repair of cast iron grill frame?
 

ok guys i guess the knuckle head i got my lil 70 roller frame with the creeper drive from banged a tree at one time, and i have a hairline crack in the grill frame, question is with these being cast iron and expensive to ship if i found one for sale somewhere.

was thinking i could sand blast down and use J.B.WELD, then sand that down so you could hardly see the repair after shes painted THOUGHTS ON THIS? unless someone has a extra good frame they wanna sell me:beerchug:

I'd grind down into the crack and braze it (vertically with the crack), heat it slowly and let it cool on it's own.

JB won't hold it, it'll crack again.

Scott

not to question but ive used jb weld on car engine blocks for years and it has worked??? if im just using the tractor to put around with you think it will still crack????

there are a lot of ways you can repair your grill frame if you have a mig welder you can V groove out your crack drill a small hole right at the end of the crack and then weld it with mild wire it will work fine.I had a welding engineer tell me this many years ago I have a blacksmiths forge I got for scrap because it had a crack over 2 feet long from freezing water, I ground out the crack and mig welded it it's now close to 10 years since I did it and I have had no problems with it.I have done a lot of cast iron repairs over the years and would not think that mig works but it does and it works well.I have repaired several broken exhaust manifolds by mig welding and none of those have failed either.

If you have yours off the machine, weigh it and measure it then go to the USPS website and check to see how much actual shipping would be from a zip code some place far away from where you live. That way you will at least know if you're getting screwed on shipping.

Then put an add here in the classified section, surely someone here has a good 70/100 grill shell that they would sell cheap, also watch epay, sometimes grill shells don't bring much there.

Someone welded the grill shel on one of my 70's it seems to be holding ok, it's just kinda ugly.

Seems I recall something about pre-heating cast iron before welding. Can you shed some light on that, Leon?

Cast iron needs to be preheated and then cooled slowly after welding. A bet of hot sand would probably work good. If it cools too quickly, it will crack everywhere. BTDT.

Heat it slowly with a rosebud and then braze, and as I stated in the first post allow to cool slowly. Cost very little to accomplish and a no brainer.

Find a local welder to do it if you can't, local guy to me will charge $20.

And yes as other's have stated if the crack is not complete drill a 1/8th" hole at the end point of the crack and fill with braze. This will permently stop the crack.

Scott

Also if you are going to mig you still must preheat, do not attempt without preheat. If you are good at brazing you will have little to grind out unlike a mig weld you will not have to build up the weld.

Scott

Last observation-

You cannot make any kind of a repair to a casting and not have it noticed. If you want to make the repair invisible you'll need to resurface the entire casting, there are ways to do this and it will take some time and effort.

OR-

I looked around and most want $35 shipping, you will likely buy one for $5 to $10 plus shipping.....is all this really worth the effort if you don't have the tools and knowhow?

$45 seems worth it to me.

Scott

id pay that in a sec soon as i FIND ONE:beerchug:

Are there any other models that have a compatible grill?

Several on ebay but no 70.

Scott

70 and 100 use the same grill.

With the MIG welding it really depends on the size of the repair. You can make a weld of a few inches without pre/post heating if you have a good weld it won't crack it depends on a lot of things.All my MIG welding on cast is with gas not Fluxcore I DO NOT know if Fluxcore will work never tried it .I wouldn't take that grill shell and just slap a weld on it ice cold this time of year for sure. I do usually preheat big items and also let them cool slowly out of air circulation.I usually use a big old gas grill I have for things that will fit in it I'll do all my prep work on the part then place it in the gas grill and heat it then I'll turn off the flame while I weld or braze the part once welded I relight the grill and let it run for about 1/2 hr then turn it off and let the part cool in the closed grill.when I weld up cast iron I will V groove the pieces almost completely through leaving only enough of the original crack/break to be able to realign the pieces correctly.I have patched connecting rod holes 4 inches around in an engine block that have passed magnaflux testing (Not my engine I'd have gotten another block)I've been a weldor since 1968 and WAS but no longer am aircraft certified.I have arc welded,Migged, Brazed , tigged and stitched different cast iron items with very good results I will admit right now I am mostly self taught on cast iron but have had the help of several "old timers"over the years.For any of you guys with some welding experience TRY the mig thing with mild rod I know your first reaction is "He's nuts "that's exactly what I thought when that old Engineer told me it works, but it does work and works well.There is no "Magic" in repairing cast iron do a little research and just try it get a junk part and "fix "it, It does take some practice but it's not nearly as hard as you might think.One advantage of welding cast rather than brazing is it's easier to blend the surface to hide the repair oils in brazing rod will lift paint eventually also.[I'm posting this just because you asked how I do it, But or the price I'd look for another grill first if you were local I'd fix it for you free just to help out a fellow Cub owner but if you can't weld it yourself I don't see it being done any cheaper than a replacement unit

Good info. Thanks.