Sympathetically repairing a bit of (very) old cast.

[Gareth J]

Just taken delivery of an old printing press (1849). It all looks good and surprisingly little wear barring a chip to one of the oil cups.

Not structural but it would be nice to repair it so it'll hold oil once again

Broken hole;

How it should look;

My options available to me right now include shaping a bit of steel to match the missing bit and sticking it in with either;
Braze
Nickel cast rods "cold" welded.
Silver solder

I'm not great at any of these but it's in an inconspicuous place and I think I will be able to do something functional.

But struggling to decide which to attempt, and why. Braze might look the most period? Nickel rods might be the stronger? Tack and pause Nickel welding might be easier rather than having to get a lot of heat into it?

It's vulnerable to getting clonked during use, which is why it broke.

 

[addjunkie]

You could and probably should if your not confident with hot solutions use a modern engineering epoxy type product, and re sculpt whats missing. Something like Blezona, Devcon etc.

 

[Gareth J]

You could and probably should if your not confident with hot solutions use a modern engineering epoxy type product, and re sculpt whats missing. Something like Blezona, Devcon etc.

Yea another option. Certainly least destructive. But I've both brazed and nickel rodded enough to be confident/hopefully competent to attempt it and would prefer a metal repair.

Could potentially pin the repair part into the parent metal with steel pegs/threaded section as well.

 

[Dcal]

Braze all day, even better if you braze in a bit of cast iron.

 

[graffian]

A mate worked at a place that did up iron fireplaces[the chelsea fireplace company?]
They got some fireplaces as jigsaws and the welders stitched them back together with a stick welder,
they replaced missing bits with steel.
I have a box of the rods they used, if I rember I will put post what rods they use.
They ground the welds back then scurfed the area with emery loaded mop and it all looked one piece again.

 

[graffian]

The rods used on the fireplaces were Universal cast 460, from universal welding alloys.