Tip for Welding dirty High Strength Nodular Cast Iron

by Gene
(Hawaii)

One of the swing tower eyelets (3"ID) let loose on my Backhoe.



Any feasible way to repair this high strength large nodular cast iron piece without removal or preheating was examined.
After consulting with the technical staff at Messer Welding they suggested "The Problem Solver" 1/8" MG289.

Wow! that rod works! Welding passes not over 2 rods width and short passes (not much more than 1" or so) then peening with with my needle scaler. I restarted welding when I could just touch the weld area with bare hands momentarily. The idea being to work slow and not overheat the metal.
Since the piece is a bitch to remove with 10 hydraulic hoses going through it, I was ecstatic when the welding held no with no cracks. I also sistered on some steel to the cast iron and the rod does that beautifully as well. It is still holding after more than 2 years.

Since then I have welded steel to old cast iron water pipe and a few other other odd jobs. It's great!

One downside--the rod is expensive--around $80/lb. However one pound of rod saved me over $3,000.

Happy Welding
Gene

--------------------------------------------
Gene, thanks for that great post,


jody