possible to bronze overlay ductile iron / continous cast iron ?

\ Sure. Works fine. Use Silicon bronze, aluminum bronze, nickle bronze, or tin bronze.

Stay away from anything with Zinc in it, such as low fuming gas brazing rod.

Covering a large area with a layer of metal. Basically row upon row of weld beads. Very common in hardfacing and buildup of worn parts.

thanks Ernie , any suggestions on technique to keep the parent material from out gassing , I am getting a bubbling type thing , am I getting it too hot ?

If you are layering bronze onto cast iron I have to ask what condition the cast iron is in?

Is it a used crank case housing or some other thing that would be saturated in oil.

Cast iron has a porous surface that tends to absorb contaminants so if the part has such contamination you will have problems with stuff burning out as you go.

The only solution I know of to remove soaked in stuff is to put the whole piece in a hot alkali cleaning machine as used for engine blocks.

I tried to write some letters in stainless steel using silicon bronze. The hope was to have a stainless steel background with copper colored letters. There was a lot of mixing with the base material and I ended up with a dirty brown with poorly defined edges. It sure did not look very good.

Is there a way to do this without mixing with the base metal? All I know about it is it's stainless. I don't know what kind.

Mike

the cast iron is from the gland and pistons of large hydraulic cylinders so oil contamination is most likely the problem , we are soaking the parts in acetone overnight then drying them in an oven at 250 for three hours before starting to weld

Well if you can't get the parts to a hot solvent (carbon tetrachloride) or a hot caustic parts washer, then acetone isn't too bad.

You may be better off heating the area with a torch to help burn out any contaminants before laying the bronze on.

Incise the letters into the SS with a die grinder, then fill the grooves with silicon bronze using 1 amp per each 0.002" of thickness.