Project 4 from Trip. Category: General Welding repair

[Mr120]

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.

[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. 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.

[Trip59]

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.



Rough fitup, I beveled all edges prior to welding





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...



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.

[agent4573]

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

[Trip59]

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.

[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.

[youngnstudly]

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

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

[Trip59]

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.

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.

[CGCINC]

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

[Trip59]

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.





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.

[jakeru]

Nice work, Trip!

[youngnstudly]

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.

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!), 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!

[DaveO]

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).

[agent4573]

That came out very very nice. Good job.