[Farmall] O-12 chores

Thu Dec 28 19:43:03 PST 2006

Jim

Zen and the Art . . .  is the first book I read after college and it has a 
special magic.  I particularly recall the discussion ("chataqua" was I 
believe the term the writer used) about how tightening a bolt was a matter 
of properly "feeling" the tightness, the tautness of the metal, rather than 
cranking blindly down past tight.  Can't say I haven't stripped any bolts 
since, but I do think about it more . . .  Was good to hear that title again 
after many years!

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Moran" <jrmoraninc at yahoo.com>
To: "Farmall/IHC mailing list" <farmall at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 26, 2006 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Farmall] O-12 chores

>A bit of an "outside" message, here.  Have you ever read "Zen and  the Art 
>of Motorcycle Maintenance"?  There is a brief but  wonderful passage which 
>involves the city-slicker author making a  cross-country trip with his son 
>and the chain guard of his bike  cracked.  He stopped at some mid-west shop 
>run by an old geezer  who welded the metal to "rights" and the author was 
>marveling at the  quality of the job and tried to impart his appreciation 
>of the welder's  competency.  The old fellow looked at him as if he had 
>just come  down from Mars, as there is/was only one way to do such a task 
>and that  is correctly.
> Anyway, the theme of the book is the pursuit of  quality and, if any of 
> you are so inclined, I would suggest trying  it.  It is a great read and, 
> to some extent, an eye-opene.
>  OK...off topic but I could not resist sharing this.
>  JM
>
> olmstead at ridgenet.net wrote:  I agree that I have little to lose, John. 
> And welding cast iron is
> certainly a talent that I would like to have.
>
> What scares me is the guys who say "I've welded lots of cast iron, just
> zapped it with the MIG, and it worked fine".  That goes against everything
> I've ever read about what happens in the iron adjacent to the weld, which
> gets very hot and then chilled by the base metal.  It winds up being very
> brittle and under a lot of stress.  In order to do a lasting job on cast
> iron, the whole part needs to be virtually red hot while you are welding,
> and then cooled very slowly.
>
> Then there's the problem with porosity, contaminated metal, warpage,
> cracking and so on.  Doing it right is not a simple matter.  I figured
> that I might be able to learn to braze a lot quicker than to weld.
>
> Brazing and soldering are also magical techniques.  In order to do what
> the experts do, you need to control the temperature of the pool so closely
> that you can keep it in the 'mushy' stage, where it doesn't liquefy and
> run right off the work.  I've never been good at that.
>
> Gotta obtain some 2" round stock before I can start making crank
> supports....  none in my scrap pile.
>
> -Karl
>
> ----------------------------
>> Great read Karl. Definetly a good play by play for anyone resurrecting an
>> old machine for the first time and not certain what to watch out for.
>> Likewise a good reminder for the rest of us.
>>
>> Got a challenge for you. Learn to weld cast iron. It's something I can do
>> on
>> my own projects but don't really want to do for others. Then again a lot
>> of
>> pros refuse to give a guarantee on some repairs. Breaks are easier to fix
>> than cracks. If you are already planning on remaking the part anyway, no
>> big
>> deal if you screw up, right? Whats the worst that can happen, you get 
>> good
>> at it? Lord knows I haven't gotten good at it but I've made a couple of
>> decent repairs on my Titan that are working just fine thus far. As with
>> anything, you need to know when to call in a pro instead of try it
>> yourself.
>> However these days finding a pro that can weld cast is getting to be
>> difficult.
>>
>> Having said all that, I still can't solder and braze worth a flip. There
>> are
>> going to be some repeirs on the Titan to be made with either lead or
>> solder
>> and I hope to learn how. That tractor had the intake broke off at the 
>> head
>> once. It was put back on with the prettiest brass work I have ever seen.
>> To
>> top it off the guy wet around the flange and built it up for added
>> strength.
>> I have never seen brass with swirl marks in it like welding but this guy
>> did
>> a flawless job. And this repair took place before the mid '40's. The only
>> thing I did was to make a spotface for the bolt head and face off the
>> bottom
>> of the intake.
>>
>> John
>
>
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