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Weld hardened after welding cast iron on milling machine.. What happened?

Here is a wild story about welding cast iron...

Years ago, I took my 1982 Ford Fairmont into a welding shop to have some work done on the exhaust manifold which was cracked. So, the welder came out, took one look at it and asked how much I was willing to sell the car for. I said I'd let it go for $500. He said, "OK" and handed over $500 on the spot. The next thing I know, he started the car, warmed the engine to operating temperature, and proceeded to arc weld the crack with a "mystery" rod while it was running. The car sounded like new before the weld was finished in less than 20 seconds - totally quiet. He ran the car a bit longer and took it through a few cycles of start/stop/and restart to cool it down slowly. As far as I heard, it was running years later with no recurrent leak or crack. Guess I should have asked him how much was the repair gonna cost.

You can get away with that if you don't have to machine it afterwards. However, one good whack with a hammer and it would crack/break instantly. Might have eventually cracked anyway, just been small enough not to notice.
 








 
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