So my boss brought some pot into work tonight...

[JonnyDingDongs 158]

Some old cast iron cooking pot:

He's wanting to save this thing. I've never personally tried to weld on cast..

Anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? I told him to build a jig to SLOWLY bend the bottom back to where it needs to be while pre-heating, use nickel rod to weld it, then post-heat it and throw one of our fiberglass fire blankets over it to cool it slowly.

Anybody ever mess with cast?

[liberty -r- death 1,445]

I only seem to melt cast when I try it. Hard shit to work with.

[Spartacus 1,619]

Here's a vid that may give some tips....

 

It's gonna be a lot of work to make a good attempt.

You have to prep the broken edges, and then find a large oven or kiln to get that thing hot.

 

[Shandlanos 1,470]

It is very difficult to work on cast iron. If you use an oxy-acetylene torch, use a carburizing flame. If you use an oxidizing flame, you'll simply vaporize the iron. I don't know how readily you'll find pig iron weld rod, or something that can be readily extruded into it, but good luck!

 

Depending how thick that is, a layered approach may be appropriate. First, you'll want to grind the edges down with an angle grinder, so that where they meet in any given place looks like this: \ / Lay down a root weld, then a filler pass or two until you have more material than you need - excess material can be ground away to retain the original shape.

 

An oven or kiln is one option for preheating the pot - a heating torch is another. If you have to OA rigs to play with, that will probably work fine for you. Heck, even a big propane torch will work just fine to preheat it.

[termite 463]

I weld a lot of cast iron parts at the shop. Get you either some 55% nickel rods, or 99% nickel rods. 55 is easier to machine but 99 is stronger for holding stuff together. You'll want to VEE it out, just like anything else that you'd weld, and try to make sure it's clean. If you get a lot of bubbling and popping of the weld, there's contamination in the iron, try to run, or bleed it out with a torch. You'd be surprised how much moisture cast iron will hold, along with other chemicals.

 

The OEM that I used to work for, years ago would repair the all the cast iron castings by brazing up the blow holes, remember that cast iron will not burn with a torch like mild steel, it'll only melt. Also too much heat, and you make the crack even worse, when it pops, it'll sound like a .22 rifle going off if it's really stressed.

Edited August 14, 2012 by termite

[RobRez 1,895]

I am pretty sure they made NEW ones, ya know.......I don't mean nothin, I'm just saying........seems like a lot of effort to fix an old pot when new ones are available. Hours of shop time vs. 1 quick trip to the store......but if he's gonna PAY you to mess with it, I say give it a few tries!

[thebuns1 4,323]

and here i was thinkin about a sack of greenleaf...

[G O B 3,516]

Heat to straw before bending. Put it in a bed of charcoal to heat it dull red, Weld with carbonizing flame and gray cast rod. More like brazing than welding. I have not done this myself but i have had it done and watched carefully! Let is sit in the charcoal and cool SLOWLY!

[horatio 515]

I like cooking in my spare time and my favorite pan to cook in was this old 2" deep by 14" wide enamel coated cast iron skillet we got from an old neighbor who has since passed away. that is the greatest pan i've ever cooked in. it heats more evenly than any of that copper disc/stainless crap i use. i'm sure if i spent 300 on some copper proffesional job i could get good results, but thats alot of money to make hamburger helper. my dad won't let me take it, and despite an extensive internet search, i've had no luck except for a crappy martha stewert copy.

 

if your boss is anything like me, he appreciates a damn fine pot that being said- wtf is he cooking in that thing? deer stew or some kind of witches brew?

[Dad2142Dad 6,559]

my favorite pan to cook in was this old 2" deep by 14" wide enamel coated cast iron skillet we got from an old neighbor who has since passed away. that is the greatest pan i've ever cooked in.

 

Nailed it, you cannot replace some of this stuff

[horatio 515]

^^^^ Damn skippy. I make a 4 pepper chicken and rice dish with a sour cream gravy that to this day i can only come close to replicating without that skillet.

 

sorry for hijacking the thread. but it is about pot right....?

[mogunner 240]

I like my cast iron...when I packed up my stuff to escape the crazy-ass wife I had, I made sure I got my griddle, the deer chicken fryer and the standard skillet. I left her the Walmart pots though...

[DrThunder88 912]

Cast iron cookware is great stuff. I have a comal that I use for everything from grilled sandwiches to steaks to fried eggs to crêpes.

[kiddykane 28]

Deceiving title. Sorry I'm no help for welding.

[DogMan 2,343]

That's not a cooking pot anymore, it's a flower pot after the broken peice is JB welded back on.

[JonnyDingDongs 158]

Thanks for all the quick replies, guys!

I'm thinking it belongs to one of his relatives, but I'm not 100% sure what it actually gets used for. I showed him this thread and I think he's a bit discouraged. Not sure if he'll actually try to fix it or scrap it now. One thing's for sure, though- it'll be tough to find a replacement!

[horatio 515]

good luck on the replacement, if that's what he decides. nobody seems interested in making cast iron stuff anymore. didn't realize we had that many metal workers here. i've wantedt to start a topic about that for about a week now, but i'll probably get around to it this weekend.

 

good luck with your boss

[Marc 147]

I have no experience with it myself, but I read that Flame-Spray welding is the way to repair cast iron. Maybe there is a shop with a flame-spray setup around you...