Advice Please - Cast/Wrought Iron Ballustrades

[glidetrack]

The cottage we are doing up as a cast/wrought (not sure which) iron ballustrades on the staircase. Took the top hand rail off today and they have a metal strip running along the top under the rail. Each one looked to have been riveted in place. Suspect they put a soft metal pin in then peened the end over. I had to grind the heads off to remove them.

Bottoms were glued in place with a crystalline type glue that took lots of careful shipping away then chapping upwards with a block of wood before they would release.

Anybody got any advice on how I re fit i.e. do I drill out the top rivets and can I buy replacements?

Am thinking epoxy would be the modern equivilant for fixing the bases again.

Going to get them stripped and re blackened.

 

[TicklyT]

They look to be cast iron, which can be prone to cracking if handled too roughly.

The tops may have been secured by wrought iron pins cast into the iron in the foundry, in effect 'welded' into the castings.

Drilling out the remains of the pins, and threading the holes to take countersunk machine screws may be a way forward.

Whitworth threads are ideal for cast iron fittings. That's exactly what that thread form was developed for. Metric thread forms are more common now, even if the thread pitch is regarded as a bit too fine for ultimate strength in cast iron, they should still be well up to the job.

You would probably need all three taps (taper, second cut and plug) to thread the blind holes.

Screws, taps and the correct sized drill bits for the job should all be available from many industrial fastener specialists.

A little thread locking compound applied to the threads on final assembly would help prevent the screws loosening off over time.