Vintage Windmill and Wind Generator Forum

Has anyone tried the rods made by vulcan for welding cast iron they are called nastycast? Specifically made to weld dirty cast iron and leave a cast iron look finish instead of a bright nickel finish.

Nope. I'm afraid to use anything other than NI99. I have tried many different rods, these are the best for me. I don't care what it looks like, I want it stuck.

my welds are nasty enough with nickel, nomacast

I remembered doing some research on this when I had accidentally purchased some Ni55. Didnt want to speak without checking the references. Ni 99 has the advantage of machinability but not strength. Ni 55 has more strength but needs to be used where you can do finish machining/dressing up with a grinder. I dont weld but have a welder weld for me and have the equipment/materials for him. He uses Ni 99 on tail pin hole build up with a burr in a die grinder and Ni 55 where a grinder can clean up. When I accidentally bought the Ni 55, he only used it on one tail pin hole as it was too hard and timely to machine with a burr.

Here is a cut sheet on Ni rod comparison




Would be interested to know if nastycast was thinking of an oil and dust impregnated windmill case to being nasty enough? Would be interested if it requires preheat as Ni rod does? Preheat does help to remove the excess oil impregnated in the case.


Ron Stauffer
Montrose CO

Thanks for posting that comparison chart it will be handy for other rebuilders to refrence. I agree with you on cleaning the case a pear burner works great for burning the case out aswell as preheating also. Tail pin holes with machinable nickel is the way to go. And finishing it out with a rotary file burr. I spoke with Dan Benjamin a while back about this on antique mills the old cast iron can be full of blow holes and slag which is difficult to prep due to them opening up as you weld. But since so much of this work revolves around repairing old cast iron and making it whole again. I feel that this subject is a very important part of the rebuild process. The matching of the cast is important to me as we cannot always depend on paint to cover up the repairs we make.

I bought some of these rods a few years back and have used it with satisfactory results. Has anyone else tried it?

I haven't but sounds great it obviously a non nickel rod

I have used it with better results for me than the nickel rods. Of course I'm not an accomplished rod welder. I like my wire feed on other things.

I have had good luck mig welding. ER70S-6 wire and CO2. Pre heat peen post heat slow cool.

MG 289 is a good machineable rod. It has 75,000 tensile strength.
For a cheaper rod there is MG 220, but it is NOT machineable.