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Old 01-22-2018, 10:19 PM
J-Mech J-Mech is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2013
Location: Oblong, Illinois
Posts: 17,594
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So, I'll give an update.

Not much progress to really show.... But I have the blower housing stripped down, and have started the welding repairs. In the pics below, I welded farther than the factory welds, but after much internal debate (with myself) I have decided to solid weld the mounting flanges, and the impeller housing to the auger housing. When you weld things together, sometimes there is no benefit to solid welding something together, as stitch welds will hold just fine. After looking at the stitch welds on the machine, the high stress areas were all broken out, and I think solid welding it will make it stronger. I honestly think it was a simple cost vs expected life that kept them from doing so at the factory. So, what welding I have done, there will be much, much more. Then..... I ran out of Argon/CO2. So.... stopped me for a while. My lease on my Argon bottle is up, so this is going to be a costly refill.... like $200. That's more than I intended to spend on this whole project, so I moved on to some other repairs until I make some more "play moneys", lol.

Started taking the impeller off the driveshaft. Of coarse, it is rusted stuck on. After heating and air hammering it for maybe 15 min, I heated it up again, soaked it in Kroil and let it sit. Tomorrow, I'm hoping it will just fall off on it's own....

Just as a note to you guys: When heating something to facilitate removal, you have to heat the part (in this case the tube on the impeller) but not heat the shaft it is on, as doing so causes it to also swell, and thus gains nothing. You have to quickly heat the tube, try to move it, and you may get one more chance at a heat before the shaft gets too hot and everything seizes again. Seen guys time and again just keep heating and beating, them not knowing they were causing themselves more harm than help. Once it's hot.... let it cool completely and start over again. Yes, that may take even a couple hours if it's a large piece, but that's just how it is. I'll try again tomorrow.

I did get the augers off the shaft, and plan to take the auger drive box apart to clean, lube and seal it up. I also think I may see about getting stainless shafts made to replace the ones that the blower and augers ride on. I hate that the shaft rusts and things get stuck. Never know when you might bend an impeller blade and have to take it all apart again. I don't want to deal with a stuck impeller again.

I called Maple hunter today to ask about making me a COMPLETE new set of decals for this machine. (Why do these projects always go from "just get it running" to "COMPLETE overhaul"????) I'm in the process of taking measurements and pics to send off to them so they can reproduce an entire set of decals for this machine. Hope they only charge for the making and not the designing. Hate to have to pay to be the guinea pig.

I figure if I'm going to weld up the whole blower housing, then why not just sandblast it and paint it. Be easier to weld with the paint removed, and look better all painted than just painting what I burned off. Plus, it would be nice to own something really nice. All my equipment is mechanically good, but nothing pretty to look at. I've got it all apart.... why not paint it?? (Oh yeah.... because I don't have a paint booth. Why does Olds have to be so far away??)


Here's some pics, just so you guys know I can weld. Not my best work, but I'm not using the ESAB. Just the Lincoln.
Yes, in the first pic there is weld over weld. That was an area where it had cracked. I doubled it up to help give it some strength, and make sure the crack got welded good.

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Oh, here is the lower auger housing after the cutting edge was removed. Told you guys it was bad. I'm going to cut it off, make a new piece, weld it in, then make a new cutting edge and bolt it on. I used to do a lot of trading with my local welding shop... and they just got a new waterjet. I'll have them make both pieces. Slotted holes and square holes will be easy for that machine to make.

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