First time welding cast iron

OldIron82

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Hello all. A few pics of my first rodeo with cast iron. It's the 093 ATS downpipe slip joint housing, the bigger 3" version. I positively loathe the slip joint idea I cannot believe that anyone thought this was a good idea.

Stopped at a welding shop and told them I wanted to melt mild steel and cast iron together and I got a deer in the headlights look as if I was the devil and my eyes were glowing. Luckily, a very knowledgeable gentlemen was in the back and he knew exactly what to give me. MIG was out of the question due to the combination of me not having the proper shielding gas and a small spool of the wire was way more than I wanted to spend all together. I don't have a TIG welder so therefore stick was the last option. He gave me 1lb of 3/32 312-16 rod. I was told its a stainless steel type alloy rod that would be best suited for joining dissimilar metals. I'm not the best at stick, and the half dozen times I have stick'd was putting a 3/4" pintle plate on a truck and other thick steel when you set the welder to "Billy Burn Through" and let her eat. This time I was welding cast iron to thin wall pipe. No pressure. Watching dozens of youtube videos I decided on the cold weld method as opposed to preheat/postheat.

Basically, I made 1" long beads, 180° from each other and kept working my way around until the entire joint was melted together. After making a 1" long weld, I immediately stopped and beat on it with a ball peen hammer while it was still red and supposedly what that does is stretch the weld before it has a chance to shrink and distort which could possibly lead to the dreaded cracking. I'm pretty happy with how it came out. No cracks, not terrible looking. Sure as Hell ain't stacked dimes but again stick isn't my forte. One little hiccup, I think I wasn't watching my height from the rod to the work piece and the arc went wild and awol like a proton pack and blew a huge hole in the down pipe. I used the MIG to fix it, then ground it down and tried again and was successful.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll cut the downpipe and install the flanges for the v-band. Not too much room but looks like it will work great.
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OldIron82

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Ok I can't seem to upload any more pics and I can't figure out how to edit my posts.

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sjwelds

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There's a rod called super missile weld, look it up. Have used it with decent results. That or 99% nickel rod.

^^^looks good!
 

laserjock

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The stainless and high nickel rods work because stainless, like cast iron does not undergo the same crystal structure change as it cools causing extra stress beyond the typical expansion rates. I have seen cast welded with a mig using stainless wire. Probably used 100% argon though as including the CO2 May cause issues. Not sure.

Disclaimer: I never know what I’m taking about, I just play a lot of parts on TV.

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no mufflers

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Is that technically Tig brazing when you use that rod? I've been interested in wanting to try it.

as said yeah pretty much but the process is the same. its just like tig welding regular steel so really no special process besides the rod melts at a lower temp.
 

The_Josh_Bear

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Good work! I did the same thing on all accounts, except I think i used 6011 rod. But i have E316L now and it welds awesome, probably my favorite stick out of the 4 I use. I also blew through once, but have no mig and filled it the hard way. Wish I knew about Texas tig at the time!
I'm no welder, just a little you-tube taught and practice for doing exhaust and stuff. It's hard to stick weld exhaust pipe!
 

Chemgrad

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Using a stainless steel rod was a great idea and the reaction from the first couple of guys goes to show that just because someone does something for a living doesn't mean they understand or have studied their craft. Using stainless to butter a joint on high carbon steels was (and may still be) a very common method. Glad you got ahold of someone who knew their stuff.
 

OldIron82

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Using a stainless steel rod was a great idea and the reaction from the first couple of guys goes to show that just because someone does something for a living doesn't mean they understand or have studied their craft. Using stainless to butter a joint on high carbon steels was (and may still be) a very common method. Glad you got ahold of someone who knew their stuff.
So was I! Yes I have met quite a free people over time in positions that had no idea what the heck they were talking about. Sad.

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