The Workshop Progress thread 2022

Nearly finished restoration of my BNL no5 Arbor Press, while taking it apart the hand wheel broke, I tried pulling it off with a 3 leg puller but it snapped, it was spinning around freely on the Arbor but just would not come off, I ended up slitting it with a hacksaw then chain drilling it to remove a section so it would come off the Arbor.

After getting it off the problem became apparent, over time it must have been slipping and repeatedly got spun round causing the Arbor to mushroom out either side of the screw, and wear 2 grooves into the inside of the bore making it mechanically impossible to remove.

So decided to give mig bronze brazing a try as I've never done it, I was hoping this method would remove the need for pre heat and post heat, the repair below was done with no pre or post heat.

It's a bit tricky and definitely doesn't produce nice weld beads like Tig, but after a bit of fettling with the die grinder and a carbide burr, it's hard to notice where it was brazed anyway.

Edited By Pete. on 10/05/2022 17:44:17

Some more cast iron repairs, I am happy to say the mig brazing process can repair cast iron reliably with no pre or post heat and no cracking, it's not pretty but it is quite easy and hassle free, 10 minutes with the die grinder and job done.

Wow that looks like the way to fix cast iron. I never knew you could do that with a MIG. Thanks for the tip.

Pete that's a great job, what was the wire you used?

Thanks

Nice job there.
Stainless wire can be used to weld cast also.

Edited By Andy Chancer on 19/05/2022 12:30:20

Excellent work, thanks for the information.

I scrounged a large reel of Inconel 82 when they were having a clearout of the Weld Lab at work. It's wonderful stuff for 'stick anything to anything' welding. I've successfully used it for Cast iron and stainless repairs.

Hi, the wire used is SIF no8 bronze mig wire, bought from R-tech welding, it is used with pure Argon gas, and aluminium torch tips with a Teflon liner in the torch.

This is recommended as a bearing surface so could be useful for building up worn areas and then machining.

The liner was about 11 quid on ebay, the wire was 30 something plus post for a 0.8kg reel, not cheap but should get a good few repairs out of it.

I'm not familiar with inconel 82 brazing wire, all I know is it's an extremely expensive material, never seen it for sale anywhere.

Finished for now, a few little bits to do when time allows, replace the hex head screws clamping the support legs with hand knobs for convenience, and need to make crank handle for the table lowering and raising, but it's usable now.

Wow! That is an excellent piece of kit you’ve got there Pete.

Having completed the Norden engine and cleaned the workshop I was at a bit of a loss looking for an interesting follow up. Scrolling through the Mad Modder site I came upon the very thing, a 3 cylinder radial single acting engine. Originally designed, I believe, by Edgar Westbury as the Cygnet Royal and subsequently simpified by Elmer Verburg. This version is an amalgam of both designers thoughts put together by Stew Hart.

This is Stew's engine and what I am aiming for.

To kick off I took a piece of aluminium bar:

And removed most of the metal from it until I was left with this:

For scale the flats on the hexagon are 25.4mm wide.

The next opportunity for me to make a mistake is the 3 cylinders and their cast iron liners. Wish me luck.

Jim

Edited By Jim Nic on 11/06/2022 21:34:33