Tig welding cast Iron

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I have beeen reading a lot of other posts sugesting using stainless 308 or 309 filler rod with tig on cast iron.  Is this normal?  It seems like it would be brittle to me.  I have never tigged cast iron.  would the square castweld rod used in OA welding not be a better choice? Obviously preheat and postheat being the same.
Reply:I've not done much but have done some. All I have used was 309 with a preheat and wrapped the **** out of it slow that it can cool very very slow, helps minimize the cracking from fast cooling. On my profile I have a picture of a pizza dough maker I welded and that thing makes a **** ton of pizzas in a day. Well dough for the pizzas. I know nothing of the material you're speaking of sorry.Melt-n-Metal
Reply:I did a small cast iron gas burner a few years back and used some high nickel rod and tig to patch the hole..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:DSW, What TIG rod was that?
Reply:I experimented with some Nickle Rod as well, but had porosity problems for some reason? That was my only attempt at tigging cast iron. Im guessing stainless filler might work better...[Account Abandoned 8/8/16 Please Do Not Attempt Contact Or Expect A Reply]. See you on YouTube! -ChuckE2009
Reply:Actually it wasn't tig rod. The day school instructor asked me to do him a favor and weld it up with the tig one night and he gave me some 3/32" high nickel stick rod to run. We knocked off all the flux and then I hit it with some emery paper I had in the truck to get the rest off. I honestly can't remember exactly what rod it was that he gave me out of the store room to do the job. I'm guessing the burner came out of one of the pieces of equipment in the schools culinary program. I only needed about a rod or a rod and and a half to weld in the small patch I made up to fill in the damaged corner.Ran it small and took my time to keep the piece really cool. I'd weld a small piece, then take a break and let it cool enough so I could touch it with my bare hands, then weld another small section. Maybe 1/4" of bead at a time since the material was pretty thin, trying to keep as much heat on the steel patch as I could and just wash the bead over on the iron and get it to wet in..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Certanium 89T Tig wire for all Cast iron repair.It's machinable and works on all cast iron.Preheat and interpass temp of 350f is recommended.JasonLincoln Idealarc 250 stick/tigThermal Dynamics Cutmaster 52Miller Bobcat 250Torchmate CNC tableThermal Arc Hefty 2Ironworkers Local 720
Reply:Cast iron from 40 years ago and cast iron today are 2 different animals.  The modern stuff, you might as well get a new part.  The old stuff, nickle rod and the gas axe.
Reply:I attempted to TIG weld a cast iron base to an antique tool.It was a simple t-Square/combination square.Looks like someone dropped it and it cracked at a weak spot.I ground out half the crack using the other have to keep everything aligned.  Preheat with  MAPP (plumber's torch) TIG welded with 309 rod.   I then ground out the other half and used the same making sure to get a good tie-in with the original half.Pre-heat was to 400deg F - not anywhere near cherry red.End result was strong enough.  Looked a little cold - but I swear I had good puddle going before I added filler and when I did grind I seemed to have good fusion.  Hard to describe.  cast iron definitely doesn't flow like stainless, but it doesn't pull back like aluminum.  I don't think you can fusion weld it.The big problem was shrink.  It's a T-square so the base is supposed to be flat.  It is pretty obvious that the part I welded shrunk a couple 1/100s of an inch.  It could be machined flat again.  Not sure if its worth it.That being said, In my welding class (many moons ago) I watch a repair on an engine block.  Chrysler 440 block with a motor mount ear broken off.  The instructor did it with a speciality rod.  The block was heated locally (and spread out quite a bit) to a cherry red, then welded, then cooled slowly.  I don't remember any peening being done.  Apparently it held for normal driving (not a race car etc.)  If it was something critical, I'd ask someone that has repaired cyclinder heads.  Those things see everything from sub zero start-up, very high temps, and lots of vibration.  If you can fix one of those, you can fix any cast iron (in my opinion).Last edited by con_fuse9; 03-25-2013 at 11:49 AM.Reason: typoCon Fuse!Miller Dynasty 350Millermatic 350P-Spoolmatic 30AMiller Multimatic 200Hypertherm PowerMax 1000G3Miller Maxstar 200DX
Reply:Week ago I had to weld stainless tube on a cast iron 50ccm 2- stroke cylinder intake port (so my friend could use different carburator). I used 316L rod with no preheat, 110 amps with pulse(45%bc, 50/50, 100pps). Worked great, because cylinder was made of high quality cast iron, with not much crap in it. My plan B was to use silicon bronze rod.
Reply:Ny -Rod Nickle 99.....Skim off the rough cover and grind some weld prep as necessary and post heat like normal.....theres a hundred grades of cast so I always figure its a crap shootLast edited by B_C; 03-29-2013 at 09:14 PM.  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:I have had much much better results ARC welding cast than TIG welding cast.
Reply:Prep is everything with Cast Iron......  Miller Dynasty 350Twenty Six HammersThree Crow BarsBig Rock
Reply:Originally Posted by B_CPrep is everything with Cast Iron......
Reply:Originally Posted by atariPrep is everything with most everything.
Reply:Originally Posted by blackbartI have beeen reading a lot of other posts sugesting using stainless 308 or 309 filler rod with tig on cast iron.  Is this normal?  It seems like it would be brittle to me.
Reply:just seems like stainless fastners fatigue and fail much faster tan regular grade 5 bolts. just an assumption,  I might be off.
Reply:Grade 5 hardware has a much higher tensile strength than 304-316 stainless welding filler. (120 Kpsi vs ~85 Kpsi, both higher than  ni-55/ni99 nickel filler).  All these fillers have a higher tensile than most cast irons.Stainless also has a high thermal expansion rate than grade 5 hardware which can cause issues with seizing, etc.Welding/Fab Pics: www.UtahWeld.com
Reply:I used to use Cronatron 211T (now owned by Lawson) on cast Iron all the time and it works damn nice.  It grinds out and machines just like the original cast iron.  The only PITA is that the HAZ becomes iron carbide and needs to be ground as opposed to using a carbide burr.  My other go to for cast iron was SiBr bronze.  Preheat, pean and back into the oven or warped up for a slow cool.The 211T isn't cheap but you might can try to get a few sticks from a rep as a sample pack.~Alex