welding/ machine work I know there is a better way.

[ScratchStart]

So, I had to repair a flat spot on a roller for the boom of a rough terrain forklift.


I cleaned it up nice(without brake cleaner!) and filled in the flat spot with a mig welder.




then chucked it into the ancient, but handy, polish-american lathe(total runout .25, yes the decimal is in the right place! what? it is old, and hardly gets used)

and turned it down to this


I know the roller is hardened, I know the weld is gonna be softer, and I know it was a PITA to get the lathe to cut down the weld, as it was raised above the roller surface.

My question is this. What would the right way have been to do this fix. I have no idea what type/hardness of steel the wheel is.

And what is the easiest way to machine the fix (i had to take a file to it after machining to get the lip to where I liked it.)

should I have used a softer cutting tool than the carbide? I turned it about .010 at a time at about 500 RPM and it still left a ridge on one side and the other was smooth...

Don't get me wrong, it worked, looks good, and will last a lot longer than a flat wheel, but there has got to be a better way.

[welderdude]

You might be able to get away with a hard facing rod. In reality, one about has to know what alloy of steel its made out of first so it can be re-tempered and filled in with the proper material.

[geezer]

Not to worry; you did good, those rollers are dam near impossible to cut on a lathe, I considered turning down two rollers on my track hoe and gave up on it after my lathe powered out trying to cut the heat treated rollers down. welding and then trueing the welds down is as good as it gets under most circumstances.

[performance]

If you used 80 S-2, it would probably be better and less prone to deformation.

[Wookie]

You might be able to get away with a hard facing rod. In reality, one about has to know what alloy of steel its made out of first so it can be re-tempered and filled in with the proper material.

i agree with you with the reality of the matter
i would have preheated the roller filled her up then turned her down and sent it off to the heat treater or ran it as is

[Wookie]

If you used 80 S-2, it would probably be better and less prone to deformation.

very true or a 90 s-2 with is taking 90k psi to deform or even a 100 s-2 it really depends on what kind of load is on the roller but also in that once it gets heat treated those properties change

[Mikeymetal]

done in true farmer style! Take that as a compliment. I just got done posting about my gramps. he was a farmer and taught me and my brother how to fix/weld/cut/fabricate/imprivize. seeing a lot of the stuff here really brings him back for me. anyway what he would have done at this point is to take that sucker and heat the WHOLE thing to cherry red, then drop it into a 5 gallon metal bucket with enough oil to cover. this makes for a little bit of fire. I think that the end result would be that the weld would get harder and the parent metal wouls anneal a little, thus making the wear pattern a little more even. good job!!!!!

[Zoomie]

Kinda off the subject...Have you ever thought of trying to adjust some of the runout out of your lathe via gibs and backlash? What you can't adjust out could possibly be fixed just pressing in a set of new bearings. Good quality Bearings are pretty cheap and easy to obtain nowadays. As long as the ways aren't hammered you probably can get some of the machines accuracy back. You'd be suprised!

[ScratchStart]

it's not my lathe... a company I do a little side work for... they aren't interested, and it works great for what they use it for... they have an entire connex full of machine equipment that is just rusting away... I spray it all down with WD-40 every chance I get, but it is getting to look pretty rough... and they won't sell it to me/ get rid of it... It is kind of frustrating. They only have 1 guy that can even run the stuff...

I, on the other hand, would love to see it get adjusted, bearinged and a DRO would be sweet, it does an ok job as long as you go slow and keep mic-ing everthing, but don't try and cut threads on it...LOL