Welding Tips and Tricks

...I have a forged aluminum piston which I need to have the oil ring groove built up so it can be machined back to spec. I was wondering if this can be done and if so what sort of shop should I look for or if anyone knows of a shop in the Phoenix area that would do a good quality job? Thanx for any help in this matter y'all can give...Then we'll move on to the hard part of yo guys telling me how to weld with my wire feed....LOL...Carl

Hi there,

It must be an expensive part to warrant that work. How much to buy a new one? Because getting a good welder and machinist to do the job will run a few dollars. Just sayin is all.

Mick

Something like that could probably be put on a lathe and use a flame spray process to build up the area above spec and then be turned down. Look for a shop that does "metalizing" or flame spray. If you can't find one in the Phoenix area, there is one by me in Deroit that has been doing this for many, many years.

Good Luck
Steve

As critical as the measurments are as far as ring groove size I would recomend getting a new piston. The MONEY and time involved if it doesn't work ain't worth it.

Thanx for all your replies...
It's $286 to get a new piston and my Dad has a machine shop in order to do any cutting that will be required to bring it back to tolerance. It doesn't need a lot of material replace and it is in a pretty non critical location...AND it was still running great "as is". I only notice it when I tore it down to work on another issue and was inspecting/cleaning. I still haven't heard if it is even possible to weld a piston without running a high risk of failure or not.

Scardhard wrote:Thanx for all your replies...
It's $286 to get a new piston and my Dad has a machine shop in order to do any cutting that will be required to bring it back to tolerance. It doesn't need a lot of material replace and it is in a pretty non critical location...AND it was still running great "as is". I only notice it when I tore it down to work on another issue and was inspecting/cleaning. I still haven't heard if it is even possible to weld a piston without running a high risk of failure or not.

I wouldn't weld a piston unless there was absolutely no other choice. Just think of all the work thats involved if the piston fails. In my opinion , it's cheap insurance to just get a new piston. I think welding it is gonna cause a lot of internal stresses on a part that already sees a lot of heating/cooling cycles...I wouldn't do it unles it was the only piston left on earth that I could afford.