I was just wondering if anybody was up on what welding rod and wire is being used to rebuild by hand front idlers rollers, sprocket segments and chains?? We used to use BU 90 in 3/8's and 400 amp red face lincoln welders, I have a old d82u with grease type rollers that need reshelling or building up by hand, I have a new to me Hobart 400 wire diesel with a wire feed suitcase and wanted to see what others who are rebuilding by hand are using, thanks, in case anybody has any d8 rollers take offs in texas i am looking for 14 lifetime or any new nos grease type roller parts the bushings are different between the life time and the grease type rollers, also have 2 very nice final drive oyster shells with conversion sprockets for 1h 2u 14 15a if anybody needs them or wants to trade, i wont send them to junk yard, does anybody know if the grease type d8 bottom rollers parts are available anymore??? seems lie the shafts and bushings are different between the 2, some guy was claiming a lot of the new d8k rollers can not be rebuilt with rods or wire due to metal is different than the older high carbon rollers from the 50 to 70's??? I have guys tell me now you can wire feed rollers easier and not have them crack due to lower heat from thw wire feed process?? Is this right or ??? Who has bought a bottom flange cat new roller lately??? Anybody got an idea on how much a bare double flange shell is from cat or aftermarket???
Hello , 1970 - i have finished a couple weeks ago building up some of my rollers on a JD 850C. I built a box to hold the rollers submerged to the top of the bearing with water. I put a overflow at the height i wanted , so i could put water in from thebottom and overflow at full level. I mounted the rollers so they could be turned as welded. I grinded the down to shiny steel and then started welding with Stoddy .045" hardsurfacing wire, the rollers welded very well.
What stoody wire exacty did you use?? Were you using gas with it???? How about the water, were you keeping the same temp water going into the box or did you recirculate the same water over and over??? When you finished welding the roller did you remove it asap from the water and let it air cool or did you place them in a sand box to cool down?? Thats where we always had some problems, we used to get them welded up and then had them crack as they cooled down, never got a really good system down, seems like the lower the roller was it was more prone to cracking, we built the same type deal water box, and i wondered if the cool water was too much coming into the roller box and caused the spliting after welding out, about how far down were your rollers?? Do you have any pictures of the welded up rollers with the stoody wire??? One more question please, did you pull the end collars and remove the orings??? How long to weld up one roller? A 850 is big roller to me about like a old d8 or d7??
Yair...1970. I have done the same deal as Swamp rat only I just cut down 44 gallon oil drums and set the rollers up in those...Ijust overflowed the water. Made no neverminds about the filler. I was using stick on 250 PTO Lincoln and used up all the old crap part used packets of rods that had buitt up in the shed...I finished with a five mil. iron powder and it all worked out fine. I should add that I alternated welding between three rollers so they didn't get too hot. Cheers.
Sometime soon will be rebuilding the undercarriage on my JD450b. From research found Lincoln Electric Hardfacing guide and Naval Facilities Engineering command Welding Materials Handbook P-433. goggle it. It is hard to find. Bought Linecore Bu-G, Lincore 55-G There is alot of companies that make hardfacing Wire. Lincoln wire is what I can get in my area.
I think stoody is avaialble overnight out of Houston, i used to order it from some place in corpus but its been years, it was higher than BU 90 and seems like we used it only on the sprockets as it work hardened, there is an art to rebuilding by hand, cat used to have a rebuilding guide as well as to what rockewell hardness rods went on the rollers, chains idlers and sprocket teeth, they are not the same by the way and i can not remeber which was harder and softer anymore, Stoody has handbooks as well or used to one could get for free by asking, heck i dont even no who owns stoody or if they are still around with another name now???
I will post some pics of the set-up, before and after of the rollers - i run the battery down in my camera and need to recharge it. I ordered the Stoody wire from Airgas and had it in a day or two. I also had a hole cut in the side of my tank so i could put a 1/2" drice extention into the side of the roller and then had a large wheel attached so in essence it was a manuel roller. With the roller constantly turning it never did get hot , the water level was covering app. 3/4 of the roller.
Please post the pics when u get a chance, i am curious as to weather you removed the end collars from the rollers before you started welding on them, sounds like the way to avoid some of the rollers cracking after welding is to not weld one out but rather alternate between 2 or in the water box, the way we welded out the last time i think we pulled the end collars so the orings would not get burned up or shrunk n then laid the roller with the shaft on a cradle we built in the water box that would allow the roller to be rotated while welding on it, lots of water on the gloves and some shocking as i remember due to trying to rotate the roller while welding it out, your system of the socket extension going thru the waterbox to somehow attaching to the roller to turn a wheel sounds like a lot better system than we had, the d8 rollers i had welded up took about 4 hours straight to get them back to standard od, after we had then built up with 3/8 Lincoln BU 90 we made a oversize pass according to how tall the links were on the d8 we were working on, sometimes I had a man welding up the cat chains as one man was doing the rollers and idleers etc, we even had a jig to weld back to specs the sprocket segements, it was a old sprocket circle where 1 could bolt up th segments sitting down, thats good to know that Stoody wire is available, Are you using any gas with your wire and what exact wire and welding machine are you using and what heat range settings are you using as well, I have a suitcase wire set up for this 400 amp Hobart i have and am thinking the wire is the way to weld rollers up now due to being faster and easier and cooler as well than the old 3/8 stick rods making you have to start a new rod and getting those spots where one stops or start a new rod??? Does anybody have a link or phone number to Stoody or Lincoln undercarriage welding handbooks for manual rebuilding??? One last thing, how much was the Stoody wire you were using???? Thanks for posting up!!!
i apoligize for taking so long on the pics , been running crazy with work. I didnt take the rollers apart , since they are constantly been turned in the water they never get hot enough inside to overheat. The water level is high enough to keep it cool. I start by cleaning the weld area well then set it in the holder and start building up the lip first and then build the rest of the area as needed. I use stoody 965-G wire in .045 with c-25 gas , dont remember the heat setting , just set it till i had a good constant buzz sound and rested the gun on the rest and started turning the handle and building it up. On the last ones i used a MM 252 machine but also have used a Miller 8 VS Extreme suitcase also. The wire was on a 11 pound spool and if i remember correctly around $6 per pound - i get it at Airgas and they ship it directly to me. It was taking around 2 hours per roller - from preping till completed - to weld one out , but i was not in a hurry and stopped between sides and drank some needed COFFEE. The box was built so i can set the idlers in the tank and weld up also , just havent needed to yet. Good luck
For some reason i cannt get my pictures to work , keeps saying they are to big. I have a thread on WeldingWeb.com that shows these pictures. They are listed on the thread - Track Roller rebuild. I will keep trying to figure out how to resize them to show here. Thanks
If you are taking all your rollers off, or say doing the top ones and front idlers and stick weldin, just do 3 or 4 inches, jump across, then turn 180. Do again, then go to the next roller. by the time you get back to the first it should be cool enough to go again. Got a set of top rollers on a TD-15C with over 20K hours on them. Built up every winter...and never been taken off. Bottom rollers we found were more a pain to remove each year and just replaced. One thing we found to work for us was by a set of double flange and a set of single. Tracks better then using all double flange. Least this is what we have found out.