welding lathe casting

[SkidSteerSteve]

So happens I was out to dinner last night with some friends. One of which just happens to be a retired machinist and lead tech for a machine tool manufacturer. I mentioned your situation to him. After a brief "been there, done that" chuckle, he did have a suggestion. He said that in some cases they were able to bore through the piece and back into the main casting and bolt the broken part back on either with a bolt and nut, or by boring and tapping an acceptable area of the machine. You could either bore from the front and bolt back into it or come from inside the machine and tap into the broken area. This is very subjective to each case as far as what will work. He also mentioned that if you bolt from the outside in to counter sink the bolts if possible. Use this along with the epoxy/body filler/sand/prime/paint idea. I think I would make sure and use some red thread locker as well. SSS

[gearhead]

Kind of leaning toward epoxy right now. My reasons are the ease of making the fix. You mention your buddy had the idea about drilling and tapping the broken piece into position. That was a great idea, but how did he deal with the dust material or debris falling into the gears and internals?

If I have to I will remove the rear portion of the casing off, but as it was mentioned the part that is broken is in a non critical area or what appears to be a non critical area. I won't really know until I get the machine up to speed and warmed up.

[SkidSteerSteve]

Well, to be honest, we got side tracked before finishing the conversation. I have an idea that he would have said to tear the gear box down, fix it, clean everything and reassemble. Of course that would be coming from somebody that did it for a living, not as a side project If you're just drilling, I've controlled contamination in the past by masking off as much as I could and getting a couple of strong magnets (the larger, the better) and sticking them around where I'm drilling. Old speakers work good. If you drill slowly, then they will catch most of the chips (obviously, this only works on ferrous material) and the masking would stop the errant ones. After that, get the old shop-vac and clean before removing the masking. Just a thought, I don't know if you would have room or not. SSS

[gearhead]

Thanks to all who gave a response. I'll keep you posted if I buy the lathe and how I made the fix..... GEAR

[JonnyTIG]

On the topic of drilling, a vast quantity of vasoline or grease spread and lumped over the drilling point has save me by catching chips and bits.

Jonny