Project 4 from Trip. Category: General Welding repair

I posted about this in another thread, inquiring about the alloys involved, gave it a test and it looks to weld just fine, so I figured I'd get started on a project thread.

Imagine a beat to hell, 30 year old portaband. Greasy, grimy, chipped rattlecan, etc. I say imagine because in my haste to start, I didn't get a good pic of it as it arrived. Neighbor gave it to me thinking I could make some new parts to repair it, he was tired of messing with it.
Here's a pic from disassembly, the rest of it was just as nasty as this area under the drive wheel:

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q2...7081C52882.JPG

So the main problem was a loose screw on the idler wheel shaft. Once I saw I could easily fix that, I started tearing it down with the intention of fully rebuilding and refreshing it. BOTH ends turned out to need welding, three pieces total, three crack repairs and one rebuilding of a missing piece.

Sandblasted cover on idler end, this is the part the tensioning lever goes through and the handle attaches to:

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-6B...5507621792.JPG

Outer corner crack

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-rh...DC68805E7B.JPG

Crack at the base of the bearing boss the tensioner goes through, it's about 3/4 the way around

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-sK...0DB4B42570.JPG

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-3q...31FB2D1620.JPG

Looks like it took a fall to the side, this is where the blade runs through on the idler end

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-mc...8CDC136E1C.JPG

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-7G...80F22C90BE.JPG

And the BIG repair I tore it down for (might as well fix the rest and paint it while I'm at it, right?)

I need a new cord and new tires, but short of that and a snap ring, it looks like everything else is salvageable. Should have the weld pics up in a day or two depending on how my Ar holds out, down to about 400psi on a 125cuft bottle with a slider in first. Oh, and just my luck, the slider is cast aluminum too...

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Originally Posted by Trip59

...Looks like it took a fall...

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...Off the back of a truck going down the freeway at 100 mph. ;)

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Originally Posted by Rambozo

...Off the back of a truck going down the freeway at 100 mph. ;)

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Maybe, but if you saw this guy work... sometimes I think his former career was as an underwriters laboratory master tester :)

Ok, worked on it a bit today till I ran out of Ar (well, 100psi but I didn't want to push it, lol)

Went to straighten the bent and cracked piece on the idler guard, sure enough, it broke...

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mF...1A8C3C4F0F.JPG

So I beveled, fitted, tacked, etc. You can see the autogenous tack at the upper left cracked right through, but it held long enough to get the rest of the tacks in. I saw it was raised a touch, but sure enough, it sucked back down level once the full bead was on. Stitch welded 1" at a time, 3 1/2 beads, wet the ends in nice. didn't remember to snap a pic post-weld/pre-grind, but here's the after

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-CN...EEDCCB281E.JPG

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-u1...AB5B79764B.JPG

One little void near the end, not worried about it.

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Ly...A150CF8142.JPG

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-Bl...8FE1B2D1EC.JPG

Dressed it down a touch more before painting, this corner was cracked all the way up onto the top flat, grooved it with a burr and went to town

http://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ur...349DA6611D.JPG

Laid a bead along the whole edge to get it ready to weld in replacement metal. Figured a bead or two would give me nice metal to weld to when I was trying to get the new parts in there. Ran out of gas, going to put another pass or two, then grind it relatively smooth so making the new pieces is nice and easy. I probably should have cut it back a bit to make nice straight lines, but this is also a bit of practice for odd cast repairs that I have to work with what's there without being able to remove anything (like my engine case repairs coming up) I may build out weld metal a bit more till I can get some straight-ish lines. I'm going to use metal a good bit thicker than it needs so I can round the corners and get the contours right... plus it's what I have on hand :)

Nice job. I'm sure there will be quite a few us who appreciate you detailing your project. I can't wait to see the rest.

Thanks! I'll be sure to snap more as I go through, the rest of the welding as well as reassembly. This may become a regular thing, I'm fed up with horrible freight tools, this project turned a light on in the attic; buy old broken, fix up and use. Neighbor wanted to start finding me tools to rebuild and sell, but unfortunately, I don't see the $$ in it to make it worthwhile... though I do have a recip saw to rebuild the blade lock for him :)

Wouldn't you know it, sanded, degreased, rinsed, hit it with phosphoric acid, rinsed and did an alcohol wipe, all that prep and the FKN PAINT RAN and a damn bug got stuck in it. So one piece gets sanded and re-shot tomorrow.

Ok, so after getting the bottle filled and bent over ($62 including tax and fees for a 125???) I got everything going today. Cut some pieces out of a bar I had, the thicker material would have been just too much, so I went with this stuff, though I had to use two pieces, the weld between them was a piece of cake. I used my 6" three jaw chuck as a mandrel and held one end, forcing the other down with my other hand, with springback it came to the exact curve I needed, just barely a nudge by hand to straighten it a touch.

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-kV...B41EF3FFEF.JPG

Rough fitup, I beveled all edges prior to welding

http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-GB...AF2926ED5D.JPG

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-M3...8E9022310E.JPG

And the final product after a grinding and media blasting. The pics in-process didn't come out, I need to start checking pics when I snap them, had grease on the lens...

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SX...DEF5C3EEB0.JPG

I had to blast the parts I painted last night, damn paint didn't cure properly and had run like mad, more than I thought.

Can't even tell there was missing metal there. Looks really good.

Thanks! Had to strip the first attempt of paint off, ran like mad. I shot all the parts last night and should be putting it back together tomorrow, will post pics when it's done. Next step is to make both a table and a pivoting base to make it work like a vertical AND a horizontal saw, save me some space over buying one and maintain the portability. I'm working on a quick connect for that, so many of them you have to unbolt the front handle to put it in the storebought horizontal. Might have to wait till my mill is done though.

Last time I used my portable bandsaw the blade kept slipping and it barely cut through anything. I ordered new blades for it, got the Lennox 3-pack for like 40 bucks. It cut through the metal tubing like freaking butter. I would highly recommend getting yourself a decent blade if it doesn't already have one on it.

Your repaired areas turned out very nice, especially considering that you started with a piece of junk!

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Originally Posted by Trip59

I had to blast the parts I painted last night, damn paint didn't cure properly and had run like mad, more than I thought.

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You should really use a self etching primer on that bare metal (you can get it at your local auto parts store in spray cans for around $5 or $6). Probably not what you want to hear, but it does a nice job of getting the paint to adhere to bare metal, and can usually be scuffed off the next day as it is fast drying. Plus it hides the imperfections nicely and creates less transparency when applying the top coat of paint.

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Originally Posted by Trip59

Thanks! I'll be sure to snap more as I go through, the rest of the welding as well as reassembly. This may become a regular thing, I'm fed up with horrible freight tools, this project turned a light on in the attic; buy old broken, fix up and use.

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My feeling exactly! I rebuilt a 1950's Atlas lathe this year for the same reason, and I'm getting ready to repair/rebuild a few other vintage tools that are missing parts or are damaged! It's bad enough that tools are so expensive to begin with, but even the quality on tools today from high-end manufactures isn't what it was 30 or 40 years ago! I can hardly afford to buy stuff once, let alone 2 or 3 times over!

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Originally Posted by agent4573

Last time I used my portable bandsaw the blade kept slipping and it barely cut through anything. I ordered new blades for it, got the Lennox 3-pack for like 40 bucks. It cut through the metal tubing like freaking butter. I would highly recommend getting yourself a decent blade if it doesn't already have one on it.

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I use the Milwaukee brand blades for my Milwaukee portable bandsaw, but I might look for the Lennox ones next time. I always had good luck with them in my portable (read:HAND) hacksaw-LOL. The local hardware store only carries one brand of blades for portable (power) saws, so I'm limited on options locally.

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Originally Posted by youngnstudly

Your repaired areas turned out very nice, especially considering that you started with a piece of junk!

You should really use a self etching primer on that bare metal (you can get it at your local auto parts store in spray cans for around $5 or $6). Probably not what you want to hear, but it does a nice job of getting the paint to adhere to bare metal, and can usually be scuffed off the next day as it is fast drying. Plus it hides the imperfections nicely and creates less transparency when applying the top coat of paint.

My feeling exactly! I rebuilt a 1950's Atlas lathe this year for the same reason, and I'm getting ready to repair/rebuild a few other vintage tools that are missing parts or are damaged! It's bad enough that tools are so expensive to begin with, but even the quality on tools today from high-end manufactures isn't what it was 30 or 40 years ago! I can hardly afford to buy stuff once, let alone 2 or 3 times over!

I use the Milwaukee brand blades for my Milwaukee portable bandsaw, but I might look for the Lennox ones next time. I always had good luck with them in my portable (read:HAND) hacksaw-LOL. The local hardware store only carries one brand of blades for portable (power) saws, so I'm limited on options locally.

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Don't remember what blades I bought, but that's what started this. I borrowed his other saw a year or so ago, bought a three pack of blades, gave him one as a thank you, left the one I used on the saw and hung one on my wall in case I needed to borrow it again (this guy is hell on tools, no counting on a usable blade). He knew I had one and borrowed it, then gave me that blade and the saw back, as well as a used other blade (will save for the metal, blade is shot). I picked them up at Lowes and they sure do cut nice, was about $20 for 3 if I recall.

As far as the paint, I'm not sold on the cheapie self etching primers, if I went PPG or something, yeah, but I'd rather follow my process. Degrease, rinse, etch, rinse, paint. The can must have been a bad can, or wouldn't mix right, but it ran on wood, I chucked it. The other paint I used turned out fine. The goal of this is to not spend anything, thus the two pieces of filler instead of just buying a 1"x1/8"...

Rebuilding the banjo on my Atlas/Craftsman (though it's being replaced with hopefully a Monarch this summer) rebuilding a 40's Van Norman mill, etc. Those are easy to see the value. I hadn't really thought about refurbing smaller tools, but this one really turned my thoughts around. I am pretty happy with the new Milwaukee 14" abrasive saw I bought last year, even though it's Taiwanese.

Your doing a great job and I appreciate all the detail pics!! Nice work!

Reassembly was, well... reassembly. I have one more piece to weld up (the guard) and several parts to order (tires, one washer, two snap rings) and then I'll start on the table and pivoting mount.

http://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-RW...ED2DF8601D.JPG

http://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-65...EDDCCA028E.JPG

The gray stripe was the bearing support for the armature, didn't want to tap out and I didn't want to break anything trying to press it, if I replace the bearings later I'll do it and paint it. I shortened the cord, started at the plug and looked along till the first tape ball, cut it there and still had around 6' of cord left. Doesn't really need to be much longer, it'll almost always be on an extension cord anyhow.

Nice work, Trip!

That looks extremely nice. I wish someone would give me something like that even if it needed repairs. I have been thinking about getting a bandsaw.

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Originally Posted by Trip59

As far as the paint, I'm not sold on the cheapie self etching primers, if I went PPG or something, yeah, but I'd rather follow my process. Degrease, rinse, etch, rinse, paint. The can must have been a bad can, or wouldn't mix right, but it ran on wood, I chucked it. The other paint I used turned out fine. The goal of this is to not spend anything, thus the two pieces of filler instead of just buying a 1"x1/8"...

Rebuilding the banjo on my Atlas/Craftsman (though it's being replaced with hopefully a Monarch this summer) rebuilding a 40's Van Norman mill, etc. Those are easy to see the value. I hadn't really thought about refurbing smaller tools, but this one really turned my thoughts around. I am pretty happy with the new Milwaukee 14" abrasive saw I bought last year, even though it's Taiwanese.

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I agree with you on the self etching primers in spray can form, but I don't have the ability to professionally spray parts...you'd think I would be good with a spray gun since my father has been building hot rods and restoring cars for 40 years, but around 15 years ago he started seeing that his trade was going down the tubes, so he never began teaching me auto body and paint. He knew it wouldn't be a lasting career for me. I learned some forming and shaping, hammer and dolly work, and more specialized welding techniques for sheet metal through my Union trade school, but the only spray gun I've ever "fiddled" with was the glue gun setup at work-LOL. I can't stand the smell of those chemicals anyways (especially primers!), so it worked out for the best.

My goal lately has been to spend as little as possible on stuff (No income since August!:O), so I totally understand not wanting to spend money to piece together "freebie" tools. I bought a few Milwaukee brand drill (right angle) adapters, a chuck for my impact gun, and mandrels for Milwaukee hole saws, and most of those parts are made in Taiwan too.

The saw looks like new! I enjoyed seeing the progress you made on it!

When you first posted I remember thinking "How's he gonna do that without the broken off pieces", and then saw your post #7. Nicely done.

I like the "buy old and rebuild" idea, which works because you already have the trade-off in mind (effort vs. return).

That came out very very nice. Good job.

A little off topic but doing collision is not on the verge of death is it.. I know the work sucks but if someone really wanted that career, wouldn't that be a place to suffice.

I would love to see more detailed pictures and description of how to do that kind of repair. How do you go about filling in that much missing metal? Do you just keep building it up and then grind it smooth? I'm fascinated by how good this turned out.