Cast Steel

I am by no means the expert on welding (suprised T Bone hasn't given you the straight story yet, maybe he has posted this info so many times, he didn't have the energy to do it again)but I did run into this once long ago. I did a stupid thing at my welding class (too long to relate) and ended up having to re-weld the wedge of my log splitter, the point of which was cast steel welded to mild steel wings. It was a "project" - the weld kept craking.

First you need to use the right rod (I have this written down at home, will send later if I find it), I believe something that produces less hydrogen gas, that may be the 6010 or 6011 already suggested (T Bone, help). I started with 7018 and that created part of the problem.

Also, for my "project" I had to heat the cast part before welding to keep te weld from cracking when it cooled. This may not be important for welding cast-to-cast, but it is easy enough to do as a precaution if you've got a torch. good luck.

Well I rely on you guys to fill in when I can't think straight. I'll keep this breif to keep from making mistakes. There's plenty of info in the archives on welding both.

I suspect the reason Tim was having problems is he was dealing with cast iron and not cast steel.

Cast steel welds just like blackiron wihtout problems "if" theres a good joint design and clean. I always like to use a torch on truck/tractor parts to clean off all oil. Oil & welding do not mix and when they do mix a crack will appear 99.9% of the time.

Cast iron on the other hand needs to be preheated and post cooled slowley. A nickle bearing electrodes works well. Light peening of the weld between passes will help with cracking thats caused from shrinkage. To much weld at one time is not a good thing. Short skip welding works well.

More latter!

T_Bone