Bead Roller Modifications Harbor Freight

[Jon]

Forgot to mention this modified HF bead roller recently posted by bobs409: Tricked out Harbor Freight bead roller of awesomeness.

[Sprog]

Eastwood and Woodward sites say their 3/8" main body is "plate steel".
Harbor Freight says theirs is "cast iron".
I bought the HF unit yesterday with a 25% off of $149.95 (coupon on HF main site, good till 12/18/2016)

Questions: is the HF unit cast iron? If so what rod is everyone using...or does it matter, when adding re enforcing braces?

Hi,

Welding cast iron can be very problematic and is not suitable for any kind of stick or arc welding (with the one exception of malleable cast iron). Brazing or welding using an oxy-acetylene torch is the usual method, but the entire working area has to be brought up to temperature to avoid the chances of cracks appearing. If the unit is plate steel then arc welding would be easy to do and virtually fool-proof. You could check if the metal is weldable using arc welding by a quick tap with the rod in an unobtrusive place - if the result is a mini 'crater' then it is unsuitable. I once repaired a lug on the travelling carriage of my Dominion Industrial Radial arm saw (about 25 pounds of cast iron) with araldite epoxy. 15 years later and the repair is still going strong! Hope this helps.

[Frank S]

Yes welding cast iron can be problematic however with experience and patients just about any metal can be mended.
adding a dissimilar metal such as mild steel to a cast iron part is not without its problems as well but can be accomplished. the problem there would be finding a filler material which will afford a good molecular bond to either metal, they do exist.
for simple cast to cast welding such as repairing a broken part, cleaning and beveling the area to be repaired plus a little preheat
over the years I have probably mended as much tonnage of broken cast iron as many welders have done in mild steel. I'm not talking about those who have spent their entire lives in the field of fabrication. I am talking about maintenance welders who have mainly done repairs for most of their lives.
Do I know everything about rejoining cast iron? Heck NO. I know a guy who has pretty much done nothing but weld cast iron for the past 30 years in a foundry welding up imperfections of huge cast iron cores that would have otherwise required breaking up melted down and re-poured.
the link below is a brief dissertation of a process that I recently used to make a repair in a hydraulic valve
http://www.homemadetools.net/forum/w...ic-valve-53251

[bpote]

thanks. that is a great test to know. one person told me to use a grinder on it. if the sparks are real yellow, it is cast iron. if they are white or pale yellow, it is steel. Even though Harbor Freight says it is cast iron, it must be steel as everyone is welding them up. I will do your test first. Thanks.