Welding Cast Iron
1,314 views · Published 14 May 2015 · 2:40 · Indexed 21 October 2026
Channel: Gary Truesdale · 2015 · Science & Technology
Some say it cant be done. Too much carbon in cast iron; too brittle. Or you can weld a casting but just to correct a flaw, not to join two parts together. Recommendations include preheat, electrode and filler selection, controlled cooling, grinding methods for the joint, and others. I find the most important prerequisite is clean metal. Grind until shiny, and remove all of the oil. I use Windex. Don't touch the casting once you've cleaned it as oil from your hands will contaminate the weld. Use plenty of filler, weld from both sides to keep the tab straight; grind to finish. It's probably not as strong as you would like, but it will do in a pinch. I learned how to do this from the great drag racer Gary Dyer. I worked for Gary from 1981 until I finished college in 1989. He taught me a lot of high level manufacturing that he learned building and racing the first fiberglass bodied funny cars in the 1960's. Dyer drove the Mr. Norms Super Charger. Mr. Norms Grand Spalding Dodge was a Chicago Car dealership that sponsored the race team. People would fly to Chicago to buy a car and drive it home. They were known for high performance! When Gary Dyer retired from racing he continued to build Superchargers and Motors for thousands of performance cars. He has a machine shop in Summit Illinois. I walked into Gary's shop when I was a senior in high school looking for a job. I interviewed with Gary and John Massa. John Massa gave me a machinist test and called my high school shop teacher for a reference before they hired me. I worked at Dyers machine service for eight years. I worked on my Mechanical Engineering degree at the same time, first at a junior college then at University of Illinois at Chicago. At Dyers' I made hundreds of aluminum manifolds for race kits, ran CNC machines, and TIG welded. I worked with Gary Dyer, John Massa, Terry Dyer, Bill Dyer, Reggie Cooper, and my brother Wayne. The list is longer; but it was a long time ago. We machined a lot of parts; built a lot of blower kits. While I worked there thousands of kits went out; were installed and ran perfectly. Everything worked; very little ever failed. If anything ever did break Dyer stood behind it. But more importantly he wanted to get the broken part back. Dyer would analyze it and improve the engineering. He has fifty years worth of custom proprietary tools and tooling. Hundreds of tools; designed over decades that manufacture the most precise roots style blowers available. Dyers kits are probably 20th generation; engineered from that racing base with everything really strong and light; getting better and better for 50 years. Dyers Machine Service is widely regarded as the most reliable source for these types of supercharger systems. http://www.dyersblowers.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lSNKQD1o-A Shout out to the Boss Man.
