California
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Jan 22, 2004
- Messages
- 14,613
- Location
- An hour north of San Francisco
- Tractor
- Yanmar YM240 Yanmar YM186D
I recently got an example of how fragile poor-quality cast iron can be. We have some garden benches that are badly weathered. Nearly identical (when they were new) to the photo below.Most modern tractors are today (aluminum pressure die castings) .. they will still crack under undue stress, but so will cast iron for that matter.
Years ago I had snagged one end of a bench getting too close with the mower and broke a foot off. Then bought some nickel rod and welded it back on. Recently when I went to move that bench, the rotten wood slats disintegrated and as I dropped the bench, the other foot on the welded end broke off. Ok, we have 3 more benches like this, its time to junk this one.
For an experiment I dropped the already-broken cast iron end onto an anvil (RR rail) on the shop floor. Sure enough it shattered into 2 pieces. A couple more drops and the debris was small enough to put in the wastebasket. (Bad) cast iron is brittle!
