T/D/Jackeroo, Crack in exhaust manifold...

Any other Jack owners had this happen? Cracked near the No1 cylinder about 4 cm long along the curved part....I fixed it by spending the best part of a day getting all the impedimenta out of the engine bay so that I could get at the manifold, took it off ground out the crack with angle grinder and cleaned up with a file as grinding cast iron smears graphite over the surface and makes it impossible to "weld", bolted it to a lump of 12" RSJ to prevent distortion and brazed up the crack with high tensile bronze...
A new manifold was over $2000.....
Will await further developments...
Now I only have to put it all back together but I now have the dissadvantage of a very sore and cut thumb where the the manifold fell on it....