Lyman 450 repair

[CZ93X62]

Knocking on wood here......I have owned one each of Lyman 45, 450, and 4500--and none of the three have shown these 11 o'clock or 1 o'clock lube body cracks. The 45 left some years ago, the other two are on my bench today. The 450 (1981) has the 2-O-ring piston, as does the 4500 (2010).

 

[JonB]

I have one that has a 3 inch split along one side. It was brazed at a welding shop with poor results, the heat from the torch warped the cast iron leaving an egged shaped tube. It's now junk.
Brownells Steel Bed could be used to fill a crack then reinforce the tube with radiator hose clamps. It should work, but no guarantees. that any repair will hold considering the quality of the cast iron.

Ken

Good to know this info about brazing and poor quality cast iron.

 

[Rick H]

I know there are a lot of much better welders than I am out there, but: I was always taught the welding cast iron involved kilns and heating and cooling at precise rates to avoid making a bigger mess than you started with.

I am a believer in JB Weld. An aluminum connecting rod let go on a race car engine with a piece piercing and cracking the water jacket on the block. Rather than scrapping the engine block it was cleaned up, drilled to stop further migration of the crack and the whole mess filled with JB Weld. That block is still running in a radiator-less drag racing roadster. (We changed water between runs) JB Weld is amazing stuff.

 

[358156 hp]

Clean it up inside really, really well. Try to make sure you have the inside tube surface completely clean and degreased. Then you can try using the aluminum ducting tape so popular for Beagling on the inside surface of the tube. It should be thin enough to not interfere with the piston travel. My only real concern is about how well the tape will stay in place during the piston travel. Everything would need to be really clean to give it a decent chance to work.

 

[Joshua]

I know there are a lot of much better welders than I am out there, but: I was always taught the welding cast iron involved kilns and heating and cooling at precise rates to avoid making a bigger mess than you started with.

I have repaired cast iron multiple times with nickel 99 stick electrodes, and with Inconel tig wire.

Lots of preheat, lots of in process peening with pneumatic hammers/needle guns, and then post heating the part, sometimes with a torch, other times by wrapping the part in kaowool refractory, or burying it in vermiculite to slow the cooling. You got to know what you are doing when welding cast iron.

JB weld is a much better solution in the case of this bullet luber.

Repairing a broken ear on a one ton casting, welding is the appropriate process.

 

[oscarflytyer]

you guys are awesome! And good to hear all the positive feedback regarding JB Weld! I have always had good luck with it if done right. Prob the direction I will go, with some of the tips here! Thanx!

 

[jonjon]

I brazed a cracked steam trap once. Get the crack ground out and then heat it up till you think it's hot enough then heatit some more. Must be kept hot for the entire job. When brazing is complete it was buried in a bucket filled with lime. This was a Friday afternoon when I dug it out Monday morning it was still warm.The owner put it back in the steam line.