Trouble in Paradise, Pieces of My Broken Heart....

[Ulma Doctor]

Gertrude, my Altas MFC Horizontal Mill suffered a broken leg,:angry:
the selector casting is made of cast iron.
apparently in her past her old owner attempted to make a repair to the forward/reverse selector and it failed.
i didn't think to snap pictures of the broken parts before i preped them for repair again.
i didn't really think of detailing the repair until i had a few minutes of downtime.
we'll start with the photographic evidence of the pieces of my broken heart:jester:

 

[kd4gij]

nice work on the repair.

 

[Ulma Doctor]

I set up the broken parts for the brazing operation....
there was a section of the selector arm that was inexplicably missing.
I hand fitted a steel wedge and braze welded it to the cast iron banjo section as seen below,
then braze welded the cast iron broken end back to the cast iron banjo section
i used the oxy/acetylene rig and some good ol' 1/8" LFB (low fuming bronze) flux coated brazing rod. 65,000 psi tensile strength
this stuff is really nice to braze weld with and is easily machineable.
i fitted the repaired part and then smoothed out the grind marks with a flapper wheel on the 4 1/2" grinder

 

[chuckorlando]

Good work on that repair. Brazing is a new world to me. I had no idea it could be as strong a it is. Again, good job man. It's awesome when one can fix verse buy

 

[lindse34]

Good work there. Did you use flux coated rod or have separate flux you mixed up?

 

[Ulma Doctor]

Good work there. Did you use flux coated rod or have separate flux you mixed up?

Thank You, lindse
I used Harris 1/8" LFB flux coated brazing rod it's good rod and very convenient.

a lot of old timers use Borax for their flux !!!

 

[HMF]

Great job!!

 

[Ulma Doctor]

here's a live action picture snapped during a test cut after the reassembly.



the lubricant is bacon grease and mineral oil 50/50,
.020" depth of cut, .0125" table feed rate , 62 cutter rpm, 2.5" staggered side cutting tool.
it chops very smoothly and cleanly, leaving a nicely finished surface.

thanks again for your interest

 

[Uglydog]

here's a live action picture snapped during a test cut after the reassembly.

Great news!

Daryl
MN

 

[GarageGuy]

here's a live action picture snapped during a test cut after the reassembly. the lubricant is bacon grease and mineral oil 50/50,

Mmmmmm, I'll bet it smells good! Great job on the repair. Very satisfying to fix something like that.

GG