Thread: Wish me luck!

As I go forth and attempt to stick weld my broken cast iron base from my mini lathe.

i know its not a razor, but it IS one of my tools, and is hopefully going to once again become a useful part of my shop room.

Good Luck !

Good luck,cast Iron? may best to braze it,very difficult to weld.

you should use a special rod for cast and it has to be super clean. Good luck and may the force be with you.

As far as welding or brazing cast iron; Cleanliness is next to Godliness! And Essential!!!! You need to use a torch to thoroughly heat it to rid it of any oil or other contamination!

Originally Posted by cudarunner

As far as welding or brazing cast iron; Cleanliness is next to Godliness! And Essential!!!! You need to use a torch to thoroughly heat it to rid it of any oil or other contamination!

actually best to pre heat it in an oven IME

Super Glue that baby !

If the base is separate from the mini lath I agreed. I had presumed that it was all one piece! Perhaps the OP will let us know!

What kind of a lathe is it? I have parts for a Harbor Freight lathe - free, you pay shipping.

The base is a one piece cast iron, probably dates back to about 1910 Was abandoned in an old building in Coney Island where it was undoubtedly used for repairing rides until its bearings wore to the point of uselessness.

I did a lot of reading before taking on the project, and I heated the area around the break with gas torches before welding, and peened the weld areas, and kept the torches on the base for a long while after the welding. I would turn the torches down a notch every 15 minutes to slowly cool and equalize the casting/weld
End result is a butt ugly, but successful weld. Now to try and repair the chuck, which apparently I damaged in the disassembly. Always something!
I will post a pic of my crappy but useable repair in a little while. <welding electrode battle?