Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion cast iron repair?

both of the bases on my wayne 515's have small broken spots.unfortunatly i dont have the peices.is there a decent way to repair them or would i be better off getting new bases.cost is the big factor here,i am not restoring these yet.i am going to sand them down and put a coat of paint on them.i do want to seal them up a bit so wasps and such cant make a home in them.appreciate any info. mick

Mick, when racing we used to use POR-15 putty for quick repairs that would hold up until we could get to our shops or a welding shop that could do steel and cast iron welding repairs. We used it to repair the upper A arm on my TR-250 in between races at the SCCA Nationals one year. The car stayed together, I wish I could say I won, but the car did stay together. It is a water-based (or was) 2 part epoxy compound that dried hard as "metal". After it cured we could drill into it and when soft could mold it to whatever shape we needed. I don't know if Eastwood still carries it. But, it is still being made;

http://www.por15.com/

It is under the putty, sealers and fillers section. The company should be able to tell you if anyone carries it in your local area.

Mick, checking Ebay I see that quite a few auctions for the putty if you want to go that direction.

Ive used Smooth On "PC-3" two part epoxy filler. Its great for a filler and they even have a milltary strength. Check out Smoothon.com Roger

they make a welding rod for welding cast, or i have just v grooved out the crack and used my wire welder. may not look pretty at first but you are going to grind it smooth when done. and it is cheap!! chris

My buddy just did some cast welding for me, too bad you're not closer to me as he has a few of the special welding rods left over, they cost about $5.00 each.

you can use nickel rod just take a side cutter and bust off the outer coating or the flux on the rod.make sure to heat up the cast metal before you weld and keep it hot dont let it cool to fast or it will crack.If your missing parts use some clean steal and make it fit the spot and weld away.Tig welding works but its not as strong or the wire welder should work if thats what you have. heating the cast first and keeping it hot when your welding is the trick. remember dont let it cool to fast. good luck

Older post:
http://www.oldgas.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=21348&Number=129779#Post129779

Sounds like there is some excellent advice so far. I did a fire hydrant with preheat, my mig welder and lots of grinding smooth. Used JB weld for the small cracks and repairing some of the lettering. I've had success and failure with JB weld. Success on the fire hydrant but failure on a cracked compressor motor. I have seen some epoxy at the Auto Parts Store that they have nuts and bolts stuck in and it feels like steel. They claim it can be drilled and ground just like steel but I do not know the name.
Mike

Mike, did you pre-heat with a gas torch, and how did you clean the broken surface?

How much "power" does your Mig welder give and did you use any special "tread" ?

Your fire hydrant damage looks just like my G&B T8 visible attachement - would be great and a lot cheaper to fix it by myself.

thanks,
Claes

great advice guys.gonna see about welding in some reg steel .be stronger.thanks all!

I had a Wayne 60 with about 6" of the base missing. Made a piece out of mild steel and welded it in with a mig welder then ground it down and smoothed it out. I had it brass or copper plated and you could never guess where it was pieced in. I would not grind the weld on the inside to keep the strenght.

Ok one quick question.... I have a section missing about 4" square. How much putty would I need to buy to get the section filled in about 1/4 inch thick? Thanks. JOhn

A 4x4x.25 box has the same volume as a 5 inch long, 1 inch diameter cylinder. How big around is the POR-15 putty?

I don't know I have not purchased any which is why I am trying to determine how much I need to purchase. John