Weight costs money, whether it is cast iron or sheet/bar steel, although cast is a bit cheaper. There is no doubt you could build a very good fabricated front axel from sheet and bar steel,it could be stronger than a cast one, but it would probably cost more than a cast one to make. The low end guys use fabricated front axels because they can get "acceptable" strength at the lowest cost. The weak points seem to be at the pivot, as was mentioned, as many use extruded sections for pivot support instead of welded in tubing and bushings. The typical "I beam" style they use also seems to be pretty weak when it sees twisting style loads. When it comes to the strenth of non fabricated axels, as was said, a forging would be by far the best, but are very expensive. Casting materials also vary a lot, but if nodular iron were used, it would start to approach the strenth of a non high strength forging. Plain old grey cast iron is not very strong, but it is the cheapest, so sections can be a bit thicker at the same price point. Cast iron also has pretty good internal damping characteristics, so it will take out some vibrations and such. It is also somewhat self lubricating, so they will eliminate bushings to save some money. I can't say what is up with the lawn and garden stuff, but there is getting to be a LOT of asian and other 3rd world cast iron showing up in products. It is usually of pretty poor quality both from a metallurgical (made almost completely from scrap) and from a casting methods standpoint. The castings I have cut apart are full of inclusions, poor mix, hard spots, sand, etc., and are very prone to failure comapared to good clean castins.

I have a L130 - similar - same front axle. My axle (mowing 2 acres country plot, snow blowing with 48" blower) has snapped 2 times. I tried nickle rods to weld it first time, but at about 50 bucks it was too much work to do and did not hold. I just ordered the 2nd axle, but will probably make my own axle soon from square tube steel. Should not be too hard to do, and probably will cut off the spindles and weld them into the tube. The rest is just drilling. Might line the pivot hole with another steel tube too. Anyway, the cast iron used is pretty close to pot metal, and is about as cheap as it comes. I think Deere only makes the axle and the dealers actually claim their Cast Iron axles are stronger than average lawn tractors. Ha ha ha. My old Sears and Murray had tube steel axles which never had a problem in years of use at the same property. I wont bother talking about eh TuffTorq tranny - another too little and too light thing deere did to make more money on this tractor. This shows what kind of management Deere has, and personally I would never buy another deere. I sure dont want to put 10,000$ into a green lawn mower just because its supposed to be good. For 10k$ I could have a machine shop make me one that is actually good. Sorry about my rant, but this lawn tractor has to go.

I have two Galley sinks and I am so diapointed with them. I would love to remove them, but I cannot without destroying my counters because of the way these sinks mount, which is different from most kitchen sinks. Just be aware, that when you purchas a Galley sink, it is permanent unless you want to redo your counters too. What I don't like about them is how messy they look. I have a busy household, so lots of dishes and every time the water is turned on, it spots the sink unless I hand dry it. This is impracticle for a busy home. Food sticks to the sides of the sink easily and the corners are very hard to clean. Also, the ledge where the boards rest, gets wet because of dish washing so the caulking breaks down easily and there is a moldy rim around the edge of the sink becuase of this design. (I had the caulking fixed within a year, but it happens in a matter of weeks) . I contacted the company and they sent me a product to clean it, but the product was like other products I can buy and the problem is the design and the materials. The company also comes acorss as uncaring and poorly skilled when dealing with customer disapointments. I had a stainless steel sink before and never experienced it looking like this, I actually liked that sink. Also, their bamboo boards broke down very easily. I had new boards made out of walnut and my new boards have lasted two years getting wet daily, with no extra drying from me and they look great. I think Galley sinks wants to be this fancy company but it's just cheap materials, cheap product, cheap customer service. Again, I wish I could remove them, but I cannot without destroying my counters and my counters are so expenisve that I am stuck with these horrible sinks. Good luck with your house remodel!

@amberm145 I have to chuckle at your post about the electricians. I went and helped my Dad put this sucker up one day. He was sitting on the top of a 16 foot ladder while I was hanging over the railing handing him each and every crystal ball. They were all numbered and had to go in a specific order. To say the hooks were small is an understatement, I'm surprised he could even hold on to them. He was fine, but I was the one shaking like a leaf even though I had a railing to lean against haha! (I was about 20 ft up) I think I was more nervous for him than anything. As for an update: Finally caught a break!! My bulldozing guy stopped by last night and informed me that the County called him because they saw him working on my property and also saw my "clean fill wanted" sign. They are bringing in 50 loads ... for FREE! Which is huge for us because it's not cheap here (is it anywhere?!) and I'm going to need a total of about 120 loads. I had a company bringing 30-40 loads on Friday so I had to ask them to move that to next week. I felt bad but simply can't turn down free fill. Hopefully this will help pay for the changes I had to make to my kitchen haha!