Welding cast iron to mild steel

This is a Famco 4C arbor press. It is of "compound ratcheting" type, and can develop up to 12 tons of force. It is very huge in size and weighs approximately 500 lbs.

It seems to work fine, with one exception.

As you can see, the original cast iron hand wheel/machine handle on it is broken and something ugly bolted on. I wanted to make it look nicer and have a three spoked handle. I have a handle similar to ebay item

120439463076, but with a flat steel hub.

So I can either drill, tap and screw the handle hub to the original hub, or I could weld it. For the latter, what sort of welding material would you suggest. For example, if I use Nickel 55, would it properly adhere to mild steel.

Right now I am removing remnants of the original cast iron spokes on the lathe.

i

My recommendation would be to make a new steel hub on the lathe and replace the cast part entirely.

Cast iron welds to steel very nicely if you use a rod intended for cast iron (I'm not familiar with the particular rod you mentioned.) The difficulty will be dealing with shrinkage. You need to heat the entire handwheel, perform the welds, and then cool the handwheel slowly and evenly in pile of ashes or other insulating surround. This is quite an undertaking, and it probably would be easier to do what Pete C, suggests.

Another alternative might be to machine the remains of the hub cylindrical and then shrink a new steel outer portion onto it. As the hand wheel isn't normally used to exert any real force on the ram a shrink fit should be plenty strong enough.

Cheers,

John B. (johnbslocombatgmaildotcom)

Especially if you can have a keyway machined into the spindle and new hub. Then if it ever breaks again, pull the key and repair/replace.

Should you choose a welded solution, don't overkill it. It's often real easy to weld something up, but if that part ever has to come off again, you're screwed. Then you're precision grinding for hours to undo 5 minutes of weld.

I ended up turning the cast iron hub on the lathe to get rid of the remnants of original spokes (first picture), and then drilled/tapped and bolted the steel hub of the handle to the cast iron hub of the press. It actually looks quite better now, compared to what it was when I brought it home (last picture).

Picture before last is an attempt to show how big is the press.

i

*Snip*

Somehow I'd always pictured you as bigger.

And older.

Do your parents know what it is you're up to?

H.

I am just a youthful looking midget...

i

Looks good. Especially since one would expect that any real work would be done with the big ratchet handle, not that one... --Glenn Lyford

This handle is not for pressing. It is for moving the arbor up or down when it does not contact work.

This press is actually very well designed and is very compact for its

12 tons of pressure. It takes less space than a hydraulic press and can be mounted on a bench. It is relatively big and heavy (500-600 lbs), but has a small footprint.

I will sell my Famco 3R 3 ton press and will keep this Famco 4C 12 ton press. It will only perhaps use one extra square foot on the table where it is mounted. I bought new casters for the table to support the weight of this press and to keep the table movable.

i

Looks Great!

Unfortunately you now can only put less than 50% of working pressure on whatever part you are puttering with in the press.

Leverage is an interesting thing. The longer the lever..the more work it does.

Funny about that, no?

Gunner

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Ro osevelt 1907

AH! I just reviewed the pictures.

Ignore my previous post. Sorry.

Gunner

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Ro osevelt 1907

The handle that I installed, is only to be used to move the arbor rapidly up and down without any load. It is not for applying actual pressure.

The lever that goes into the handle, is about 4.5 feet long, it is massive.

i

good faith

Oops, I followed up to it without seeing this one. Anyhow, I am grinding off the old casters from my steel table, to put in bigger ones in prep for this arbor press. I think that this bigger one, will do more or less anything tat I need, with its 12 tons of pressure.

i

good faith

All done. With new 2x6 casters, the table moves very smoothly, in fact, too easily. That is not a problem, of course, a few pieces of

2x4 under it, or some tiny chocks, will do wonders if I need to keep it in one place. The press is on the table now. What a massive mother(*&(*&, it looks like an elephant.

Casters are from here:

Kind of pricey, but they look very good in all respects, except one: on two of them, the greasing nipple that greases the axle, is very hard to access with a grease gun, there is not enough clearance between the nipple and the body of the wheel to stick the gun. But for the amount of movement that this table will see, it should be just fine.

Each caster is rated for 600 lbs, which should be plenty to hold the press and a bunch of stuff that lives on the table. I would expect the table to weigh 1,500 lbs or so. The table weighs at least 300 lbs, plus the press (600 lbs?), plus various crap.

i

Thats what I thought when I made up my 15 ton hydraulic press...

It does MOST of what I want it to do. The small minority that needed more, is what caused me to swap for a 50 ton press..to be here in a week or two.

Shrug...

Gunner

in good faith

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Ro osevelt 1907

Let the Record show that Gunner Asch on or about Sun, 09 Aug 2009 13:32:58 -0700 did write/type or cause to appear in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

You do know, that eventually, you find that even this 50 ton press, just doesn't have the "oomph" you need? And you will start looking for a bigger one?

Is vicious cycle, comrade.

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!

Da, Torvarish..but fun von!

'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American... There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language.. and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.' Theodore Ro osevelt 1907

Let the Record show that Gunner Asch on or about Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:10:12 -0700 did write/type or cause to appear in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Not that there is anything wrong with that...

Women buy shoes and men buy tools for the same reason. To keep someone else from having them!

tschus pyotr

- pyotr filipivich We will drink no whiskey before its nine. It's eight fifty eight. Close enough!