you, all this was done in the hot coals. We buried the part in the coals, and buried the whole thing with hot sand. We dug it up a few days later and put it back in service. Worked fine for the next 3 years until we got rid of the truck.
Sounds like a great memory
That is amazing
I had a similar problem with a small gearbox housing cracking when I was the engineer at a brewing company in the Fiji Islands in1979. I had a fairly talented welder on my crew. He gouged along the crack then built a little box around the part using fire bricks. The housing was heated with some big homemade propane torches to a temperature that suited the welder's mood ,then he welded it in little stitches with nickel rods and beat it occasionally with a small ball peen hammer. The wall of the box was completed with some more firebricks and the box was filled with vermiculite insulation. We came back the next day and opened it up. It was wire brushed, painted and reinstalled. Never had any problem with it again.
@@316tomiller I know there is a science to this, but I love hearing anecdotes about the people who operated as though it was an art.
Awesome fathers like that are becoming too rare.
The undercut on the old cast is mostly due to the temperature of the cast in relation to the arc. The small new piece was likely at a lot higher temperature than the old bigger piece. Because of this the lower temperature the hot tig arc will cut the colder side more then the hot side. I know this sounds odd but keep reading. If you were to heat up the bigger cast side with more preheat you would find it would experience far less undercutting because you could use far less amperage to weld it. I see under cut like that all the time on 1/2in and thicker forgings I weld. Without adequate preheat you have to run high amperage to get a proper puddle. However the more amperage creates a wider hotter arc, which causes undercut (which is really underfill). The under cut isn’t a issue if your using 3/32 rod and pushing a lot in or 1/8th rod, but on the piece you were welding didn’t need a weld that big therefore the undercutting would be expected due to the wider arc cone. Without preheating the cast more one trick is to run a bit lower amperage and give the nickel time to wet out. It’s far slower but it will reduce the undercut. I tend to like to see nickel flow like a river more so than blast it in with high heat fast. Steady solid heat and letting it flow is the trick. Also I personally run big gas cups with nickel. When the weld bead is wide and fairly liquid I want all of the super hot areas shielded, a big gas cup is the only way for this. It will also reduce undercut potential because the toes of the weld won’t oxidize as bad, especially if you have to multi pass weld it. 👍👍
As a welder with 20+ years experience I feel I have to comment on this video.
OK now that I've done that.... Thanks for the videos Tony!! love your work
As a software developer I have no clue what's going on, but I just spent 25 minutes watching someone weld cast iron, and then another 30 mins researching how to weld cast iron.
TOT is a magical phenomenon
okay. i'll bite. what is TOT. Time Off the Clock ????
@@daviddavids2884 Think ToT...then scroll up and re-read the name of the channel
Software dev here too... glad I'm not alone.
Welcome to the fam, fam… 🎩😉 software dev and systems architect. 🤘🏼
Yeah... We IT folks... 😅😂
Wait, wait.... what about bending the wet noodle? Wouldn't that be a true test of your weld?
My question as well. Thanks for asking it. (I needed the narrative to be a little more full circle.)
I think TOT wasn't *that* confident with his fix. I mean it's a lot to ask from a small bender anyways.
Its a good weld but that might just be pushing it too far.
I'm glad you asked the question, so I didn't have to look silly doing it. :D
Memories, in 1954 my mother purchased a 1953 MG TD, somewhere in the early 60’s my oldest sister somehow threw a rod threw the cast iron block (the stories swing from a boyfriend Hot Rodding to a slow country drive and it just happened) anyway, my father pulled the engine, took it somewhere and convinced someone, following his directions, to heat the engine, weld it back together and cool it over a long period of time. Anyway it worked, I drove it all through high school and some college and we ended up selling it following my fathers death in 2022 and with just a little TLC I could get it to run just fine. With no leaking anything not expected.. so yes it can be done..
Thanks for the memories
heat engine and weld is gas weld with bronze
I've used stainless welding rod with my arc welder, preheat , weld, heated some more and peened allowing to cool slowly. Fixed a steering link on a Long tractor 15 years ago and it's still working great with no failures. A big thing is to be sure the parts are CLEAN and free of oil, grease and rust. Thanks for the vid!
Just any stainless rods? Is that on electrode Negative?
Nickel rod is supposed to work well. Haven't tried it though
someone once told me to use stainless rods but have never tested this theory. Top Job TOT
You also need a lot of nickels to buy those so it might work 🤣
youtuber Brandon Lund has got some videos testing different rod types for a cast iron pan. Im not 100% sure but I think 7018 turned out to be strong.
Some cast iron rod names: UTP8, UTP86FN; Gricast 1, Gricast 31; Castolin 2-23, 2-24, 2-44; Kjellberg Fi-Cast Ni, Ficast NiFe, Hyundai S-NCl, E C NiFeCl1,...
I have used 316l to weld cast iron with good success. The 316 has good nickel content.
There are critical temperatures and times relating to the microstructure which metals(steel, iron) create as they cool. Create the wrong microstructure as the weld cools and you get cracks. Using stainless steel which has a high nickel content and low in carbon content helps stabilize and promote microstructures that are less brittle. 316L in a pinch is pretty darn good and available just about anywhere. But a “nickel 99” or “nickel 55” stick rod also available at tractor supply in the USA. Many tractors have cast iron part which need fixed when they crack.
You should use stainless rods to finish your tunnel :)
I discovered a foolproof technique. I'll walk you through the story that led to my process.
I had a cast iron gear housing that was cracked. Bummer. So, I attempted to weld the crack closed. It cracked more. I kept going, adding more weld to each crack, grinding the excess down, inspecting, and finding a new crack. After several days and three dozen welding rods I had entirely replaced the part with nothing but weld. I imagine this will work for most people.
It's dedication like this that most people lack.
I just wanted to thank you for your videos. I fell sick with severe vertigo last week and after the initial episodes that didn't allow me even to open my eyes, all I can do is sit and watch tv. I started watching all your old videos that I had already seen when they were new. Thanks for keeping me sane....ish this week. Ordered a T-shirt. Figured that's the least I could do. 😉
I think this is a very good video. As a retired railroad track welder I have messed around with a few interesting projects. I started out with oxyacetylene, a few decades ago. One of my projects was some 3/8" thick cast iron parts from a switch stand. I used a cast iron welding rod by Oxweld, called Oxweld #10, and it was about 1/4" square cross-section and used in conjunction with a powdered flux called "Ferroflux". The work was cleaned and a vee ground on the mating edges for the item, which was then held in place atop some dry firebricks. I used a reducing flame for the proje ct, hotting everything up. Heating the rod a bit and dipping it into the powdered flux, I proceeded to weld as if I were just butt-welding a couple of pieces of steel. The puddle was kind of pasty, not fluid at all. I could work it around with the rod dipped right into the puddle and working it with the torch flame keeping everything in a liquid state. The whole piece was compact ebough I could keep it hot if I thought it was needed. Turning the work over to weld the back side was done as the top side was. When the job was completed, I turned the oxygen way down so it was straight acetylene, making a lot of nice black smoke and sooting the whole area with a layer of soot to slow down the cooling. Warm dry sand over the whole works kept the work from cooling too quickly.
One of the virtues of nickel rod in cast iron welding is its ductility, stretching readily as needed, without breaking the weld. Peening of course also stretches the filler metal to help insure the integrity of the weld.
I was taught the same as you. Nicole rod, Pennington and sooting when done. I have also used silicon bronze using borax. Cleaning was alway paramont. Loved you thread.
Sorry damn spell check
Peening and nickel rod.
0:01 TOT, you could not pay me to miss even one minute of one of your videos, let alone skip over half of it!
I've never welded anything in my life but you make it sound so interesting and approachable even as you describe how obnoxiously difficult this particular task can be. Maybe one day I'll have the chance to put some of the vast and varied knowledge that you've given me to use. Until then, I'll simply remain enthralled by your excellent humor and spectacular story telling.
I cook. But TOT is so fun to watch. I couldn't agree with you more.
That even humbled me.🇬🇧
Buy a stick welder for fifty bucks and give it a go.
Metallurgical engineer here. Love your stuff TOT
In gray cast iron, the carbon is in flake form (think frosted flakes). These flakes have many sharp points that act as stress concentrations. Once a failure occurs on one flake, it tends to jump from sharp point to sharp point, propagating through the part. The 2 ways to mitigate the brittle characteristics are heat treating, which concentrates the carbon into spherical-ish concentrations, or treatment with magnesium (and some other chemistry details) when molten which causes the carbon to form in spheres (think cocoa puffs). The latter is cast ductile iron. These spheres do not have the same stress concentration as the flakes, making it a material that allows for some deformation before failure, with a higher ultimate tensile strength. You can also heat treat (austempering) the ductile iron to make it even stronger as well.
A good practical example to differentiate these two is taking 2 pieces of paper and cutting a couple 2d flake shape in the middle of one, and a few small circles in the middle of another. The total amount of paper removed should be about equal. Grasping the paper on each end, pull them apart. The flake shape fails rather easily, while I have seen many adult men struggle to tear the one with the circle cut. Would be a great way to demo to your boy.
Keep up the great stuff!
So a metallurgical engineer is kind of the combo inorganic chemist and mechanical engineer?
@@Parents_of_Twinsyes, plus additional education on metal casting/manufacturing techniques.
Great explanations. Your would make a great professor!
So you're converting the carbon to spheroidal graphite.
Not .weldable.
@@siyaindagulag. It is weldable, provided you use a Ni-Fe or Ni welding rod and preheat the material. There's also been some research in the past few years on laser welding and being able to weld different phases of iron to each other, where you previously couldnt.
You are quite the comprehensive package. Humor that marries perfectly with knowledge and skill…and some really cool tools. I loved that lengthy entro that turned out to be far more relevant than I could have imagined! Hilarious!
When I was a young welder I was told pre heating and peening were critical because preheating started the molecules moving and bouncing about, whilst peening kept them bouncing so they interlocked while cooling.
I remember when I was a young lad bending noodles, hanging with my dad in the shop...breaking tools, jury-rigging single use tools that hang around for 35 years...
ToT, you do the best in bringing out the good ol' memories.
I had to weld a cast iron vise base (old Wilton 645, a little guy with too much character to let go). I did almost the same (nickel electrodes stripped of flux), but I ran the welder on AC, with the balance set at 50 percent. Just something I read on the interwebs to try out. The edge burn away was much worse doing that, so I switched to DC for the cover weld. No preheat, and I wrapped it in a very heavy fiberglass welding blanket to cool. I also peened the hot welds. Still holding up two years later.
Any idea what the theory with AC was? I'm struggling to imagine why it would help.
@@paulmoir4452 Ac balance it gives you better metiral temperature control and wider area to heat up which is little bit a plus.
DC weld one way narrow and deep penetration. Not ideal for easy crackling meterial.
Last tip, the best way to repair A parts is replacing it. 😁
@@besong6420 That makes good sense, thank you very much!
@Eddie Hitler I can see how the agitation could be a good thing. Thank you sir!
It's great to see you developing your photos the old fashioned way. Keeping the craft alive!
Very good presentation. in the early 60's I apprenticed as a Tool & Die Maker. We were taught to lightly pen the product while it was cooling just as you demonstrated, and it work's well, I back then would modify Ford intake manifolds to accept 2, 4, or 8, double, or single barrel carburetors, it was faster and cheaper than getting them custom built, and the welder of choice was a good old Lincoln buzz box, I enjoyed you presentation, and if people follow you lesson, even with a buzz box, they will in all likely hood have a very good weld. Thank You L Olson.
1" mild steel ? There is no way you could have done that ... without the WD40 . Learnt some stuff on this vid tbh so I guess I won't have to rely on paint holding my cast welds together anymore.
Whoa, let’s not get hasty! Paint, especially urethane based paints have significant structural significance! If you use that urethane paint over the cracked cast iron and allow it to absorb moisture, it will form a very strong adhesive material called Reinforced Urethane Structural Texture.
TIP: WD40 only works with 1040 mild steel. If you need to bend some 1018, use WD18!
Yeah I couldn't believe it actually bent it.
@@willallison1136 it was cut...
WD40 is only for 40 degree angles right?
Does anyone else watch this man's video creations more for the entertainment value than for the instructional value? This is good stuff!
I watch and walk away smarter. Sux!
ToT Fuckin cracks me up man
both are fun
Absolutely. I am not a welder or a machinist and i would never miss a single TOT video.
Your videos are awesome. I hope that it holds up. I had a professor in college show me how to weld cast iron a long time ago. I still haven't seen anyone do it the right way. However you do seam to understand most of the steps and the videos was entertaining.
Job well done. BTW..... I've welded cast using brass filler after preheat....result??. Excellent. The cast with the right Flux was soaked up like water in a sponge. Still together today. I welded it in 1974. Love the way your presentation went.
a can't imagine the effort put into this video. it's a real work of art. the script, camera work, editing. all top drawer. should be entered in a film festival or nominated for an academy award.
If it was Obama, he'd get all of them....before he actually learned how to weld.....or make a video....etc
@@ChatGPT1111 Well, aren't you a treasure! Just crow bared that point of view right in there didn't ya.
@@gargarman facts aren't "a point of view", they're facts.
If you need to distinguish between cast iron and steel, one trick is to hang the part with string (wire, whatever) and then hit it like the Triangle in the band. If it sings/rings, it's steel. If it's dull with no resonance/clang then it's cast iron. That's the carbon stopping the music.
There is a difference in the spark color if you grind on it also
Learning and laughing. Great work and entertaining. So glad to stumble upon you!
Thanks for the tips Tony! I have stickweld cast iron a few times, but now I test to Tig welding it, with old sticks like you do, it works very well! Sitt and wait to let it cool down slowly now, much more interesting then sports or something.
Thanks for all This Old Tony! Greetings from a little garage in Sweden!
Oh, that was really old-school beginning :)
love your channel as well 👍
Yep, that SD card was yuge.. need to keep the fixer sloshing on that one. 🤪
All young people have no idea what he is doing :)
@@buddy1155 You sayin young people don't know how to develop their SD cards?
I've been cast iron welding using pieces of cast iron and a torch for a little while now. I'd love to know what you think about that as it's still very much a lost art to me. The "filler rod" and base metal both melt at the exact same temperature, which makes the welding super annoying, but with proper pre-heat and post-heat, the weld and the base metal should technically cool at the same rate, minimizing cracking. The issue is that if you cool the weld down too quickly, it turns into white cast iron that contains a bunch of carbide and becomes near impossible to machine and very weak. Have you ever tried this yourself? I only use it when I need a cast iron repair that looks EXACTLY the same as the base metal.
I love Hand Tool Rescue. It must be MINUS 300 degrees Canadian up there right now!
Interesting.
Even brazing with silicon bronze is a lost art. I knew a guy who used to repair many old Gravely engine blocks with silicon bronze on the intake and exhaust mounting bosses and many other things. He had a knack for it!
It definitely works well in your videos. I know the level you refurbished came out really well.
@@mrmudslide5676 Minus 300 degrees Canadian sounds pretty cool!
I may be one of the most irritating opinionated trolls on RUclips, FB and ... But I can't find anything irritating enough in your video to get my mediocre vocabulary fired up. Thank you for that! I'll just grin and chuckle along with your humor as I learn stuff. How refreshing. Seriously, thanks again!
I think you explained it pretty well here, but i will add some information, as i was taught the process of welding cast iron in school. You will want to make a U grove instead of a V shape, it helps with the tension. As you mentioned - try not to overheat by welding, heat up the piece to the needed temp, put a bead, control the cooling and pound on the weld to help with relieving stress, continue until you have welded the piece. On the piece you welded, you would want to go 3/4 in with that U grove, weld it up, flip it , make a U grove from the other side and go through your weld aswell and fill that side just as you did the first one, theoretically it should hold well. (Usually those cast iron rods are hygroscopic, because of the flux that's used so you will want to preheat them before use aswell, i guess one reason why somebody would prefer TIG over rod)
Hello. I also have the "pleasure" to weld cast iron. The method of knocking down the electrode coating is very effective, it is also worth re-piercing the weld right after welding. I weld parts of textile machines from the second half of the 20th century. Cast iron is cast iron, everyone knows that it is a painstaking material, worse when cast iron works at high temperatures and has a different wall thickness, then there is a big problem. I use Oerlikon Superfonte Ni electrodes, sometimes NiFe depends on the job. I rarely heat it, I prefer to make short stitches because I introduce less heat into the fabric, avoid sudden changes in temperature while cooling down, often wrap it with a fire blanket, then it cools down slowly. Greetings from Poland. Substantive video and cool as always👍🏻
I just did cast iron the other day in my TIG class and they had us using 1/8" nickle rods, IDK the specific designation though.
Hey Tony,
One small remark. It seems you combined 2 methods in one. Normally a choice is made between:
- Using Nickel and a low/no preheat and let the "softer" nickel deform during cooling to decrease the tensile stresses. (in fact nickel expands more than normal steel -> depending on which exact alloy of course). Often combined with "pelgrim step" or even cooling the steel down after each pass.
- Using a high preheat as in the video and using regular steel filler (not recommended) or cast iron filler (recommended). Most often cast iron is available in SMAW consumables since this technique suits itself for repair of more "dirty" alloys.
However I'm going to recommend this video every time someone asks me how to repair their cast iron items. The part were you've shown the cracking is worth it since most think welders over react when talking about cast iron.
I will never actually weld cast iron, but absolutely loved this video. Thanks for your awesome content, please keep it up.
I once had to remove three cast iron pillars so a helicopter could land at a local docks area. After the weekend show during which the chopper was giving rides I had to weld the pillars back in place. I just used an electric welder with cast iron rods (with flux covering obviously) and found it pretty easy. Since nobody complained that any of the pillars had broken I assume that my welding worked OK!! I must go back some time and have a look. :-)
The train workshops my Dad used to work at would weld cracked engine blocks by heating the WHOLE thing up on a bed of burning coals for like half a day, then welding the crack (or patching the window if it was a case where a rod had made a run for freedom), then letting the whole lot cool back down really slowly.
LOL "run for freedom."
Tony, you never cease to put a smile on my face. Love what you're doing, keep it up!
Back in the 60’s my father was a military mechanic in Canada. One of their proficiency exams was to weld cast iron. If you could do that you proved your welding skill. Times have changed
Now any 12-year-old watching RUclips can do it.
Great video, and I truly love your fine jokes, a true man with fine sense of humor 😊😂. Keep the good work up. ❤
I recently worked in a shop where we did cast iron weld repairs on extremely cracked cylinder heads. We were the reman for a few major manufacturers. All the welding was done in a gas furnace after a long warm up time with a torch and specially chosen welding rod. Obviously I'm leaving out quite a few details but the processes were pioneered by the shop owner and the lead welder. By the time we were done, the repairs were stronger than new.
In grey irons, for a minimal stress relief and partial softening of the hardened HAZ, heat slowly to 480°C and cool in still air. For greater softening and stress reduction (to approximately one half of the original residual stress level), heat to 590°C and cool in still air. Ideally it is wise to perform heat treatment without allowing the casting to cool after welding.
Maximum softening can be achieved by heating to 900°C followed by furnace cooling. This produces a ferritic matrix, and the slow cooling ensures a structure free from residual stress.
Source: not me.
I keep coming back to watch reruns in desperation whilst you publish a new one. My life has meaning because of your videos
Came for the cast iron welding, loved the rest of the show! What an entertainer!
So glad to have you back, Tony! The world went a little wonky while you were away. Your videos help the healing process. Please, keep them coming!
I learned about cast iron cracking when I tried to fix a cast iron Christmas tree stand as a teenager. The water basin had a crack in it and would leak water all over the floor. I MIG welded it (flux core technically) and it cracked again within seconds. I ended up JB-welding it and still use it to this day!
I got sent to one of our customers with a parts delivery about 15 years ago, guy was a mechanic specialising in IVECO vans. Walked in and he had a Ferrari on the lift. Asked him what was wrong with it and he said the aluminium fuel tank was leaking, the sender unit was steel and pressed against the tank bottom. Galvanic corrosion left it leaking. Asked how much a new tank was and he told me about £4000. So then I asked when it was coming? His reply?
"Fuck that, I'm JB-Welding it..."
I've successfully welded a couple of cast iron exhaust manifolds using MIG with stainless wire. Baked them in the oven at high temperature for an hour or so, then had a propane torch directed inside the manifold towards the cracked area whilst I welded it. Peened it as I welded and wrapped the whole thing in a fire blanket after. I'm sure it developed some micro cracking but both manifolds lasted several years until the respective cars were sold.
I like the editing of your videos. It's fun to watch your content.
Thanks for the great video! My brain is still hurting trying to remember the "Joni Mitchell was right all along" song trying to break through all the fog......Great info and great humor!! Made my day....😅🙃😀
Havent seen it yet. Liked the video anyways. Because im confident that the machining, welding and dad joke craftmanship will be on point.
Thanks for the reminder, I've heard interaction makes the youtube magic 8-ball AI algorithm less stupid.
I was just coming down here to see if anyone reacted to the 'jump to 12:06', like were not here for the full show
Also; loving that the ”SUBSCRIBE”s are back, edited into picture so cleaverly that you hardy notice it even when a word changes from i.e Mitutoyo to Subscribytoyo (or something similar, just remember that i laughed out loud that time)
That went better than I expected 🙂
Some 45 years ago, one of my uncles had a welding shop specialized in welding cast iron cylinder heads and engine blocks. It was a time consuming effort, with long preparation, stabilization and finishing times (only possible due to the insulting low wages the employees received). Basically the part would be heated under a load of charcoal, over a large bed of sand, in a confined space. When the charcoal was burnt to ashes, the champion welder would get in and weld the part. Then, a couple of apprentices, properly insulted by the welder, would quickly bury the part in the hot sand and leave it there till the following day. Only then it would be known if it was a success or a failure. Nowadays it would not be economical to do it.
If someone wants it done right they have to pay for it. - I am retired but I still get calls to do cast iron repairs...And I do it with charcoal and real rod. - Did a pre- Civil war cast iron chair leg for a museum. There no way they would have accepted No rod or brass.....And just for the record, When I got done even we could not tell which leg had been welded. (Cost them $725)
@@mathewmolk2089 I thought that nobody did that anymore. Glad to know it's not a completely lost art. Yes, if properly done, you can't tell where the weld was made. Keep on doing that excellent work!
I welded a Starrett vise wise on Montgomery Wards buzzbox. That was 50 years ago, and it's still going strong. Used a high- nickel? rod, good preheat, and post-weld peining.
I worked at a Catapillar heavy equipment dealer/repair shop for a few years, and all of the cast iron that I welded was on the engine head exhaust ports. I did it with a stick and nickel rods. Depending on the weather determined if I preheated it or not. After running a bead around the entire port, I would use my chipping hammer to peen the weld. My understanding was that peening would cause the heat to distribute more easily through the entire head, drawing the heat away from the weld area, but who knows. It worked for me considering I welded around all of the exhaust ports on about 15-20 heads and never had one crack appear anywhere, so peening did actually seem to serve a purpose overall. There were a few times where some dumbass would open the side door during the winter even when we placed signs on it and the 2 bay doors. Opening the side door created a huge vacuum in the weld shop so cold air just funneled in like a cyclone. A few times that happened just after I finished a bead but for by some miracle nothing ever cracked. I would increase my peening speed to a more rapid pace, but not sure if it helped or not. The only thing you did wrong was not using your kids to do the testing. That is like a sacred rule as a parent whenever you have a situation that's kinda iffy.lol.jk. not really , you have angered the Gods and they must be appeased,, so you'll probably end up having to give away your Mahahotaho to another you tuber like Dyresta or AVE. Hopefully that appeases them, if not, you might have to get your son to hold on to the spark plug wire on your mower and do a few pulls for extra credit. Lol
I forgot to mention, we never used any type of slow cool down process with ovens, kilns, insulation, sand., nothing. Just weld it, peen it, let it cool off on the steel welding table, then take it over to the machine shop so they could Mill it all back down to spec.
Haven't seen the whole video yet, but just thought I'd point out. We did some cast stick welding on a tractor bridge (basically the axle for the front wheels) and they sold me some nickel electrodes. They were extremely expensive (like more than the inverter machine I bought a few months prior) for a pack, but welded beautifully. I think it was technically brazing but it behaved just like welding. Took a bit less amps as well. The puddle was a bit more liquid but it flowed very nice. I clamped the sides with some copper so it wouldnt stick and filled in the full ground chamfer. We colled it off slowly by wrapping a few layers of glass wool around it and it still holds today. Crazy strong stuff.
Sorry for commenting what was said in the video already. Didnt have time to watch the whole vid before. Enjoyed it though 👍
@redxpen Thanks for explaining. You learn something every day 🙂
I've been told by many of old timers, before I became one myself, nickel is the way to go for cast iron
@redxpen Mr Welder, mind if I ask you a question? I have a firewood oven with a crack in it, but the oven is rather large. Will I need to preheat the entire oven, or will a zone around the weld suffice?
@redxpen noted, thanks a lot!
Nickel can do anything, and look juicy af, whilst. Some old coins are pure nickel, or cupro-nickel. Might work, in a pinch, if you can't find or afford the rods.
That's got to be the best conversion to metric I've ever seen.
When are we going to find out that TOT is actually a big name editor, the quality of the cuts and the video, damn. Always impeccable.
I just love your humor. This video is awesome
Tony, you are the only person with the tools and skills to make the following. A Jacobs chuck and drill bit. Made from scratch. Out of wood. To finally find out much wood could a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood.
Keyed or keyless?
Tig Brazing Cast with bronze has done me favours beyond with welding cast, same process with preheat and post heat but the elasticity of the bronze filler really helps even with the heavy duty uses of it, vises and press dies.
should give it a try, the gold veins give it some cosmetics too.
Yeah I was wondering why he didn't mention it. I too just braze cast, but maybe in this application not strong enough or pieces were too small? I really like how the brass flows into the pores like a sponge.
He's got another video on TIG brazing. This was an opportunity to tackle a subject lots of metalworkers are curious about, with lots of "old wives tales" and myth surrounding it.
how i fix alot of the cast iron handles on the old machines in my jobs machine shop. They got tired of using broken handles all the time and i mentioned just brazing them together and they looked at me like i had a D growning out of my forehead. Then i fixed one and they used it hard for a few months, the first monday after that month i had about 10 handles in my booth.
Absolutely love your editing and humor.
Another great video. As a video it was well worth welding the cast. As a functioning tool, well, I would have made a new part from steel plate a long time ago. Pre heat and very slow cool down is critical for cast. A thing you did but did not comment on is the cleaning of your stock to be welded. You should have clean metal at least 1 inch in all dimensions or directions from the weld joint to prevent intrusion of dirt to the weld. This is a point that many don't understand. Thanks again Tony, I love that you are using your son in the videos and passing along information to him. :D
I remember having to do cast iron welding back in trade school. We would be given two cast-iron rods around 3/4 diameter, sharpened to a pencil point, and have to weld them together, to pass we had to bend the welded rod back on itself and have the rod break somewhere other than the weld. We would use stick and oxy at the same time, so oxy on the left hand, stick in the right hand with the oxy constantly heating around the weld pool. It was not so easy to get right.
In the shop, we used to weld cracked cast-iron cylinder heads in much the same way, although we would heat them up in the oven and also cool them down in the oven over several hours.
Oh, how I miss working in fab shops. There are always some new challenges to learn how to repair components on boilers or vessels that were built decades before I was born. Had a couple heads to an exchanger that had the id of the nozzles and inside face nickel cladded originally but client brought the spares in and wanted to replace the original cs nozzles with (I am hazy on the exact material name it's been a few beers and rally rides ago) let's just say it's nickel. Well first dealing with the state and code requirements, then writing and testing a proper procedure for I believe ended up being 3 different procedures - cs to the nozzle material and then the nozzle material to the cladding on the inside face and then the cladding to cs. As much as a nightmare it is to figure out requirements when doing code work and dealing with AI along with having to create new procedures that may or may not ever be used in my lifetime, I miss having the challenges like that. Maybe one day, someone will give this outlaw another chance.
When I was kid I broke my metal cutting band saw at the hinge where the saw mounts to the table. In my first attempt I welded it with normal .030 flux core wire in my mig and it cracked. So I preheated it with an electric heat gun then welded it again with the flux wire followed by some post heating with the heat gun. It seemed to work just fine.....It's been 30+ years now and fortunately it's never broken again cuz I later learned you can't weld cast iron without special wire.
Yes ignorance can be a blessing.
?;o)
@@NICEFINENEWROBOT Yeah, sometimes not knowing is half the battle 😉
Not only was this informative, it was very entertaining as well. The comedy aspect made it good material for the Cannes Film Festival or up for an Oscar!
HELLO from las Vegas Nevada,
Thank you for the video,
GOD BLESS YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.
Fantastic work as always sir. I fear there's a whole generation for whom that opening will be meaningless - but, for old farts like me (who processed their own photos back in the day) it was priceless.
I'm 33 and I laughed my butt off at that segment. The old ways are preserved in our arts, I can't count the number of old movies/TV shows that had at least one 'dark room' scene in them.
No, we get it too. At least I do, though I've only ever seen it in movies and TV, and the occasional RUclips video.
I still have my darkroom stuff and an assortment of cameras, thinking I will use them again some time but probably never will.
@@TheConjurersTower Absolutely - a crime drama wasn't a crime drama without the darkroom scene.
@@averyw.3939 It really was magical watching the image appear in the developer tray....then fixing it....washing it.....drying it....only to find that you were two stops off with the exposure and starting again. Actually, maybe there is something to this digital photography thing LOL.
I am always gladdened to see another, This Old Tony , video show up in my play list. Your work is always refreshing, educational, and entertaining. You are one in a million really. Many can weld but not many can give others good information while bringing a smile to their faces as you do. May God continue to bless you my friend as you have been a blessing to so many of us.
One of my earliest memories from sixty-five years ago. Holding the cutting torch with the cut lever turned back, keeping the castings warm for my dad to weld the cracked part.
This video is a masterpiece.
You are obviously a genius.
Thank you
Years ago I needed a bigger grate for my fire, so I cut up 2 cast iron grates and welded them together using MIG with cheap mild steel wire and no prep. I have 2 friends who are welders and they both said it would break in no time.
Maybe the heat of the fire has de-stressed it or something, but 18 years later, it’s still fine - I even dropped it once when cleaning it 😄
That would definitely affect it.
Lol
Cheap 'cast iron' is often just made from melted scrap steel !
I can't imagine what would be more satisfying, fixing your fire or proving the expert welder wrong 😂😂
Some 35 years ago I had an 8" crack in the cast bell-housing on my 1970 Chris Craft. I just grabbed the mig with the mild wire and had at it. I was chasing the crack for a little bit but I got it done and held up pretty well. I guess I got lucky.
The house of pain you had to go through is very much appreciated. Thank you for jumping through hoops for us.
lol
This guy is methodical AND funny. I’m an electrician and plumber. I always regret never learning to weld when I was younger.
I always enjoy your humor! The videos, too! LOL!!
It always makes my day when you post a new video. Glad to see you're back at it regularly. Sorry for your family's loss.
I'm excited to see your jokes and wizardry again
You've got me second guessing all the metal stuff in my house, I'm starting to think they might be made of Oreo!
If in doubt, just dip it into a cup of milk.
If it gets softer...
Thank you!!! Love the beginning SO MUCH!!
Nice video. the preheating and post heating with slow cooling works on a lot of materials that would crack, like 4140 heat treat. I worked on a lot of repaired fluid ends for the oil field Frac industry and the company had custom built furnaces big enough to put fluid ends in to preheat and post heat for welding repairs.
Another great video! I I laughed my ass off when you added that WD-40 at the end. I'm an electrician and spend a lot of time bending up to 4" conduit using hydraulic benders so I am very aware of the forces and pressures involved with that but I was shocked to see your Bender take care of that beefy piece of steel on such a sharp angle by hand and the weld still held like a champ ( I never doubted you for a second). Thanks for sharing Tony and I can't wait till the next one.
It is impressive how much educational can be a funny video like this! Thanks Tony, keep up this passion. I think you video is very inspirational for who like me need a machinist knowledge but not for professional work. I'm a farmer from Italy and more than one trick you teach here help me for repair important machine. Thank you for your passion
I just mig welded a 3 piece patch over a large hole in the cast iron gear box case of a post hole auger. Preheated, and post heated. Used C25 and solid steel wire. So far it looks like it worked great!
Fun and informative video as always TOT! 🥰👍
I always find the content of Tony's videos informative and entertaining. My wife often finds me asleep halfway through and then I have to rewatch it again when I'm not so tired.
Absolute genius of a story telling episode - your video creations are amazing, and I learnt a lot about welding cast iron. Thank you!
the only channel where I watch even the videos I am not generally interested in, just for a standup comedy value :D Amazing content presentation Tony!
Had decades of trying to weld cast iron, even with the help of Stubbs (when they were around). No joy. Cast steel? Easy, I always used stick, 316L stainless. Add a bit of heat, no problem. Never tried nickel. Great content. 👍
Excellent video, funny and informative. When I was in welding school back in the 70's, we either gas welded (oxy acet) with cast iron filler rod, or arc welded with nickel or 'extra low carbon steel' electrodes. Gas welding with cast iron was like welding bubble gum.
Yes, we can. I have a number of times. I use the new rods that contain, I believe, molybdenum, to bring the weld melting point to that of the cast iron, eliminating the need for preheat, and also eliminates post cracking. It makes it fairly easy to do.
Interesting, I've always been under the impression that you can't weld it to make a strong repair, but you can braze it. That's way it's important not to melt the cast but use only enough heat to flow the filler. I'm curious to know how bringing the cast to a molten state would not make it brittle at the edge of the weld no matter what filler is used. How would the filler help the HAZ when no filler is there? Honest questions.
Indeed! I have a cast iron grill/grate thing for my webber grill that broke in half when I dropped during cleaning. A new one was 100$ and a month wait. I tig welded it with some rod or another. Been fine ever since.
Tig weld use 309
@@Steve_Just_Steve Bullshit is very common on the net! Many of those who provide their wisdom on welding cast iron, do not understand that welding processes, cause carbon migration into the HAZ, which will in come cases mean cracking.
There are ways to reduce carbon migration, but bringing the material to red heat, and welding with a gas torch, and filler similar to the base metal, using controlled cooling, is the only method which minimises carbon migration, and where close to original part strength is retained.
I've used Muggy Weld SMAW rods, are those what you are referring to? I don't know what the secret sauce is in those, but they are pricey!
pretty good vid, I weld a fair amount of cast myself. I've developed a couple of techniques. one thing I would share is that when I'm done welding I heat the whole piece up to even out the temp, then slow cool it. it helps quite a bit.
Excellent vid, cast is tricky. First if you are welding something like a transmission casting and there is a crack you have to terminate the crack by drilling a hole at the ends of the crack, this also works with cast aluminum too. If not the crack will keep going even if you lay a perfect "stitch" with decent penetration. There are special branded rods for cast iron(SMAW), I generally use and have had great success with standard nickel rods either high nickel or lower nickel alloy depending on the type and situation. Muggy sells a nice rod for this purpose. Preheating is a must for large cast parts: cast soaks up the heat. Your explanations between the different types of cast is quite important. Most of my welding is done for repairs on vehicles or trucks, its been quite a trip back to HS chemistry and physics because you find all types of steels, alum alloys and types of parts. Still learning to be honest, I mostly use DC stick and oxy/acetylene had to learn being a mechanic in the rust belt where sometimes changing out a control arm requires the use of a welder or an expensive engine part breaks that is actually repairable or you need to change out a core support thats rotted. I wanna step up my game in GTAW I love the clean results for parts you actually see. Thanks for the excellent vid 👍👍
Well said I’ve welded several tractor and a few car blocks you’ve got to drill the holes
what a lifesaver this video was I literally broke my grandpas cast iron rock crusher 2 days ago and he was pissed,
thanks for the super helpful video.
My dad worked as a welder for years (he's retired now). Once in the factory he worked, a cast iron piece from a machine broke, there was this engineer (the head of a department in the factory) that was sure that cast iron cannot be welded and was willing to bet on it. My dad bought a couple of those weld rods and went to town with his stick welder. Meanwhile the engineer asked for a new piece to replace the one broken. Only two days later the new piece broke in the same spot. The workers replaced the broken piece with the one my dad welded. Up until that small factory closed a couple years back the machine ran with the repaired part. And my dad got to win a bet and got some free grilled meat. 😋
What a great story! That was a lesson to everyone in the factory!🙂
Have we got the same dad? Mine did pretty much the same.
Meanwhile the engineer made twice your dad’s salary. Always go to college.
I love hearing stories like this. The idea of throw it out and get a new one to anyone in the maintenance/ repair business is ludicrous. That's what we do , it's what we know .
@@andybaldman So you can be brainwashed by a bunch of commissars? No thanks! Society should be organized around meritocracy. A degree should be viewed as almost worthless today as most people that go to collage are worthless, they let almost anyone in. An education should only be viewed as valuable if they go back to being selective in who they chose to give diplomas to. I would pay the sharp self thought worker 3 times more than the midwit with a collage degree.
I've had a mixed bag of success with welding cast iron. Some of my welds have held up better than the original piece and some took several attempts before they held, especially if it was subjected to a lot of oil in its past life. Nickel rod or brazing seem to be the best solution in my experience.
I have had the best luck brazing. It seam to be just as strong if you can have full weld prep with full penetration of braze. You avoid the brittle zone which can make it more durable.
Use silicone bronze , heliarc ,clean weld area ,works ever time .easy peasy ,not rocket science
i love this guys videos the small jokes but he really knows what he is doing and knows how to keep you there till the end even after you get what you needed to know
Thank you for converting 1/2" to km 😂👍
By doing so you demonstrated that the metric system is simply stunning - everybody immediately understood the measurement