Project 4 from Trip. Category: General Welding repair

[Trip59]

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:



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:



Outer corner crack



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





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





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...

[Rambozo]

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

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

[Trip59]

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

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

[Trip59]

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...



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





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





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



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

[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.