Steady Rest Repair

[Andrew R Stewart]

With my New to Me SB 9" C lathe I got a cobbed up and broken steady rest. The pivot eye for the upper half fractured off. There's old brass, evidence of a previous attempt to fix. I have cleaned up the parts and fabbed an added "splint" to further strengthen the repair. Next step is to sand blast and braze up.

But I haven't brazed any cast iron (I think this is iron, could be steel...) and have read of the concerns about hear up and cool down rates to avoid cracking. I have done a fair amount of steel brazing and am confident of my skill set but still look for hints or advice. Andy

BTW anyone want a 3J collet chuck?

 

[4ssss]

I"ll take the chuck off your hands

 

[Nutfarmer]

I have had good luck with burying the cast iron in wood ashes to cool. Machinable nickel rod works well for cast iron also. Make sure it's machinable or it will have hard spots that will eat tooling.

 

[Norseman C.B.]

Grind yer broken edges nearly through at 45 degrees leave just enough to locate the parts properly.
Then grind the surface edges back a little fer some overflow, then pre heat both contact edges till they stop smokin
and braze em up like you would steel and let it cool on it's own. Cast iron has been done that way fer longer than I've been alive
and I've done a lot of it myself,......................My $.02 fer whut it's worth...................