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Welding cast towhook question

buzzbombxj

Not too samrt
Joined
Aug 15, 2021
Member Number
4265
Messages
42
Loc
East Bay, CA
This hook is some sort of cast, I'm not really sure, I got it at the junkyard over 15 years ago. How much did I weaken the cast by welding to it? The hitch pin goes through one of the bolt holes in the hook, so overall I'm not too worried about strength, unless I have weekend the hook by heating and quenching it. My experience welding cast is all ornamental iron, fence/gate stuff. I didn't think about it till after I did it.
 

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buzzbombxj said:
This hook is some sort of cast, I'm not really sure, I got it at the junkyard over 15 years ago. How much did I weaken the cast by welding to it? The hitch pin goes through one of the bolt holes in the hook, so overall I'm not too worried about strength, unless I have weekend the hook by heating and quenching it. My experience welding cast is all ornamental iron, fence/gate stuff. I didn't think about it till after I did it.
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My opinion is to cut that hook off and keep the tube for something else.

That is not the place to find out what type of metal it is, how good a welder you are etc.

Arse will be along shortly to make fun of my association with Texas, law, engineers and insurance but I said what I said.
 
The hitch pin would take the force of the pull. I'm not worried about counting on the welds strength, how good a welder i am only comes into play by me being retarded and heating it up. I'm thinking I ruined the hook by heating/ quenching the cast, making it useless as a recovery point.
 
buzzbombxj said:
The hitch pin would take the force of the pull. I'm not worried about counting on the welds strength, how good a welder i am only comes into play by me being retarded and heating it up. I'm thinking I ruined the hook by heating/ quenching the cast, making it useless as a recovery point.
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You created a zipper for failure around the circumference of the hook, cast, forged shit out of a elephant etc.

That is not place to have a failure, zero percent chance of using that over a chain around a hitch ball....
 
Sounds like I made a door stop with a carry handle. Oh well. While i was panting it it occurred to me it was cast, and I was thinking about how the Ornamental Cast fence peices just break off when you move the panels. It will probably just be recycled.
 
buzzbombxj said:
Sounds like I made a door stop with a carry handle. Oh well. While i was panting it it occurred to me it was cast, and I was thinking about how the Ornamental Cast fence peices just break off when you move the panels. It will probably just be recycled.
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I doubt it's cast iron, it's probably cast steel at minimum but that doesn't even sound good.

If it was mine I'd take a sledge hammer to it and learn something, still wouldn't recover off of it regardless of outcome
 
Blip that fucker with a grinder. I'd bet it's steel and not iron.

The issue here is that your little weld around the perimeter of the round bar is not gonna be sufficient for tow hook use. You don't have much cross sectional area there.

CarterKraft said:
Arse will be along shortly to make fun of my association with Texas, law, engineers and insurance but I said what I said.
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Yeah pretty much. :flipoff2:
 
buzzbombxj said:
The hitch pin goes through one of the bolt holes in the hook,
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I missed this part. Yeah you'll be fine.

You probably didn't fuck it up by quenching it. 2big bronco quenches his fucking welding certification plates. :lmao:

And even if you did you can always re-heat it and cool it slowly to anneal it.
 
That is a gm square body tow hook. I'm pretty sure that it is steel and not cast iron. You're probably fine.
 
It's a doorstop now. I don't know metallurgy, so I'll listen to smarter people. The thing that sucks is that the 1 1/8 hole on the sq tube cap fit the hook so well I didn't really even need to weld it to keep it in place.
20210801_085759.jpg

Are 3rd gen 4runner/1st gen sequoia knuckles cast, or a forging?
 
That hook isn’t cast.
First of all, cast iron isn’t strong enough in that size to be a good hook. It would shatter and break.

The hook is forged. You can tell by just looking it isn’t cast. It’s forged.
 
buzzbombxj said:
It's a doorstop now. I don't know metallurgy, so I'll listen to smarter people. The thing that sucks is that the 1 1/8 hole on the sq tube cap fit the hook so well I didn't really even need to weld it to keep it in place.
20210801_085759.jpg

Are 3rd gen 4runner/1st gen sequoia knuckles cast, or a forging?
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You’re listening to the wrong people. 🙄

That is also forged.
 
IH Man said:
The hook is forged. You can tell by just looking it isn’t cast. It’s forged.
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Unless you can see the parting line you're not gonna be able to tell a good casting from a good forging.
 
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