Subject: Cast iron treadle repair

From: [email-masked] (Bruce E Johnson)
Date: 20 Feb 1994 00:49:12 GMT

I have an old, functional (until this morning! :-( White treadle 
sewing machine.  The treadle part has broken across the corner that 
attatches it to the crank.  It seems to be made of cast iron, and was 
broken there before, and brazed.  I suspect that not much stress was put 
on it, since inspection of the braze shows little actual contact between 
the brazing material and the treadle; it's all 'balled up' on the 
surface.  I've been told that welding cast iron is not readily feasable.  
Any ideas out there?  I do have access to a welding torch, and may be 
able to get to an arc welder of some sort, but I don't have a forge, or 
anything that'll easily let me heat the whole piece.

	I've also been told that White no longer makes the parts for this 
machine, which cuts out the easy way to deal with the problem

Thanks for any help

	Bruce Johnson
	The University of Arizona
	[email-masked] play
	[email-masked] work

	My opininons, Mine, Mine, all Mine!  Bwahahahaha!

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From: [email-masked]
Date: 21 Feb 1994 02:01:16 GMT

>Any ideas out there?  I do have access to a welding torch, etc. etc.

Rebraze it, done right this should make a good repair.  Use a good 
quality flux and get it hot enough and this will be as strong as the cast
iron.  I have had good luck repairing cast iron on a wood stove and
a drill press.

Dave Smucker

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From: [email-masked] (Joe Landau)
Date: Sat, 26 Feb 1994 04:16:06 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, Bruce E Johnson ([email-masked]) writes:
>surface.  

  a good brazing job wouldn't have "balled up" and would have been pretty
strong. 

>I've been told that welding cast iron is not readily feasable.  

You can weld cast iron with a nickel rod.  you can even weld cast to steel. 
See a welding supply shop.
 
Joe Landau

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From: [email-masked] (John D. Barlow)
Date: 1 Mar 1994 05:38:12 GMT

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Bruce E Johnson) writes:
|> I've been told that welding cast iron is not readily feasable.  

I bought (expensive) flux-covered welding rods for an arc-welder.  These
did a good job on a cast iron exhaust manifold I wanted to repair (but
I haven't used the exhaust system ...).

|> I do have access to a welding torch, and may be 
|> able to get to an arc welder of some sort,

I used my oxy-acetalene torch to heat the part up (light cherry red), then
used the arc welder to lay down a bead of weld.  The weld was noticably
better when the work-piece was hot (note that I didn't uniformly heat the
whole thing).  Then I would clean up the slag, then heat and weld again.

-- 
John Barlow, Parallel Computing Research Facility, I-Block,
Australian National University, Canberra, 0200, Australia.
email = [email-masked]
[International = +61 6, Australia = 06] [Phone = 2492930, Fax = 2490747]

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From: [email-masked] (Terry Mayhugh)
Date: 1 Mar 1994 15:02:15 GMT

You can certainly weld cast iron with a mix of the right skill, correct rod
and patience. However, if the piece broke at a previously brazed joint
you'll probably have to re-braze it. The braze material has probably
contaminated the area sufficiently to make welding too difficult. Brazing
is a perfectly acceptable way of repairing cast iron if the service
temperature is less than 500F. You can get practically as strong a joint as
you could with welding and it is easier to do. You just have to get the
joint hot enough. From the description of the previous "balled-up" repair
the previous repair may have been run too cold.