I recently purchased a Myford Super 7 power cross-feed apron, but unfortunately the dovetail was damaged in transit, with a small chip around 5mm long and 2mm wide removed from the top edge, as in the photo below.

My questions are:

1) Is the saddle still usable? Am I right to assume that it isn't usable as-is, as it would result in wear to the gib?

2) Can it be repaired? If so, should it be brazed, silver-soldered or welded? I seem to remember having read somewhere that weld on cast iron can create brittle areas and therefore braze is better. Am I right?

Many thanks,

Mike

Great advice – thanks to all who posted. I did order some JBWeld, though I will probably just leave it smoothed.

The whole saddle was quite black, perhaps leftover from some kind of rust remover? I tried to shine up the non-bearing surfaces in several ways, in the following order, moving from mild to more agressive, all of which lubricated with WD40 or white spirit:

1) a slipstone to remove any high spots, though this was very of course very slow in removing the 'black' surface

2) green scotchbrite, which didn't do much either

3) fine emery cloth, backed with a small square of wood, which did slowly remove the black surface, leaving the silver cast iron

I assume it doesn't really matter how I make the non-bearing surfaces more cosmetically appealing, though does anyone have a quicker way that they use for all flat cast iron surfaces? Citric acid perhaps?

Mike