[AT] A long shot--Wisconsin part

[Richard Fink Sr]

At 06:58 AM 7/1/2006 -0500, you wrote:
>Mig welding Cast Iron has worked for me also.  If the cast iron has been 
>heated or should I say heated treated then it will become ductile 
>iron.  You can weld ductile iron.  A fresh casting is considered white 
>cast if it has cooled rapidly in the mold.  This is the reason that you 
>can't hardly machine wheel weights, barbell weights, or the large old 
>chain sprockets. These were not heated and allowed the iron to change 
>states from white cast to ductile.    Since it costs for heat treating, 
>cheap castings are brittle as they have not been heat treated.  Ductile 
>iron is made by heating white cast iron for a long period of time until 
>the grain structure redefines. Some of the new methods for block 
>degreasing is to put the block in a high heat oven for a few hours to bake 
>the grease and crap off them.  I wonder if this changes the grain 
>structure of the steel.
>
>Whew!  It has been 35 years since I had steel composition and heat 
>treating in college.  Went thru a lot of cobwebs to get there too.!!!!!
>
>Cecil in OKla
The only place i learned any of that stuff was at the school of hard knocks.
and it was not explained in them terms. Worth knowing
R Fink
PA