Project 4 from Trip. Category: General Welding repair

[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!

[Jason]

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.

[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.

[Jason]

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.

[Kendall]

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.