That hack worked about as well as a screen door on a submarine.

Why would you just replace the rod and keep pressing on a 130 year old cast iron frame? That crack means the whole press is telling you something. Rust inside a rod doesn't happen alone, it means water got in and sat there, so what else is soft? The threads in the nuts, the pivot points, the frame itself. I had a vise do the same thing and I slapped a new handle on it, then three weeks later the jaw sheared off and shot across my shop. You got LUCKY with the dictionary. $38 is cheap but that press owes you a full teardown now, not just a new part.

That "throwing his fleets into pointless fights" move is when you just call it early.