How I repair Cast Iron Handles : Monarch 10EE Lathe 

Thank you, I am from across The Pond, not a machinist, but I am really enjoying watching your video and your years of experience.

Clean em up Don is doing a great job !!

I just purchased some EZ tig wire and left them a note that I heard about it from you and your youtube channel. Thanks for the tip.

ya got Jody Gloves.....I have some black ones from him and love them........he is a great guy and instructor.........

I hope you get better SOON! Great job on the handle! Great craftmanship!

Excellent work Steve, hope you keep healing well

You made that handle look like a new one. I have a broken taper attachment that I am going to have to repair. Thanks for sharing Steve!

Steve, you inspire me.

Glad to see you repairing things in the shop. Don too.

Nice Work

Nice repair Steve

I use the Ez TIG too. It works very well. I believe that it’s one of the new CI welding materials that contain molybdenum. That adjusts the melting temperature between the wire and the CI, as well as the cool down times so that they are the same, preventing cracking from occurring. I believe, from reading the study done by the scientist that first described this, that it also equalized the expansion and shrinkage of the wire to more match that of the CI. This seems almost revolutionary, if applied to stick CI welding as well as MIG. I have a spool for MIG, but haven’t needed it yet. Great job, by the way. I’m with you in this Steve. I don’t like brazing. It’s not as strong, and is often a mess in the end.

Fantastic job Steve!!

Looks dam good sir.....

Good progress on the shaper Don!

Nice repair Steve. I'm in my 60's and when I was younger brazing was the only option but you're right the welding world has changed.

Well done man. Them welds looked pretty dang good to me and a nice blended finish at the end. Dont worry about the hands a shakin...just helps the weld puddle flow out a little better!

Looks good Steve. I’ll have to get some to repair my 10EE lower drive end cover. Glad to see you getting back to normal.

Looks a good repair to me!

I can relate about the shaky hands. Same thing happened to me 5 years ago.

! Like that Fix with real metal rod and not Brazed . 😁

Nicely done. Unfortunately I can relate to heart attacks, followed by shaky hands. It took me a while. Improving a bit every year. After 19 years, I am back to being able to work on watches again.

I kinda like a nice braze repair. I do some antique furniture repair and in some cases it is an acceptable repair of a fancy carved leg or whatever that has a missing chunk of wood to make a repair with epoxy mixed with graphite and make a clean repair with the missing wood reshaped. It does not devalue, other than the obvious fact that the repair is there and it still shows the lines of the original piece. The thinking is that you are not trying to fool anyone but you get a solid, not unpleasant looking repair. Not wrong or right, just different. Did i mention, nice work?

1st off, hope yall came through the bad storm o.k. It's supposed to hit here tonight but we're near the top and it'll all run downhill eventually. And that handle looks plumb sanitary and Dons shaper is CUTE but I liked the crinkly chrome the best. GBWYall!

Don, nice work on your shaper very interesting machine.

Amazing job. Looking forward to the crank handle repair.

I'll have to get some ez tig wire to try now. I have a project that I've been putting off because I didn't want to deal with the pre and post heat.

If you cut the filler rods in half you will have better control and balance dipping the end in the puddle. Al B.

Looks good Steve. I had an old Duro pump with a cracked water box years ago, and repaired it with some type of stainless rod, with my arc welder. It worked fine. Wow, Don is moving right along with that shaper.

Great approach to the repair! Love those jobs where you need four hands to get it set up. I’ve had some luck using a MIG with the gas turned up, it’s messy and you do need to try and preheat and control cooling. Usual thing, lathes that had been tipped on their side breaking the feed box handles.

Nice fix Stevo along with a few good tips. Tell Don I love the tin foil concept on handles, his wife better not find out he raided the pantry. Good to see and hear you guys. Thanks for the look!

Your an inspiration. Heart attack, shaky hands, bandaged head. Thank you for sharing what I'll call "Adventures with Steve".

Wow! You can't even tell where it was broken. Weld done 😁

Hey Don, I think it was a Cincinnati 1A horizontal mill I cleaned up at the mould shop.The owner decided on machinery grey and Ford blue lettering. Turned out very nice.AL B.

wonderful repair, I am a weldor/ and sometime machinist.....I admire your repair, that is the way I do things, best wishes Steve......Paul

Looks like a good repair. I've never used anything other than nickle rod or braze for cast iron repair. If you should ever need a new tailstock arm Martin Model can help you out.

The number one rule for Tig welding is to turn on the dam machine lol Don it looks great

Great video, hope you are well!

Great video as usual Steve. Part looks like new.

Good job on that repair. One question I have. How come nobody tells what their settings are? Maybe its because of to much variation? I don’t know. Am I close? Thanks

Outstanding repair. No drama. 10 out of 10 on the don't get your panties in a wad meter of fixing stuff. Love it! I have the same handle, with the same break, in the same place. Off to buy some of that welding rod. Any idea how many amps you used for that weld?

Good morning, Sir. Was wondering if you and Don were ok after the tornado parade down there?

Thanks for another video. I did the same repair on my 10EE. Seems like a delicate part. Unfortunately I did not get the ball end so needed to make up a replacement.

If you study the field of material science, there are some hard facts about metallurgy that always apply to the physical world of iron and steel. Electric arc welding has a temperature of around 5000°c. That is the blue electric arc. Lots of temperature but not a lot of heat. Oxygen acetylene when used for brazing with bronze filler rod has a temperature of around 2000 to 3000°c. When you electric arc weld with that 5000°c temperature, the cast iron has the potential to form iron carbides (cementite). This potential is realized when the iron is cooled too quickly. The likelihood of the iron cooling quickly is from the fact that even though the arc has a high temperature, it does not have enough heat to sustain that temperature in the iron. If the iron cools off faster than allowed by the Critical Cooling Curve (look it up), the iron will contain these carbide nodules. Think brittle and think crack easily. Preheat helps prevent cracks from differential expansion between the cold material and the instantly hot weld. Also aids in post cool, for reasons mentioned above. TIG is the worst for iron welding, because it is the most concentrated and localized form of heat, as compared to MIG and Stick. Again, most temperature and least heat. The reason bronze braze is better is it uses lower temps of 2000 to 3000°c and a lot more heat. These lower temps do not allow the iron to precipitate the carbides and should any be present, because of the large amount of heat, the critical cooling curve lasts longer than required to decay the carbides away into another crystal shape formation. Look up body centered cubic structure verses face centered cubic structure. Additionally, bronze braze is way softer than any ferrous filler rod, that allows malleability when cooling, resulting in less stress in the iron. As for strength, grey cast iron is maybe 20,000 to 40,000 psi tensile strength. Bronze is between 50,000 to 80,000 psi tensile. (Yes some bronze is stronger than some mild steels!) So the bronze braze filler is stronger than the base cast iron, more malleable than the base iron, is applied at a lower temperature than electric (especially TIG) welding, and is applied at a higher heat than electric welding (guaranteed preheat and slower post cool). There is no welding filler that can cover all the positive characteristics that bronze brazing does. Even if you use 55 or 99% nickel, and electric arc, you still have iron carbides forming in the heat affected zone around the weld, unless you do a lot of preheating and post cooling. And if you are going to do that, you better have an electric soaking oven or just braze it. There is no miracle iron filler welding rod. Steve, you seem to love your mystery TIG filler rod (which is probably nickel alloyed with 4% Unobtanium), but you can not change the physical properties of how the iron reacts to temperature and heat. Remember the trouble you had with the B&S#13 table cracking? No magic bullet. You talk negatively about braze repairs on iron, but they are superior in a multitude of ways. You might want to research this before making the broad statement that "new welding technology is better". You might get lucky with your miracle filler rod and it might not crack right away, but I bet your iron casting is full of brittle iron carbides and a ton of stress within the metal, just waiting to crack again at the slightest chance. ---Doozer

Is this Short Pants?

Thanks for sharing 👍 Better job than I could do.

hey Steve, so glad you explained the scab on your right face the other day, I was really worried you had the Big C.....being from the part of the country you are, it was a concern to me, as a viewer and fan......I know pesky welding hoods, I have one that was 100 dollars with no filter by a big name brand that is always clipping my big ole ears.......hope your cut heals up pronto.....best wishes from the Sunshine State, Florida, where I take staying out of the sun real serious....Paul

Nice job, but most people don’t have a Tig welder so we braze! It would be nice but if wishes were horses than beggars would ride. I have a good friend with a steel fabrication shop and he doesn’t even have a Tig.

I wonder how that will work on water jacket on engine block?

Great job... until the next owner hits it with a piece of 3" shaft again....

what was that filler rod again? and where do you get it?

Good video great repair sexy curves for a simple locking lever. Not just tack welded but die grinding the edges to make a fillet and then cleaning up the handle and sanding smooth. No easy repair for you, just a reminder of what craftsmanship used to be.

just looked up the EZ Tig rod, here is what they say.......tahnks for the tip Steve, will have to get some of this.......EZ Weld TIG wire is a core filled wire with 4% Utechtanite. It is an excellent product for welding cast iron, cast iron to steel, and other dissimilar metals. EZ Weld TIG wire contains no nickel or any other elements considered hazardous to the welder. Our wire wets and flows at a lower temperature.

Nice job Steve, just one question if I don't have access to a tig welder would brazing work just as well ? I know you said you hate seeing brazed handles but it's all I got access to at the moment. Thanks !