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Thank you!!

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ARCBOY

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i really appreciate all of everyones help with diagnosing my boat. It is really close to up and running, just a few more things and should be ready for the boating season. I would like to repay with some of my knowledge, but it isn't in boats. If someone has a question about motorcycles especially dirt bikes or if you have welding or welding inspection questions I am more than happy to help. I can be contacted about such questions by email or if you're near the Charlotte area I can help do some welder/inspection training.

cwigerow@gmail.com

www.carolinaweldhelp.com
 
I hired a local welder who's licensed for nuclear piping to weld up a cast piece that gets way too much abuse (for cast, rather unusual to be a structural bracket as intended, poor design IMO). He said he could repair it stronger than new but it broke right away, LOL.

So I made a replacement piece using 1/4" plate mild steel and buzzed the weldment together myself using a stick welder I've had since the 60's and rods that I've had now for 10 years or so (bought a few pounds on sale once).

I don't get enuff practice though so it's not the prettiest, but it works fine.
 
Probably a poor design and depending on cast material used its probably dirty and very porous as most cast is. I've welded some pretty nice castings though.

Haha, "nuclear licensed". I hope he didn't tell you that because I'd like to have a conversation with him and educate him on what he might have certified on pipe tests. He may think he's nuclear qualified which really doesn't mean much in the welding industry, maybe if he has a high pass rate on X-Ray or Ultrasonic exams then maybe he's pretty decent but even then a lot of those techs don't know what they are doing, I've witnessed that first hand.

For future reference if some "certified" welder spouts off stuff like nuclear it's just because it sounds really important but there are plenty of nuclear type welds that a monkey could pass. It's another way of someone saying they are good at something and you just taking their word for it.

If someone hires a person to weld something at least look at their first couple of welds and doesn't looks like a "stack of dimes" of some sort or consistency and smooth bead then please stop them and fire them or take a pic and email it to me and I'll help confirm your suspicions :-)

A really good reference or way to learn some welding skills by the wonderful world wide web is at

Weldingtipsandtricks.com
 
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Yeah, I'm sure he knows what he's doing, welded pipe at a nuclear power plant till he retired. I just assumed he may have some sort of special license or qualification for that sort of work so those were my poor choice of words. Pretty sure the casting was not very high quality to begin with, sand came out of a void in the broken area.

I've got several books on welding that I need to reread I guess, no doubt poor memory partially explains why my skills seem rusty. :)
 
I've got one for ya though, removing broken bolts from threaded blind holes in cast iron. I hear they can be blasted out without damaging the casting? Any idea of how to approach that? (Maybe I should just google it)
 
I have blasted many bolt out of cast. Probably 50 or so out of engine blocks. Through holes are esaier, but even stopped holes aren't to bad. I then chase it with a tap and a bottom out tap to clean things up.
 
Well if you mean "blasting" them out I can only thinking of using a torch. I have done this also on a lot on many exhaust manifolds on cars and trucks if the bolt or stud went all the way through. If the stud or bolt bottoms out then I haven't had very good luck.

Another technique would be to take an nut or bolt and weld to to the existing broken bolt/stud and in most cases the heat of welder will be enough to shrink the broken part and back it out after the part isn't glowing red from the weld. If that doesn't work the first time keep on trying to do it or try heating up the manifold around the broke piece and should work also.
 
Wire EDM, find a place local. We use it when we break a tap in an expensive part. I just had it done on one of my cylinders on my 96 xp build. You might still need to helicoil the threads.
 
racerxxx said:
Wire EDM, find a place local. We use it when we break a tap in an expensive part. I just had it done on one of my cylinders on my 96 xp build. You might still need to helicoil the threads.
Click to expand...

Well that would definitely be the most precise way and I'm guessing would be expensive and a last resort for me as I'd try at least a drill to save some money. I'm guessing the EDM might cost the same as a new part :-) Really sweet technology!!!!
 
It's cheaper than you think. I want to say it was like $45. Drop off and pick up the next day sometimes. Worth every penny. Especially when you have a few days with of work into a part and the material is expensive.
 
Yeah, kinda interesting the fear of breaking off carbon steel taps and eZ-outs when they break off... I've had good success busting them up.

No immediate need, but I intend on practicing the art of blasting "broken" studs out of blind holes in cast and looking for tips. I'll google it and see, there's probably good info out there...

As for welding the nut on idea it works well especially is there's some stud sticking out. I've found smacking the stud well with a hammer helps to loosen things up by breaking the galvanic bond, as well.
 
I have always used just a regular cutting torch tip that we used at our salvage yard. I forget the sizes anymore. If I look them up, I am sure I can figure it out. But basically, the general use tip. I have done the weld the nut onto the stud thing probably 1000 times. The key to that one is, a quality mig welder, bury the wire into the center of the nut trying not to touch the nut. This forced you to weld to the stud and ultimately to the nut. Cool it down with water. This does two things, kind of shocks it and makes it shrink, it also get the nut and the stud to bond better as if it is still hot, the hot metal wants to twist before the stud wants to turn. Then, heat up around the stud if possible. While doing so, spray the nut with a squirt bottle of water. This helps keep the stud colder than the metal around it you are heating up. Then spin it out a bit, and in a bit, out and in,,,, Once you get a full revolution on it, you can normally spin it right out.
 
Torch tip sizes go like so by material thickness:

1/8" = 000
1/4" = 00
3/8" = 0
3/4" = 1
1" = 2
.
.
.
10" = 7

Most people use a 0 or 1 size tip

Becareful of using water to cool with, Ive cracked many cast pieces. Castings usually don't do well with rapid cooling and that goes with welds also. On the other hand I have cooled the same situation with water before and has worked really well. A lot of it is trial and error and see what works for your situation.

$45 for wire or plunge EDMs seems like a great price. The only downfall is part size or if you can't get the part off of the vehicle or boat. Either way I'm glad you said that because I wouldn't have thought the price is that low, I'll look into that if ever in need.
 
Well I had to use a welder to get my steering cable nut off the back of my sportster. For some reason it was really tough to get the nut off. Between the cable twisting and a fresh water boat with no sight of corrosion I had to cut the cable off in the back and weld a bolt to the metal part of the cable. By heating the cable and the nut up with weld it made it loosen up and came right off. I tried everything and the next step was to cut the cable and nut in half if this didn't work, but my welding guruness proven to be a great trade to come in handy :-)
 
No too bad. Most likely will hold considering what it is. Not sure if you did it or not but if you didn't I hope they didn't charge very much or call them selves a "nuclear licensed welder". If you did I'd like to give some constructive criticism and say the area should have been cleaned a little bit more around the area to be welded on a couple of them. The stop has a pretty large crater and should have backed off the amps slower or added more filler before breaking the arc, this most likely has a crack which could in an extreme condition create a leak. Not too many black spots which indicated decent control of arc length. Weld looks pretty consistent considering this is a difficult weld since its a small diameter and having to change positions in a short distance.
 
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That reminds me, speaking of expert welders I just remembered a friend of mine who was an experimental welder and machinist at a company I used to work for. He used to make some of the custom pieces we needed for quartz to stainless steel feed-through unions on our ultra-high vacuum electron beam chambers. This guy could weld anything under the sun, beautiful welds Used to watch him practice all the time welding bricks and tile together..

And if you'd like to speak with that fellow I met who welded up a good bit of piping inside the nuclear reactors here I can probably get his number.
 
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Cost me $75. I dropped off leaky pipes just how I pulled them from the boat, he did everything including getting the threads out from one of the brass nipples I broke off taking the pipe off and had them for me the next morning.
I will do some wire MIG, but anything I need welded that needs to look good or requires some fabrication I take to him
 
Sportster-2001-951C-Stock said:
That reminds me, speaking of expert welders I just remembered a friend of mine who was an experimental welder and machinist at a company I used to work for. He used to make some of the custom pieces we needed for quartz to stainless steel feed-through unions on our ultra-high vacuum electron beam chambers. This guy could weld anything under the sun, beautiful welds Used to watch him practice all the time welding bricks and tile together..

And if you'd like to speak with that fellow I met who welded up a good bit of piping inside the nuclear reactors here I can probably get his number.
Click to expand...

I don't know about welding bricks and tile together as that is not a common method and isn't a welding code related inspection item. Please don't take my comments of value as I'm just a Certified Welding Inspector who does welding inspection on new nuclear construction and I am a stickler for very technical terminology pertaining to welding or any type of inspection. I am just a guy giving out friendly constructive criticism. I don't need to talk to anyone but he feels the need to talk to me my email is cwigerow@gmail.com, I'd love to talk shop :-)
 
Rich_ said:
Cost me $75. I dropped off leaky pipes just how I pulled them from the boat, he did everything including getting the threads out from one of the brass nipples I broke off taking the pipe off and had them for me the next morning.
I will do some wire MIG, but anything I need welded that needs to look good or requires some fabrication I take to him
Click to expand...

$75, that is a darn good price considering how much work he did. I would have charged you at least $300.

Like I said for what they are they are going to do the job and should be fine.
 
Here you go. $10 a hole. I supply the pipe bead blasted, ground and plugs made on the lathe. They look just like the factory.

244.jpg
 
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