fixing my disc.

[Gary Fowler]

I guess I backed into too many trees because I have two bent axles on my disc. Today I decided to take it apart and straighten out the axles. I got my impact gun and took out the bolts holding the bearing carries for both rear gangs and lifted the 3PH up and neither gang fell. Looked under the bracket and the previous owner had welded all the bearing carriers to the gang support tubing. So first I tried to grind out the weld and got one on the inside but couldn't reach the other 3 welds even with a 9" blade, it was time to break out the oxy torch. I got one gang cut loose and decided it was time to disassemble it. I got all the parts off till I got to the bend and then the spacer spool wouldn't go by the bend. Well I did a little hammering on it and sure enough I was able to get it off, but it broke the end off the spacer (cast iron you know). I said what the heck, see if it will weld back. I put a bevel on one side and stuck both pieces back on the axle to assure alignment and put 2 passes of 7018 on it. It had a little magnetic arc blow and welded a little like metal with dirt on top of it, but it stuck together. I have it soaking in my 350F rod oven for a few hours then I will put it on the outside edge just in case it breaks, it will be easier to take off.
While I had it all apart, I looked at the bearing holders and all of them had at least one side torn about half way out. This is the little 1/16" thick plate with 4 bolts that holds the sealed bearings in the carrier. I got them all straightened and welded up the broken spot plus the rest of it. Each one has a pressure mark that is a slight scribe line where the press tool left a line around it when they put the lip on it. All of them break right in that press mark. The bearing are old old, so while I had it apart, I took my little needle bearing greaser and put in about 10 shots of grease in each bearing. I drilled a 1/16" hole in the steel seal, and pumped grease till it came out around the seal, rolled it several rounds and pumped more grease. It should be better than new now. I know it has more grease than new. Now to get it all back together then tackle the other gang.
Taking a lunch break now.
It will take me an hour to put away all the tools when finished. Two impact guns, 1/2 and3/4" drive, cutting torch, welding leads, drill, 2 extension cord, a 9" grinder, 4.5" with brush, 4.5 with grinder, drill motor, bits, 16#sledge, 4# shop hammer, pliers, chipping hammer, air chipping gun to remove the tab from axle nut, 3/4" combo wrench for backup on the carrier bolts, and a couple grease guns that I can think of off top of my head.

 

[Shield Arc]

Got any pictures?
Remember the days when you had a helper to put away all the tools?

 

[Gary Fowler]

Yep, I started out as one of those and for a few year had some of my own when I broke out welding but somewhere along the way, the pipefitters got the helpers and the welder had to BORROW him for any of his jobs. Depending on how well the pipefitter treated his Welders, he would be lucky to get his bead ground and sometimes get their leads dragged to the new worksite, but more often than not, he had to drag them himself in the last 20 years or so and grind his tacks/root and brush off the weld slag. As a welding foreman supervising a crew of 15 welders, I would be lucky to get one helper to help me stage my welders and then only if they were supporting 20 or more fitters. Used to psss me off so bad that a fitter could spend a day making a fit that should have taken a couple of hours but then get to mouthing about the welder taking several hours to weld it up especially after having to accept a terrible fit up. And fitters could screw up manytimes and have to cut pipe etc to correct and not even take a butt chewing but if a welder busted a couple of xrays, then he was fired. Rant over.
I will see what pictures I can get of the spool. I didn't try to make it pretty, just to hold together till I could put it own.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I got no before pictures. I have to admire you guys that carry a camera around with you and take time to photograph everything. Anyway here is what the spool looks like after I did a quick and dirty weld on it. I beveled the edges on the long side and left it in the as broken condition on the hub side. There was one long crack running linear which I ground a groove in and welded it up also. Might have been more but I didn't take a lot of time with it. Figured if it broke, I could maybe get a replacement at TSC or Agrisupply. Sorry the camera didn't want to work very well this morning. They looked good in small size but get fuzzy when full size. Anyway, welding it was kinda like welding on potmetal as it just kinda dissolved as the rod passed over it. Main thing is it didn't crack when I put the impact to the axle nut.

 

[Shield Arc]

Gary not to fire you up. But I use work a lot of refinery jobs. Been on some that would have over 200 pipe welders. I've seen it where the welders didn't do anything but weld, very unusual to see them use a torch. They would not drag welding leads, or even carry their buckets to the next weld. Very seldom would you see them use a grinder.
One time I was on a nuclear power plant job. Pipe welder who I had worked around before was in a 2-man repair crew. Welders would weld all day, x-ray crew would come in at night and shoot. Then the repair crew would fix any problems. This one welder had to go up on some scaffolding, about 80-feet to make a repair. No helper, so he was having to do his own grinding. I wasn't too far away from him but on the ground, I seen the superintendent coming, next thing I know a 9-inch grinder explodes on the ground right next to the superintendent! The sup about jumps out of his skin! Looks up and says, Orville why in the he!! did you do that?! Orville replies, because the mother f**ker doesn't work right. The sup just waves and walks away. I aways wanted to be a pipe welder!


Nice looking repair!:thumbsup: I know some of that stuff can be a nightmare to fix!

 

[kevin37b]

Looks like a good repair .

 

[Gary Fowler]

I finally finished all the welding, just have to put the gang back under the gang support. I found some 3/16" scrap plate that was just right to take up the slack in the outside support so the gang will not rock back and forth so much now. Even repaint the gang support.
Overhead weld is kinda crappy looking gorilla weld, ugly but strong. I just couldn't get my tri-focals to get in the right position to see it so it was welding blind practically and looking right into the afternoon sun so I couldn't even see the weld area prior to striking an arc.
The bearing holder photos, you can see the scratch in the metal from the press when they formed it which eventually caused them to split right at the line so I put a light bead around them all. Also drilled a small hole in the sealed bearings and using a little needle apparatus pumped them full of grease so now they should last another 20 years. The bearings were all tight but I could tell they were dry of grease. About 10 pumps per bearing with my pneumatic gun. I would pump it then roll them and pump some more till it started coming out on both sides of the grease seal.

 

[Reyer Farms]

Funny stories looks like you had a full day with that disc. Glad you got it fixed up!

 

[Shield Arc]

I wear the progressive bifocal eyeglasses. I learned real fast I can not weld with them! It drives me crazy searching for the right spot to see. Now I just use dollar store reading glasses. They work fine if I can keep my head the same distance from the work.
I tried to teach myself how to Tig weld pipe like this picture, oh what a disaster! As the torch comes around the pipe, the distance changes, and I can't see.

Gary have you ever done any Tig welding like this?

 

[Gary Fowler]

I wear the progressive bifocal eyeglasses. I learned real fast I can not weld with them! It drives me crazy searching for the right spot to see. Now I just use dollar store reading glasses. They work fine if I can keep my head the same distance from the work.
I tried to teach myself how to Tig weld pipe like this picture, oh what a disaster! As the torch comes around the pipe, the distance changes, and I can't see.
it.

Gary have you ever done any Tig welding like this?

It been decades since I welded for a living, but yes, I did lots of TIG welding on pipe, walking the cup putting in the stringer in and feeding in the filler rod from inside the pipe on the bottom. I certified on just about any alloy used in refineries and chemical plants. I have TIG welded aluminum (my least favorite), Carbon Steel, all Chrome alloys from 1.25% to 12%, All 300 series Stainless Alloys, all Inconel alloys from 625-800, Titanium, Zirconium, Hastelloy, Carpenter 20 (dirtiest welding stuff you ever saw) and likely others that I cant think of right now. I also certified with most of those with TIG/SMAW, except the titanium and zirconium which can only be TIG welded. I did some MIG/FCAW welding but not a lot of it. I got my first welding supervisors job in 1975 but kept my hand in by certifying for next 10 years, then moved up to QC Manager and pretty much just watched it till 1990 when KBR wanted to invest in local community training at Long Beach City College. That required certification per ASME Section IX and B31.3 for all instructor, so I tested and passed and became an after work welding instructor at LBCC for 3 night per week @3 hours and 8 hours on Saturday. That was the last time I certified as a Pipe welder. Now my eyes require tri-focals, my neck has all the vertebrae fused except for the top 3 so I cant move my head much more than 10% of normal movement anymore. Now its pretty much what I can look straight at to see if I want to weld