Crappy Casting From Italy

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Well, I shoulda known this was gonna happen. I finally buy a tig welder and works finding its way to me. This aluminium casting is off a specailty grinder from italy, used for grinding profiled knives at a planer mill. The guy took it off to replace the bearings and seal and dropped it on the floor. It was an ugly casting and it was a long day to repair it. Attached ImagesNothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:First of all I cleaned the heck out of it. I used some acetone and degreaser until it was clean and then took it to the sink and washed it in hot water, so hot i couldn't get my bare hands into it. Once it was shiny and wiped dry I stuck it in the oven and let it heat up to 350F and then about ten minutes or so after that, maybe more. I took it out and wrapped it up in aluminum foil while I got set up. I ground down the main  V groove with a flapper wheel and then polished it up with a carbide burr, nothing works better than carving those chips away with a burr or saw blade, and stainless steel wire brush. Once I was happy with my prep I went and prepped some more. I used a small propane torch to heat it up some. Then I ran the tig arc with no filler over all the surfaces to be welded. What that does it butters up the joint, floats the black spots to the surface, fills in pitts and gives u something decent to weld to. There was some spots while buttering where I had to add in a little filler to fill up the deepest pitts. After that I wire brushed the black off, acetoned it and ground it back a little more, to be on the safe side.Well then it came to fitting it all together. Three times I tried to make holes in a plate to bolt it to. But then I gave up and center punched a piece of half inch aluminum and drew a circle the outside diameter of the casting and put the puzzle together. Attached ImagesNothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Its soo important to get things clean while u weld. And back gouge till the black lines go away. unfortunately my fit up wasn't 100% but not so far off we could fix it. Attached ImagesNothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:I had to fill in a couple holes since they were off, my fault. But they will be properly relocated, so thats minor. It was a good experince. Attached ImagesNothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Nice repair. Now it's half made in Canada.
Reply:My hats off to you sir, that's one hell of a repair job you did. Something I would be proud to show off that's for sure.
Reply:Doug, great save and your photography is very good!!  Thanks for posting.   Best  Bob
Reply:Nice job!
Reply:Looks good!Musta been cracked or something because just dropping it don't make all that happen..Myself?..I would have just made a new one.Because I can....zap!I am not completely insane..Some parts are missing Professional Driver on a closed course....Do not attempt.Just because I'm a  dumbass don't mean that you can be too.So DON'T try any of this **** l do at home.
Reply:I think he might have had trouble knocking the bearings out and cracked it. Also in post one pic 4 you can see a really rough spot in the casting. Makes me think it was extra weak in there. It sure bubbled alot. I did run some beauty passes on the inside but the pic didnt turn out. I used my Lincoln squarewave 175, 3/32 pure tungsten, #6 cup on the outside #5 on the inside, 3/32 4043, amps, just went by feel.Nothing Ever Got Done By Quitting, Never Give Up.
Reply:Originally Posted by zapsterMyself?..I would have just made a new one.Because I can....zap!
Reply:Originally Posted by VPTConsidering it had to be chucked up and turned anyhow to clean it up, just turning a new one would be a very viable option. But if you price a 4-4.5" chunk of aluminum stock, welding it back together doesn't sound half bad.