Monarch Lathe Restoration 5: Brazing a Broken Control Lever 

Hey Keith, My grandfather could not bear to throw out a tool that could be repaired. I remember sorting through his tools when he passed and finding numerous incredible brazing jobs just like yours. Wonderful stuff. Thanks so much for sharing!

I don't know too many people here, who can bronze weld (braze) any more. I learnt to do this about 45 years ago and have repaired broken cast iron tools, filled up broken gear teeth for re-cutting, etc. I notice that a lot of the new mountain bikes that we get here (Australia), are now brazed instead of Tig welded and I saw a British show in a bike factory, where the workers were doing this. You did a nice job of the repair Keith, I enjoy watching you work. We can all learn from how someone else tackles a job.

I have the same Nova Chuck and also have used it in the metal lathe using a #3 Morris Taper mount... It worked fine. Thanks for sharing.

A tip from a blacksmith friend of mine. When touching a previous heated metal to check for coolness use the back of your hand. If the metal is still to hot and burns then it is the back of the hand that takes the heat and not the working part of your hand. It will save the pads of your fingers to continue working.

Nice job Keith....Always enjoy watching these videos...

Nice repair, Keith.

The way you held the pieces together was pretty slick!

Nice choice on the Smith torch set! 👍

Great job Keith , Saved another old hard to find part .. Thumbs up !!

Keith, I have the same Smith torch setup and really like it. I need to add the rosebud tip to my arsenal but the brazing tips and cutting torch work nicely. I recently built a bracket and stand to hold the torch instead of draping it over the tanks; very handy. Thanks for the video and nice job on the repair!

THANK YOU...for sharing.

Nice job Keith looks great.

Thanks, Keith. Sure enjoyed your step by step description of the repair process. Very patient...fun to watch someone just taking on each little task as it comes up and not giving up, but finding a way to get it done and move forward...good work.

Nice job keith

Amazing how those woodworking tools come in handy!

Keith, could you move that red bar on the video thumbnails up to the top or something? it masks the red bar youtube puts on them to show which videos you've watched.

You're making your brazing and machining look easy, Keith. Love the smooth flow of your work.

Great work Keith

Some nice brazing there Keith. Best wishes.

keith nice fix.

Nice save Keith. I love it when a plan comes together.

Nice repair Keith.

Thank you Keith!

Nice repair Kieth, let's hope the bend doesn't need fixing.

Keith, I love watching your videos and the restoration of all the machines. I have a slight favor to ask. You recently changed your video "thumbnails" to include a red banner on the bottom with your website. It makes it hard to see the red progress bar from youtube. Any chance to put your banner on the top of the thumbnail? I know.... it's a nitpicky request. Keep up the great videos. :-)

flat-bottom levers make the world go round.

Nice repair!,

Nicely done. Thanks for the video.

That's the nicest brazing I've seen you do.

Nice work Keith.

I always love your videos.

Great video Keith! You should try welding cast iron with cast iron welding rods. It makes for an invisible repair. I get my rods on a website called Detroit Torch. It is a bit more difficult than brazing but the end result looks great! (Of course it doesn't matter if you paint over it, but still!)

Really nice repair.

I've only worked a little with brazing. I've tried steel, brass (welding?), and copper. Most of my problem was that I was trying to do pieces that were too large for a jeweler's torch (oxy-propane). Some times I had to heat the rod itself just to get it to flow, but then almost invariably the joint was poor. Basically, whether it is welding, brazing, silver soldering. or soldering, if you are needing to heat the filling material up, you're not going to get a good joint. For all but the steel welding this ends up as a cold joint and while it might seem strong, it usually isn't. The metal has to flow to all areas of the joint from the heat of the material being worked on, or that and the torch together. Keith, I can't explain why, but I have found that any torch that is held too close to the metal will cut out. I think that was part of your problem. Oh, I'm sure you noticed the gap in the taper pin hole for the round piece with the square hole. I'd be very leery about trusting the one hole to hold that pin in. Good luck!

That might make a good casting project, if for some reason it does not hold up with all the stresses in that piece Great fix-It video

You need to pick up some fire brick to help with heat retention for faster preheat and better filler flow. The soft brick also can be cut, drilled, etc to configure to odd shapes for holding. Cheers

great job!!

Another fine job. I see in the opening scene there has been some progress on the Kalamazoo power saw as well.

Hi Kieth, I'm sorry, but all I could think of when you said "here is the handle" all I could think of was "here is my handle-here is my spout..." 😄

Nice!

Starting at 7:31, it appears that the bent shaft goes all the way through the boss. You said it was held in place by a pin. Then you brazed that shaft and the boss into the handle. I would have removed the shaft first, then brazed the boss in, then re-drilled the hole straight. Then I would have either straightened the shaft, or made a replacement. As it is now, to remove the shaft, you will have to mill out some more brazing on the inside. Extra steps to be sure, but better than trying to straighten it with the possibility of bending/breaking something else in the process. Jon

Please come over to the Netherlands and fix the broken levers on my old Fischer lathe :)

Nice repair. I thought I was the only person who used my wood lathe chucks to mount some items on the metal lathe. Often for drilling or boring spindle work on the metal lathe. My wood lathe tailstock alignment is not accurate for drilling.

Man your grinder has good bearings. It just keeps spinning and spinning and spinning.

Second, love your videos man, you're awesome!!!!!

Great video, Keith! How about a quickie of the front yard and the aftermath of the tree? Just wondering what you're doing. Rich

Hi Keith when are you doing some more work on the bandsaw ??

>Vintage Typical equipment and working methods at our factory.

If that stub is cast iron too I would think trying to straighten it would be a risky venture. Hopefully it will fit and work ok as is. A little paint and will not be able to tell it was fixed. :-)

Nice repair, but next time you need to grab a bigger torch, I guess.

Maybe easier to have done the centre boss first so that you could have used your shop lathe and then done the ball last?

very nice repair, once painted ihe repair will never be visible. i like your four jaw fixturing.,"yankee engineuity "

Are you not going to repair the damaged side of the hole for the pin that attaches the handle to the bushing and rod?

At 17:00 could it have been a possible solution to take off some material in the lathe (at 12:00) to make the end true and make a bushing to fit the gear?

Chuck Inception

What about the broken out hole for the roll pin? You could have tapped it and screwed in a bolt, cut it off flush on each side, then brazed it in place and re- drilled the hole.

Kieth, could use have TIG brazed that with silicon bronze?

👍

Keith, Have you ever tried to braze this sort of thing with a 40 percent silver solder? It would look better in the sense that the braze material has a very similar colour to the parent material. For cracks it would require less heat and thus less chance of cracking the in the part. Would this work? Paddy

Lathe Swing issue: Option B: is to mill it using a rotary table.

Could you do half at a time so you had a good register?

Keith,I have to ask why You always braze your cast iron parts instead of gas welding with cast iron and powdered flux?

How much wood chuck can a metal chuck chuck?

If only you had a 28 inch lathe...

Keith, curious about the use of brass. As a "soft" metal, will this not give way over time? If not in this case, what alternatives are available to repair cast iron such as this? Wondered if you would drill and insert a few pins to hold that knob to the shaft. Did you consider doing so? (Like orthopedic surgeons do when mending fractures).

The knob is chrome plated ? The crack may have been caused by hydrogen embrittlement .

I would probably have g clamped the handle to the table and the held the ball of the handle in the vise (vise clamped to the table)

26 view in seconds not bad

For someone who's never tried it, what is brazing like? It doesn't seem to flow like solder or weld.

Could you have used silver solder on the last part that indexed? I only have used it once, but from what I understand it becomes rather strong and flows easily into parts. If it would work there would be much less weld material to remove, also I would think that part would not be under undo stress.

why not weld it...not saying brazing isnt good but shouldn't welding be stronger ? then you can sand it down to make it look nice...maybe paint it

Would it have been better to fix the stem end first, so the weight of the ball would not have been on the lathe to throw off the balance?

One thing you could try next time is a box of wet sand to do part holding.

Almost half an hour to repair a small lever? Mate, let's be straight, you don't have enough years left to restore all complete lathe...