Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Making progress in disassembly of the Ideal Steel .
the hub was "welded on " with 100 years of abuse and rust , it had been standing in the elements with NO covers on the oil spouts .
A miss aligned back swing of the 5 lb hammer cost me more work to braze this shield section intp place .
Mike Blahnik
New Braunfels TX

Yep. "A grinder is to a welder, as a caulking gun is to a carpenter".

Windy , aren't you glad you never "made " any extra work for your self .
I frequently try to assemble thing is the wrong order , so extra time to dissemble and do it right the second time , miss align a weld , and the list of miss steps go on & on .
So much for older and wiser, HA
Mike B
New Braunfels TX

I missed this thread. A BFH and cast iron do not mix.

Cast iron is a funny thing ... big bulky & somewhat durable on one hand ... fragile on the other. I shipped some IXL parts off the the west coast to have duplicates made. Put them in a box, wrapped in paper and whatever bubble wrap I had around (obviously not enough bubble wrap). 2 of the 4 parts ended up busted by the time they made it to the west coast.

What's up with that? You have a foundry fairly close......???

Michigan should be full of foundries , casting shops , with all the auto manufactures in that area ?

mtblah wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 11:01 am Michigan should be full of foundries , casting shops , with all the auto manufactures in that area ?

Not as many as you'd think. And those that are ... aren't typically going to mess with the likes of us and do one off loose piece castings.

Have you tried Tomahawk?

windybob wrote: Sat Feb 26, 2022 11:32 am Have you tried Tomahawk?

Not personally, although I have a couple of other parts that I believe came from Tomahawk originally.

In the case above, I was sending the parts out to an acquaintance to cast (they broke during shipping). He is just an above avg backyard caster, that melts probably iron 90% of the time. I have the setup, but only melt aluminum so far. Some day I need to put on my big boy panties and attempt iron.

Interesting. Tomahawk did really good for me one time. Others have used them with good results also.

It's been said that cast iron was the plastic of its day. Hard to imagine foundries everywhere. All the intricate molds, patterns, and everything involved with it.