Tig Weld what went wrong and whats next

[KWentling]

Thanks for the replys!

Tap with hammer and real dull thud.

Grinding did not like to spark at all but if it did, I would call it deep red. But with a small dremel it didn't spark at all. Only with the 4 1/2" grinder did I get anything.

Filler rod was ER705-2 1/16. Really thought I got good penetration. Here is another picture of the underneath side

The green circle shows the edge of one crack and the red circle is where I hit a crack but didn't use any filler wire. It balled up nicely.

No gas lens.

View attachment 527411

By that description of sparks it is cast iron. No doubt. Lots of cheap chucks are made of cast iron or semi-steel cast bodies (what ever that is). The best fix would be brazing, but that is kind of a lost art. For what that would cost to replace, just toss it.

 

[MountainBuck]

Mountain Buck,
What lathe is it off of?
David from jax

Sort of hate to tell you in light of your previous post - but the truth is that this chuck was from my father-in-law and it was given to me because it was "his". I can't be positive but I think it came from a Montgomery Ward wood lathe purchased around 50?? years ago.

 

[Big Barn]

I think I would agree with sandman. Maybe pull the jaws or similarly disable the chuck and scrap it.

Terry

 

[sandman2234]

Sort of hate to tell you in light of your previous post - but the truth is that this chuck was from my father-in-law and it was given to me because it was "his". I can't be positive but I think it came from a Montgomery Ward wood lathe purchased around 50?? years ago.

IF, and that is a big word...it was your Father in Laws and you want something to remember him by...then keep it, but don't repair it. If you repair it, then take a stamp set and stamp into the side "Defective" or something like that. I have several items around here that are useless, but I keep them just because of where they came from.
David from jax

 

[Brad_Blazer]

It looks a lot like this. $50 shipped. 6" 4-Jaw Wood Chuck - 1" x 8 TPI | Grizzly Industrial

 

[crazyal]

The fact that it came loose and fell to the ground and cracked is a very good sign that it's cast iron. Steel most likely would of had a small dent. If it's not cast iron then it's an alloy that's not going to weld very well. Replace it and keep that one for practicing around with the welder.

 

[metalcaster]

Cast steel would not break. What you have is a gray cast iron. There are several methods to repair cracked castings. Kohler company repaired broken air cooling fins on their cast iron blocks with hyper eutectic cast iron rods made in house with a gas torch. The castings were pre and post heated and the job classification was frozen it took so long to learn.
Ive seen other castings brazed together and they have held up under some vibration and jolting. And then there is arc welding with a high nickel content rod or wire. I've found it tough to get a good looking weld with this material, but it will hold up pretty well. And I've also seen some mechanical solutions. A special milling type machine that cuts a key shape on both pieces and they are locked mechanically.
Understand that the microstructure of gray cast iron contains small flakes of graphite which is the same material as pencil leads. These small flakes essentially act just like small cracks throughout the matrix which allows it to break so easily upon impact. In nodular or ductile iron we add alloys to the melt to make the graphite form nodules which greatly improves impact resistance.