Hey guys havent been on much for a while went from being a opperator/forman to opening my own repair/machine shop. I mostly work on ag equiptment {used to work for a deere dealer for 5 years and went to college to be a machinist**. But any way I have lots of connections in the construction field and have been ask by a few about line boring,thought it would fit in well with the machine shop side of buisness. I have 5 jobs lined up that I could not do on a vertical mill because parts are way to large. I found a Sir Meccania ws2 used that will bore a 2'' to 16'' hole and took the plunge today and sent the check. The previous owner replaced it with a new model the same size and same brand so that must speek well for there equiptment. I was looking for some input on line boring in genral and also some input on sir meccanica. The machine I bought is 6 years old and comes complete with bore welding equiptment and boreing bars and cutters so I should be ready to make chips soon after it gets here. I learned a lesson on my first job on the vertical mill to bore holes first before you weld them because carbon and gaulding will bring carbon to the surface and make a alloy that cant be machined even with carbide cutters. I hade to use a hone to get the last .005 out but after that I have got along well. I talked to york and climax before buying the meccania and was impressed with all 3 brands but the bore welding in the same setup as boreing was a good idea in my small mind, and it was hard to pass up a machine that was 35% of new price. I will snap some pictures when it shows up and put in a few of my shop and machine equiptment. Any thoughts or ideas would be great. Thanks.
Just thought I would post some pictures of the machine I bought and a link to some youtbe videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bctGqTnH90c
How do you like it, I am set on a BOA, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. I have been using a bore tech and I am not to impressed with it.
Well I sent the check for it 3 days ago but wont have it till next week some time. But I like the idea of makeing internal bore repairs. I am no expert on any of these machines but I did watch a u tube video on the boa and it looks like a nice system. I talked to york and climax and decided on the sir meccania because of the price and also like that the welding and boring is 1 machine, no extra setup.
Tips for eliminating hardness when welding for repair machine work. We never (or rarely) overbore a bore before welding. First clean and/or burn all the oil/grease in and around the bore, then grind inside the bore to clean it up then pre-heat the bore before starting the bore welder. I rarely pre-heat, but many of my co-workers do. If it's ductile iron, then weld with stainless or nickle wire or rod. Stainless is harder of course. I always do a test spot-weld on a casting to make sure it will be machinable... If it will cut with a file close to the base-metal, it is machinable. Ductile iron or some of the harder plate steel would benefit from an overbore before welding, but mild-steel should not. To repair Cast iron bores I either braze or weld with nickle rod... Or bore oversize and install mild steel sleeves. Try to avoid cleaning parts that will be welded with brake cleaner as it actually soaks into the steel and puts out very dangerous fumes when welding. .
I've had good luck with overboring on holes that are really dirty or really out of shape. I've had better luck with the welds not shelling out. Also it puts the load bearing surface in the middle of the new material added to the bore instead of risking paper thin weld material peeling out when bearings are installed. I definitely agree with cleanliness. Grease can make some wicked hard spots.
Thanks Guys I got the machine last week and played with it some, I welded on some 2.5'' bushing stock ID and worked pretty well, Speeds and feeds just take some playing with. I also have some OD's to weld on some tile machine rollers about 9'' Dia and 1.5'' thick they have a .75'' groove cut in them. I fabed up a mount on a old welding table to mount the machine to and tryed to weld on one of the wheels I was haveing some wire feed problems with the old millermatic 200 and am waiting the arival of the new Miller 350p The extra duty cycle and 4 roller drive should help some plus burn back control and pulse. Have any of you been able to get a spray transfer weld going on a bore weld? Or is it not possible being a some overhead some vertical weld?
spray transfer wont work out of position.
I've never had weld peal out of a bore before... although I've heard of it happening. If the weld metal is not adhearing to the base metal, then the weld process should be looked at and adjusted accordingly. (amperage too low or wire-speed too high maybe) Seems like if the weld is not penetrating the base metal you run the risk of it seperating like a sleeve would when it cools and shrinks, especially if running multiple passes. On bores that are severely out-of-round, I weld the area most worn by hand to make the bore round before using the bore welder. I'm not saying my way is the best way, just sharing my personal experience. I'm always open to learning a better or faster way of doing something. That's why I'm here. .
I've done a couple of jobs where the weld has peeled out. What I've found on both of them was that the old weld from a previous repair pulled away after the new weld was laid over it. The first time I ran into this problem it lookwd like someone had sleeved the bore to build it back up. When I tried to cut the supposed sleeve out, it dead ended adout a half an inch into the bore. Ever since then if I suspect the bore has been repaired I look closely to see if it is peeling. If it is or is questionable I over bore. Most of the time I will weld to the original surface without the overbore. There is no reason to add extra time and wear if not needed.