Preferred method to join cast iron to mild steel?

[camdigger]

I have a cast iron part that is broken and the matching piece is long gone. The original material is a cast iron. One potential repair is to make up a repair part out of mild steel of approximately the same 1/4" thickness and join the two pieces to do the repair.

There is restricted clearance on the back of the repair, so mechanical fasteners are not feasible, IMHO.

What process would be best to do this?

An alternate method might be to make up a dummy repair, mate to the broken part, and use that as a pattern to sand cast an Aluminum replacement part. That would mean setting up my backyard foundry again and playing with it till I got a successful replacement made.

Yet another alternative might be to fabricate the complete part out of mild steel.

[digr]

I have done what they call buttering the cast with machinable nickel rod and finish with 7018

[milomilo]

I usually use nickle rod for joining steel to cast, providing it is not been overheated and not weldable.

[Cavalry]

Me personally if it was a low stress application I would just braze it. I have a rod called cronatig211 that seems to work pretty well but its not cheap but have used stainless rod in a pinch with good enough results.

Here are a few cast repairs I have done, but none were specifically iron to steel

http://shopfloortalk.com/forums/show...highlight=cast

http://shopfloortalk.com/forums/show...highlight=cast

[Ironman]

Originally Posted by camdigger

I have a cast iron part that is broken and the matching piece is long gone. The original material is a cast iron. One potential repair is to make up a repair part out of mild steel of approximately the same 1/4" thickness and join the two pieces to do the repair.

Make your missing piece out of steel and weld it with Ni-Rod. Either cold stitch and peen, or preheat and go at it. A while back I did a tractor transmission and posted here, and I put in a piece of steel to fill in the missing part. It's still going along.

[Shade Tree Welder]

Originally Posted by digr

I have done what they call buttering the cast with machinable nickel rod and finish with 7018

That is how I do it, butter with 99% nickel rod then weld your steel to the nickel with 7018.

[Bender]

What is the difference between brazing and nickel rods?

[digr]

How brazing works