Welding Tips and Tricks

I got the call at 7:00AM. Howard does these things all the time. He takes it in stride. He wasn't available. The production manager requested the bobcat, I had my doubts. The Superflow conveyor moves 4" pine chips up to tha airlock above the 225 HP hammermill. The top shaft holds the chain sprocket, passes through self aligning flange bearings. One end necks down from 2-1/4" to 1-1/2". Hanging off this 10" long 1-1/2" shaft end is a 300 lb assembly of gear box, 2 HP motor and adjuster, belt guard. Two tether devices prevent it from spinning, but weight support is provided by this shaft. It had broken at the plane where it necks down. though there is plenty of length to taper the neck down it wasn't.
They wanted to weld in place 20 feet above the ground, still in its bearings. I said no.
We set up on the table with a piece of 3x3x3/8 angle, with 4 shims to align the small end. I welded using straw preheat, and my MM252. It proved to be .060" out of straight with dial indicator.
I used a technique from a Jody video, heat straightening, After two heat/cool cycles, we weren't yet straight. Heating was taking too long to cool. We resorted to the press. It took 7 tons to move, then it went too far. After about ten pressings we were acceptably straight.
The damned thing works! By 3 it was working!

Sounds like a nice fix....
Pics or it didn't happen.

@ AK - so by default if there is a picture it must have happened ? - so explain Roswell !

Sounds like a successful job - congrats on getting it straight - if I may suggest - if you don't know what the shaft material is I've usually " buttered the faces with " Esab Almat " prior to the bulk fill with Mig - while it's nice to get the shaft straight I've seen that style box ( usually Fenner over here ) wobbling around on bent shafts for years without failure ! - was there any evidence of what caused the failure other than the abrupt diameter step ? - sounds like it wanted some measurements taken so when the lathes not busy a spare can be made.

noddybrian wrote:@ AK - so by default if there is a picture it must have happened ? - so explain Roswell !

Sounds like a successful job - congrats on getting it straight - if I may suggest - if you don't know what the shaft material is I've usually " buttered the faces with " Esab Almat " prior to the bulk fill with Mig - while it's nice to get the shaft straight I've seen that style box ( usually Fenner over here ) wobbling around on bent shafts for years without failure ! - was there any evidence of what caused the failure other than the abrupt diameter step ? - sounds like it wanted some measurements taken so when the lathes not busy a spare can be made.

My Grandpa always says- "I don't believe anything I hear, and only half of what I see"....

Just joking mainly. Sounds like Bill did a great job.

Yea - it's not easy getting shafts straight like that - if it was a build up just put plenty on & the lathe takes care of the rest - I hate shafts - almost never know what the material is & most " free machining " alloys have a bunch of lead in that boils out & completely f#cks up the weld !

[quote="noddybrian"]@ AK - so by default if there is a picture it must have happened ? - so explain Roswell !

The NAZI R&D staff was working on a crescent shaped "flying wing" After WWII the Soviet Union continued those experiments with deformed humans bred for the purpose.

noddybrian wrote:@ AK - so by default if there is a picture it must have happened ? - so explain Roswell !

Sounds like a successful job - congrats on getting it straight - if I may suggest - if you don't know what the shaft material is I've usually " buttered the faces with " Esab Almat " prior to the bulk fill with Mig - while it's nice to get the shaft straight I've seen that style box ( usually Fenner over here ) wobbling around on bent shafts for years without failure ! - was there any evidence of what caused the failure other than the abrupt diameter step ? - sounds like it wanted some measurements taken so when the lathes not busy a spare can be made.

This is a company where spare is a dirty word. Their Miller Matic 252 is presumed to be too costly to repair. They can't afford a chuck key for the drill press.

noddybrian wrote:@ AK - so by default if there is a picture it must have happened ? - so explain Roswell !

Sounds like a successful job - congrats on getting it straight - if I may suggest - if you don't know what the shaft material is I've usually " buttered the faces with " Esab Almat " prior to the bulk fill with Mig - while it's nice to get the shaft straight I've seen that style box ( usually Fenner over here ) wobbling around on bent shafts for years without failure ! - was there any evidence of what caused the failure other than the abrupt diameter step ? - sounds like it wanted some measurements taken so when the lathes not busy a spare can be made.

I have a couple of maybes, It occurs to me that the non radius ed step concentrated all the stress in one plane. The other possibility is the frequent moving of this machine. As changes are constantly being made in this processing stream to eliminate bottlenecks this same elevator/conveyor gets re configured, decommissioned, dragged out to the bone yard. Months later, we need it, lengthen it, shorten it, bend it, steepen it. Each time it gets a fresh coat of orange paint. One fresh paint job I had a new job box, I peeled off the decal, putting it on the Superflow, now it's a Home Depot. It's likely the machine has been felled like a tree at some point. The break showed an old crack beginning at the keyway which ended at the same plane as the step. Circular, it cut 3/8" deep all the way around. I think this shaft lay abandoned in a defunct grain mill 30 years before being reincarnated. It now has a substantial filet filling the keyway spreading the stress.

Bill - if you meant the " Horten 229 " flying wing it was flight ready during the war - could have easily changed things - but it was under funded - too late & you guys just kept sending B17's which kinda ruined their day ! - it also bears amazing similarities to the first of your stealths - I believe there was a replica built from the original plans & materials & tested at a radar research place to see how well it would have worked.

I've forgotten the author's name, there is a book on Area 51, the super secret airbase in the SW USA that doesn't exist. Debris from the Roswell crash was taken there for study and reverse engineering. She (the author) discredits the extra terrestrial theories offering this as one of the possibilities.

noddybrian wrote:Bill - if you meant the " Horten 229 " flying wing it was flight ready during the war - could have easily changed things - but it was under funded - too late & you guys just kept sending B17's which kinda ruined their day ! - it also bears amazing similarities to the first of your stealths - I believe there was a replica built from the original plans & materials & tested at a radar research place to see how well it would have worked.

I just looked up the Horten 229, I gave the book back to its owner, The actual black and white photographs she had found of the prototype plane I believe dated 1944 was of a disc shape thicker on the leading edge, holding the same o ring shape but tapering in diameter to peter out and the rear 1/3 of the O ring was missing. The center area was only perhaps two feet thick. I presume only enough room for a tiny human to lay face down to pilot. As I remember there was room for two people side by side. Experts she interviewed felt this would be a treacherous plane to fly.
It might be more believable that extra terrestrials crashed in New Mexico, than Germans moved to Russia after WWII, and finished their work.