Small Semi-Repair on South Bend Lathe

[682bear]

a tig braze should be good enough. this is not a high stress part.
But if you want to learn to weld cast iron....

BTW I repaired a handwheel with a flux wire weld. I was desperate, and it worked. who knew. I simply heated the part before welding, then covering it with a ceramic blanket when done.

Also I wish I had a tig rig... I was always pretty good with OA brazing.. I have been told by my local welding shop, that its not that different.

I have successfully MIG welded cast iron with ER70 wire before... preheat, weld, peen the weld while hot, then wrap in fiberglass insulation and cool slowly...

It worked, and worked well... but I wouldn't place any bets on getting it to work every time... I sort of think I may have been lucky that time...

-Bear

 

[682bear]

Been way busy lately, so decided to do a little fun project. The spindle bearing caps on the Niles lathe are taped 7/16-24, and the hit and miss oilers I got are 1/2" npt. Was tempted to pull the bearing caps and drill and tap them 1/2 npt to match, but decided not to go there, as I was concerned it might stress the caps, and possibly affect the spindle to bearing fit with the tapered thread. Got a 7/16-24 tap and drilled and taped the bases of the oilers, and used some brake line fittings to adapt to the bearing caps. Drilled out some copper washers to help seal the fitting, though not really necessary, as they are below the needle valve seat. Wanted to turn down the 1/2" thread on the oiler, but will wait to make sure the needle valve that controls the feed rate doesn't leak. Put one on the lathe and filled with ISO 68, and so far so good. Put a mark at the oil level and will check it in the morning. Mike

View attachment 379137View attachment 379138View attachment 379139View attachment 379140 in the morning. Mike

Nice job... that looks good! I have one of those oilers... it was in a box of tooling that I acquired a few years ago. I'd like to do something with it, but haven't found a use for it yet...

I've thought about making a desk lamp out of it, but I don't need a desk lamp. I've also thought about mounting it on the South Bend to drip cutting oil while parting, threading, etc... IDK...

-Bear