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Welding cast iron.

Mike G

Mike G

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I have spent the day refurbishing a Coronet lathe, and unfortunately, one of the parts was seized so solid that I cracked the casting in my efforts to free it. It's the bit which sits on the bed and clamps the post of the tool rest, so it isn't a highly stressed part. Does anyone here fancy a go at welding it for me? I'm well aware of the risks, but my only alternative is epoxy (or the bin). The biggest problem I can see is that there is only access to one side of the join.
 
So does your friend know you have been working on the lathe?[emoji848]
And that now you have broken it![emoji16]
 
In good news, almost everything else is sorted. I have a curious non-turning (by design) tailstock spindle with a pointless handle attached. I also still have a stuck drive spindle thingy, which is on a taper which won't budge. I may have to warm it up a little.
 
I dont have any ferronickle rods left. I dont think so anyway. Let me check. Can't promise anything though im afraid.
 
Thanks for all the suggestions so far, and for the PMs. Much appreciated. Here's the job:

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The drawback to welding is as you say you can only,weld one side of the break, and the stress from the pinch bold will be considerable and is probably the cause of the failure. My suggested solution is that you grind off the two lugs used as a pinch and weld up the break after veering it out, also weld the gap between the lugs. You can then drill and tap a horizontal hole to take a Bristol locking lever to tighten on the tool rest part.
It would be best drilled through the side away from the weld area. It will then look a bit like my rubbish Chinese version as shown.image.jpeg

If you can't find a volunteer to weld it, I would be happy to give it a shot, subject to lots of ducking and diving about possible failure etc.
Mike.
 
Kind offer, Mike. Thanks for that. And an interesting suggestion, too. I can see that being a useful option later, if my first preference, to fix this thing somewhat as it was a week ago, comes to nought.

It didn't fail from over-tightening. The whole thing was absolutely seized rock solid, and after soaking it all in a penetrating liquid I was just tapping the bolt a little with a hammer in an attempt to get it to turn. I probably tapped just once to often.....
 
The Coronet Tool Co was a Derby business situated about three miles away from me. At age sixteen I was the proud owner of a coronet minor lathe, that also suffered from a cracked casting as well!
 
That is probably one of the hardest breaks to fix, firstly its modern nasty cast, a thin section and it has to flex when tightened. Any fix will potentially break directly after the weld or braze. I've had similar repairs done and as long as you make it so their are washers in the gap so it cant flex.
I normally try and drill and tap before I weld.
 
Thanks Wallace. I appreciate your experience on this.
 
I spoke to him earlier. He suggests getting a later type of casting, new, from Record Power. I'll give them a ring tomorrow.
 
I've been ploddingly welding strange cast metals together recently.
All went well so far, until I tried tapping for handles on my pillar drill yesterday,
and I waited to get my fancy tap set and correctly sized bit and all. :cry:
Might have worked if I were using correct rods, but not with the ones I used.
The metal split on the weld/braze line, so need to weld on the handles this time round.
Lesson learned I suppose, don't and try braze or weld stress points.

It wouldn't be much bother to make that entire part from mild steel.
And possibly whilst you're at it, should the tool rest is a bit shoddy with some nibbles which would be excessive to file out..
It might be worth seeing if you can get that made aswell, maybe a long and a short one?

Only a few bits of metal in it which could be scrounged up, and should you prep it all,
A few good tacks would be enough to get it solid, and maybe good opportunity to do the rest for aesthetics sake yourself at a later date, should you pick up a welder for cheap sometime.

Tom
 
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