The hydraulic top cover is busted on my TO-35 and I am going to attempt to fix it and am looking for some advice. I weld for a living mostly tigging small machine parts and some FCAW welding on larger parts. I have done a small amount of brazing for the local paper mill on some rather large (1000lb ish) bearing housings and so far I have not heard back from them so it must have held. :lol: I have also done some silicon bronze work with the tig rig on smaller cast parts and felt like I had much better control over the puddle mostly because I do alot more tigging than anything else. So my question is what is the best method to use on this cover?
When I did the large bearing housing we had two people with rosebuds on it keeping the temp up while I brazed it then we wrapped it in fire blankets overnight to let it cool slowly. This housing would be easy enough to do at home and use my wifes oven :shock: to cool it down. Cast iron repair is something I really want to learn more about because it seems to be more like a black art than anything else. I had an old guy who knew all the old ways like brazing silver solder and SiBronze welding but he died unexpectedly and now I am on my own I really miss that old man something terrible. :(
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
Are you going to machine the cover flat afterwards? If not you will probably have leaks. I like welding odd things like that or brazing them. But picking your battles is important too. I know you want to learn but to repair that part when a replacement is so readily available is just plain silly and a waste of resources.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
Braze it unless you want to get into what george is doing... I often arc weld smaller pieces with Sodel 35 rod and it works fine but something like that will crack all to hell when it cools if you try to arc weld it.
Re: Need some advice in reply to Dean, 02-27-2013 07:23:11
Quoting Removed, click Modern View to see
Y'all are seriously missing the point, this isn't about saving money this is about advancement of my knowledge and skills. I weld and fabricate professionally and the more skills I have the more desirable I become in the labor pool. Besides the fact the rods and gas are free so what have I got to loose?
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
I could repair this piece and when I got finished you would have to look very hard to tell if it had ever been broken,but you would not like the price, and I would not arc weld it. To repair cast is very expensive, any way that you do it. Ni-rod is in excess of $40.00 a pound. Brazing rod isn't cheap either and acet and oxygen are out the roof. I'd opt for a used lift cover, unless you just want to try your luck at repairing cast, but I'd have a replacement lined up before I started, it may not turn out the way you had hoped.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-27-2013 08:31:14
Not trying to scare anyone off.Most people just don't realize how much welding supplys have gone up in the last year or so. I just think you could probably find a good used one for less money.Some things it pays to fix and some doesn't I've been doing this suff for a lifetime. Going to be retiring before too long.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
I think it looks like a pretty nice casting...
Do you know what kind of iron it is?
A simple spark test can help you, theres even a chance its cast steel... Malleable iron isnt hard to stick weld, but grey and white can be... Audio/Video clip:video1
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
That is a good job for O/A cast iron welding, many times arc weld on something like that will come back to haunt you.Brazing would be much better than arc ,and o/a cast iron would be better yet , and stronger as it becomes part of the work and not bonded to it.
Items needed -- pile of fire brick,1 or 2 large propane torches ,# 4 or 5 welding torch, can of good welding flux , temp gun to get the temp right to weld and to normalize when done, ceramic fiber to cover while heating and cooling.
Need 1000 to 1200 deg preheat to weld and 1500 to normalize ( for 15 minutes ) when done.Temp drop from 1500 to 1200 should take at least 1/2 hour so as not to chill and make it hard and brittle.
Below is a photo of the brick oven to heat the engine. Also the link below will show the cylinder before and after the weld.
george
oven with 2 propane burners to heat casting to 1200 deg F to weld
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
I was just looking up the specs on some Ni rod today. I've got a bunch of Harris NLW 59 rod- That one they say to preheat to 400 and then let cool slowly once done welding. The other rod they have is NLW 99, which is what everyone is recomending. That one says preheat is still good, especially on big castings, but not life or death from what I read.
How did it break? Certainly not impossible to weld and probably something I would try to tackle.
How would I do it? Carefully. I really don't know how I'd approach it though, but if you can clamp it flat it would probably help. Would probably still need to dust the bottom side once done to make sure you don't put any more stress on it.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
That is an interesting project. "It's going to pull 7 ways from sunday", as my friend that taught me to weld would say. lol I would use ni99 rod as well. Also when I do something like that I try to weld the inside first so it pulls everything tight and that will aslo help keep it straight. You may want to have it milled flat before you try to bolt it down. I think you will have a hard time keeping it straight enough to not crack when you put it back on. Other than that I think it should work ok. Is there a reason you don't want to get a replacement?
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
My. dad, a welder taught me to braze. I assisted him repair a Cub engine that had been pulled apart. He ground just as you have done, tacked each end and middle, then flipped over and ground and tacked the opposite side. Then completed one side, ground out the tacks from the other side and brazed the other side. I usually put the parts I'm brazing on the propane fish cooker and preheat and braze with it on low heat. I have repaired quite a few items by brazing.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
Just out of curosity it looks like you ground the crack with a grinder which is ok to start with. You prep area with grinder but finish everywhere you are going to weld with a file. Reason is cast iron has large grains of carbon in it that "smears" when ground and contaminates the weld.Where as the file cuts them off clean. This comes from the old timers I worked with in the power plants. I did some brazing of cast iron but have more experiance machining it. Im sure I will be told I am full of it.Is it cast iron or cast steel?
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
I would go and get a replacement from the salvage yard. Probably broken by the lift cylinder out of adjustment and pushing on the housing. Lots of pressure on that cover.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
Aside of the welding process you might want to check over at the Ford Forums. Seems to me that there is something in the lift that goes bad or breaks that causes that??
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
I was thinking it might be good to weld it bolted onto its base . They way you have it cleaned up it looks as if you could run a bead on the outside enough to seal it up without having to do any machining of the mating surface. Nice prep work.
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
See you lost me already :P I dont have any experience using cast rods although we do have them at work. Why would you go for cast rods vs brazing and how often to peen and with what, a chipping hammer or the ball end of a ball/peen hammer?
Re: Need some advice in reply to aarolar, 02-26-2013 15:45:03
Well you certainly have it cleaned up nicely. I would heat it slowly and stick weld it , probably using ni99. I have done several repair jobs with that rod, all successful so far. Remember to cool it slowly and pein it during the cooling process.
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