industrial welder. any advice

[Darkwood]

We used metallization gear for zinc coating ductile iron pipe. The spray heads are a pain in the arse, usually one head a week would catch fire.

I toyed with the idea of modifying one of the heads for the rollers but couldn’t get the required current for it to be reliable. The zinc heads were 1500A @20V.

So the MIG welder had to be pressed in to service for re-facing the rollers. It could build up the required diameter in one pass, the metal spray would have needed several passes. The beauty of the setup was once the roller was chucked the welding was immediately followed by machining by just changing the tool post.
I got in a spot of bother over the earth return. I pinched the brush gear off a spare motor on another plant, they weren’t happy.

This is normally the case, you fit a quart into a pint pot, use ingenuity on a level any those complaining could only dream of and still you cop it from some jobs worth... been there got the T-shirt and free pamphlet on guide to how not to keep upsetting the idiots.

 

[Geordie Spark]

Just to upset you Geordie, I built a continuous spiral welder for refacing the steel rollers used in the foundry.

Please don't say you used it on a lathe - unless it was an old & knackered one.

 

[Knobhead]

Please don't say you used it on a lathe - unless it was an old & knackered one.

It was a Czechoslovakian TOS 120x15”. So yes, it was a good lathe. The welding return went direct to the brush gear on the chuck so no return through the headstock. All slides and the bedway protected with fibreglass cloth. I used the same lathe to make a cylinder grinder.

Had it caused any problems with the bearings I think I’d have noticed when I had 100HP rotors in for the sliprings to be trued and fine polished. It’s a bloody big lump of metal to have going at full chat. Although the fitters refused to enter the shop when I was polishing sliprings.

The other lathe in the shop was a Harrison, a beautiful bit of kit. I regret I never got the chance to use the profile follower on it.





I could have sworn my indentures say I’m an electrician………

 

[Geordie Spark]

It was a Czechoslovakian TOS 120x15”. So yes, it was a good lathe. The welding return went direct to the brush gear on the chuck so no return through the headstock. All slides and the bedway protected with fibreglass cloth. I used the same lathe to make a cylinder grinder.

Had it caused any problems with the bearings I think I’d have noticed when I had 100HP rotors in for the sliprings to be trued and fine polished. It’s a bloody big lump of metal to have going at full chat. Although the fitters refused to enter the shop when I was polishing sliprings.

The other lathe in the shop was a Harrison, a beautiful bit of kit. I regret I never got the chance to use the profile follower on it.





I could have sworn my indentures say I’m an electrician………

I never liked Harisons - or any other lathe that had the carriage traverse hand wheel on the left side (nearest the chuck) always like it on the right so you stand well away from the chuck and all the shyte that it throws at you.

I was very fond of the profile follower (copying attachment) and used it a lot for high speed screwcutting.

The tricky part with screwcutting is in getting the tool out of the thread fast enough when you reach the end and my lathe - a Colchester Triumph 2000 was fitted with a rapid threading attachment which meant I could cut 2mm pitches at 350 RPM but it's bloody hard to disengage the leadscrew nuts an wind the tool back at that speed!

So the trick was to set a stop at the thread end which disengaged the leadscrew and that just left the small matter of getting the tool wound back.

Solution was mount the tool upside down in the profiler (which was mounted on the back of the cross slide) and set a stop for the stylus to follow.

Result; tool goes galloping off cutting the thread until profiler stylus meets it's stop and retracts the tool then carriage (saddle) meets its stop and disengages the leadscrew nuts!

I was making fitting bolts for the MOD in batches of 100 which were a fancy shape like a candlestick with a thread on the end so I used the profiler for that and ran the whole batch complete except for the thread then ran them back through with the profile set to work with the rapid threader.

The thing ran like a dream and I was knocking these bolts out at the rate of one every 20 minutes.

My predecessor using an "ordinary" lathe took one hour ten mins. - each!

It wasn't just bolts - there were other things that I found a use for that profiler such as bearing bushes with a flange on one end.

Use the profiler to machine the outside diameter and the flange on the end while a boring bar in the front toolpost finishes the bore all at the same time.

That job previously took about 20 mins and I knocked it down to about ten - which on a batch of 100 is a bit of a saving.

That was how boss man was able to afford a brand new Ford Granada and a year later a one year old Daimler Sovereign .

It also meant that my work was finished in the middle of the afternoon and as boss was never in in the afternoon I was free to go next door to another little machine shop and do a bit of cash-in-hand there. :laugh:

I've been in quite a few machine shops and seen the profiler / copier lying on the floor because folk just think of them as something that copies. If you open you mind a bit you can find all sorts of other uses for them that make the job easier & quicker.

 

[Knobhead]

I have used a Harrison profile follower at college. The one at the foundry, god knows what happened the hydraulic unit, it was well and truly f****d.

Can’t say the carriage traverse bothered me, probably because the first lathe I used a 14 was a Harrison.

I did like the Colchester 2000, it’s a workhorse.

The most fun lathe was a Broadbent. 18’ faceplate, 30’ main bedway and 15’ auxiliary bedway. Two tool holders on separate bedways to the side. All motions were powered, there’s no way you would shift them by hand.