Don't you love it

[Willowbilly3]

When "experts" tell you you can't do something and you do it anyway, and it works.
When I put my 300-6 together I put the dual exhaust mainifolds from an efi on. One of them was cracked almost all the way around. A couple local machinist/welders told me you couldn't weld it and make it hold. A year later and maybe 2000 miles and it's still fine.
I also had a race car builder tell me the same thing when I welded one up for a friends hobby stocker. He ran it several races until he found another to replace it and it was still holding.
I use the cheap cast iron arc rod, not the nickel stuff. No preheat, just weld maybe 1/2 inch, then peen with a slag hammer for about a minute or so, repeat. Make sure there is no undercut, grind the weld smooth and finish with a flap wheel so you can't see the weld. The peening is the secret, it relieves all the stress. Smoothing it out keeps a uniform thickness and also strenghtens it. Surface irregularities give cracks a place to start.

 

[ratdog]

Good tips,thanks for posting. There seems to be a lot of " experts" out there ,gets kinda hard to figure out which ones to believe.

 

[CR55]

Everyone's an expert it seems! Good to hear you proved them wrong.[cl..CR

 

[likes_2_tinker]

Good one JB I will have to remember that one

 

[whiplash]

I believe some of the young guys are abit nervous to try welding different materials. I did my apprenticeship in panelbeating/motorbody building tooo many years ago with 3 old guys that had set up their own auto repair shop on returning from the 2nd world war. The Manager could weld almost anything, castiron, diecast such like from rods he made himself out of old bits of similar product. He is the only person I ever saw repair the old chrome diecast badges of cars and when finished one couldn't see where he had repaired it. Boy is that a dying art these days!!![[cl

 

[Willowbilly3]

I believe some of the young guys are abit nervous to try welding different materials. I did my apprenticeship in panelbeating/motorbody building tooo many years ago with 3 old guys that had set up their own auto repair shop on returning from the 2nd world war. The Manager could weld almost anything, castiron, diecast such like from rods he made himself out of old bits of similar product. He is the only person I ever saw repair the old chrome diecast badges of cars and when finished one couldn't see where he had repaired it. Boy is that a dying art these days!!![[cl

There was a garage owner/bodyman in my hometown that could weld white cast. like carburators, the only person I ever met that did. I grew up before the widespread use of TIG, MIG and plasma cutters. Nowdays a lot of pretty decent young welders don't even know how to stick weld or weild a cutting torch artfully.
I hammer welded up most of the body on my hotrod with a torch and wire. I think I used up almost two 5# rolls of concrete tie wire. We used to used baling wire, same thing but you can't find it much anymore. Hammer welding is another lost art, I learned it from a friend many years ago.
I have also (successfully) welded leaf springs too. Just because someone told me it couldn't be done.

 

[Hollywood Eddie]

When "experts" tell you you can't do something and you do it anyway, and it works.
Make sure there is no undercut, grind the weld smooth and finish with a flap wheel so you can't see the weld. The peening is the secret, it relieves all the stress. Smoothing it out keeps a uniform thickness and also strenghtens it. Surface irregularities give cracks a place to start.

This is going in my bag of trick's! Thank You[cl

 

[Gregster]

cool stuff , I always like to try and prove that stuff can be done

 

[goose-em]

Awesome tip. I used to weld cast pump housings and cast iron dutch ovens for a guy I knew.

TIG welded with stainless, did the hammer thing and they held for years.