I have 2 hp cast iron bore pump which froze & cracked the housing . Anyone remember that episode of Car SOS where that old school guy cold repaired an old engine block how & what he used ? This pump would cost $1000 to replace .
whqqsh,
Jul 14, 10:02am
Best repairs on cast iron Ive done is with (& I hate to say it because many overpriced products arent worth their hype) Strata pre fluxed rod. Scarf the crack, heat the hell out of the housing, dont burn into the parent metal with the torch & it flows & builds real easy, good stuff IMO
mrfxit,
Jul 14, 10:10am
Exactly where & how big the crack is determines the process to be used & viability of the repair.
seadubya,
Jul 14, 10:39am
That was Car SOS Episode 10, you may be able to find it online but here is the script from that segment. ??
sifty,
Jul 14, 11:13am
Yeah saw that. Drilled little holes and hammered in metal 'stitches'.
Intriguing.
elect70,
Jul 14, 12:20pm
Yep ive seen cast iron brazed before but but not on a pressurised casting .This pump gets to 60 psi & sits outside in all weather & have had a few severe frosts . Its for a friends " lifestyle ' farm & is for the stock watering . See if I can find a copy of that episode . getting the right materials would be the hard part .
whqqsh,
Jul 14, 12:23pm
agree the younger guys dont want to work & the few that do dont have the patience to learn & practice. So many these days cant even use a gas plant, Ive seen a guy in his late 20's a few years out of adult apprenticeship couldnt set up a torch to gas-cut (spent 20 minutes 'melting' through a frame), another at the same place had no idea how to build up a cam, everytime I showed him within minutes he'd be back to doing it 'his way' & making the same mistakes.
intrade,
Jul 14, 2:06pm
you can weld cast iron but it needs to be heated in a oven and keep to a temperature while welding.
skiff1,
Jul 14, 3:40pm
Elect70, could you post a picture of the casting and the crack? That would make it easier to give accurate advice.
skiff1,
Jul 14, 3:45pm
and I know plenty of ignorant old farts who can't get how to use synergic MIGs or run a Palma cutter to save their lives. Just because you don't work somewhere that is attractive to the very talented and hardworking young guys out there, doesn't mean they don't exist. Maybe to many condescending fogeys? Any workshop I've ever been in, you would get your arse kicked if you knew another guy was doing something wrong for 20 minutes and never showed him how to do it right.
whqqsh,
Jul 14, 4:58pm
calm down petal, it's when you do try to show someone how to do something & they think they know better even though they've cocked it up & continue to cock it up then throw their toys out the cot because lifes too tough, that you realise some are a lost cause. And as for the guy who was melting his way through a frame, as soon as I realised what he was trying to do I went over to help but he'd already been at it for the 20 minutes. & as for using a 'point & shoot' ooh sorry mig & 'palma' cutters (Im assuming a typo) that really are quite basic in operation (probably why so many people thing they're special being able to use them) & nothing new
snoopy221,
Jul 14, 5:02pm
bore? rebore and sleeve? good cast rods and arc and a good welder and 60 psi is no biggie-shizz with cast is CONTROLLED temp at weld and during cooling.
serf407,
Jul 14, 6:16pm
Cast iron repair https://youtu.be/Pq0wfU4ZaKk You will be doing well to repair some old NZ cast iron pumps. Some 'warp' when heated/ repair and do not pump again. You might also put a band around the pump to further support the pump when the repair is complete.
skiff1,
Jul 14, 7:40pm
feel free to pick up typos, but if you do, it burns a bit more when you don't make one of your own. Anyway, like I said, just because you don't see them, doesn't mean they don't exist.
whqqsh,
Jul 15, 4:17am
so how would your wonderful mig & 'palma' fix this guys pump?
skiff1,
Jul 15, 6:31am
actually, I "thing" that I'd do this job with a stick. Vee it out, clean the grinding with a sander. Preheat to 180* Celsius. Tack. Peen the shit out of the tacks. Weld in short runs of 20 seconds and peen for a minute. High amps for the size of the rod, with a wide weave. Final pass with less amperage to reduce undercutting. Never more than five minutes out of the oven. Sand clean, no grinder. Cool at 10* per hour till 100*. In the oven.
You see smarty pants, this is a job I have done a few times. And the reason I know how, is the old guys I worked with spent their time teaching, not bitching about young guys. And, they learnt stuff in the process.
skiff1,
Jul 15, 6:32am
Elect70, any chance of a pic?
whqqsh,
Jul 15, 7:55am
google IS your friend
bwg11,
Jul 15, 11:38am
This is the way I would attack this job. Used this technique on engine blocks successfully. It will never be as strong as the original, so consider better frost protection.
elect70,
Jul 15, 11:52am
Na i aint got it here ill tell owner take it to local engineer who does farm work & give him your suggestion , i dont have welding gear i just do the electrical side of repair cheers
skiff1,
Jul 15, 12:27pm
It can be surprisingly expensive to do, just because all the heating and cooling uses heaps of time. Best of luck.
As above, a bit of lagging won't go astray to keep from splitting again.
skiff1,
Jul 15, 12:29pm
Sorry, I can't remember the type of electrodes, but they were from BOC.
richardmcf,
Jul 16, 6:41pm
Cast iron brazes well with a gas set so long as you prep the weld area by chipping with a sharp chisel, grind file or sand and the free carbon smears the area to be brazed and it is game over
marte,
Jul 19, 6:45pm
Whats the brand of the pump? I used to fix a common NZ brand pump with a brass lining. Not 'Radford' brand, that was the name of the compressors I fixed, they were designed so you could use morris minor pistons and rings in them. For cast iron repairs we used a gas braizing rod that had pink flux already on them. They must have put scent in the flux because every time we used them we could smell strawberrys'.
The way of repairing castiron cracks with those 'stitches' is a company method. I don't think that just anyone can buy the parts. I read a reveue about the company' they have a shipping container in HongKong and another somewhere else so they just pick it up and deliver it and fly the workers in later. The jobs they were doing were huge though. In the reveue they were fixing a huge hole in the casting around a ships engine, while it was still running.
I'd braze it up just like post #25. I found that a slow file over of the welding surface after grinding the crack out was enough. Preheats a must.
I have never been keen on arc welding castiron. 56S or RSP will do it though.
rollerman1,
Aug 11, 5:59pm
There is a Guy in Rongotea, Palmerston North that specialises in cast iron repairs. Thomas Rowe Engineering. Kellow Road, RD 6 . Phone 06 3248707. Give him a ring, he should be able to give expert agvice.
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