On Sunday, January 3, 2016 at 3:41:24 PM UTC-5, Terry Coombs wrote:

I'm figuring that with nothing
else working it's pretty much futile to try with stick .

No experience... but you might yet try Forney Nomacast rods and
your stick welder. I've got some but never got around to trying to fix
the neighbors broke cast iron piece. They are an odd-ball cast iron
rod and not all that expensive. Wouldn't cost you much to give them a
whirl...

http://www.amazon.com/Forney-43400-N...dp/B000GAS21I/


Snag

You might try using the stick welder. The flux on the stick rod might do enough to get rid of the carbon and crud. Tig uses gas to prevent carbon and crud, but the flux gets rid of existing crud.

Dan