damming gear teeth
Comments Off on damming gear teeth got the blade mount fixed tuesday. took all day but with taking it off then having to run the tractor over it a couple of times with pipes and things under parts of it to try and straighten it out somewhat prior to welding. then out with the come along and the sledge hammer. broke it too. this was the 15 lb one with the new handle. guess i need more handles. 3 heads no handles. or none worth a shit anyway.
anyway… got the crack pulled together and spot welded. then welded the entire back. covered and filled the crack with two to 3 layers of weld.
cut a piece of 4 inch channel and shaped the ends to fit between the blade lift points. put in place and welded all the way around. 20 + 1/8 inch rods later…
unhook the come along and chain from the tractor boom which I had been using to move and turn it. bill and I got it close to in place and I drove the dozer between the arm and then we used the big pry bar to fit it onto the mounting pins on the sides. a bit more prying and we got the hydraulic cylinders pins in also.
and that was about it for the day.
Today was the final drive gear. ran the dozer over a 7 inch diameter log and got the rear drive gears off the ground. along with almost half the track. got the main pin out. starting to wear pretty good. mostly from the gear slipping i think. unrolled the track from the gear and removed the retaining nut and shim. am going to cut and weld the nut before going back this time. and gonna add a washer too.
got a piece of railroad rail and laid on its side. put the leg vice into one of the holes in the side. and drove it into the ground. put the gear between the legs of the vice and clamped it with its bottom resting on the side of the rail. holds it upright and is easy to unclamp and turn as needed.
got the welder gassed up and belt tightened and cranked. started adding metal to the gear lobes. or teeth. though nubs is more correct right now. Got a couple of them welded up with 6011 rods and saw that i wasn't gonna have enough so we went to jville to warren ace and got some more. also got some 7018's that i started in with when we got back. they give a better weld with less splatter than the 6011's. seem harder too.
problem i am having is my hands are so sore that I can't fight the welder handpiece too long at a time. and am not really steady enough to do it long either. so got to thinking…
molds for the teeth. have used copper for retaining weld before when filling a large void where it kept falling through. the other option is clay or plaster. thinking about a open topped piece that will fit down in the trough on each side and allow me to weld through the open top but keep the metal from running off the sides and ends. don't know how the flux would do. should float to the top but… guess I will find out…
I am building them up now and grinding back down and then rewelding as necessary. may try to use the milling machine and a fly cutter to cut the weld back down smooth. or may just let the tracks and mud do the dirty work for me.
got a couple of pivot points on the tracks that are going to have to be repaired too. looks like I can grind the weld away enough to get the pins out and see if I can get something to replace the sleeve or whatever it's called. the round piece around the pin that the pin rotates in. bearing? bushing? anyway they are worn out in a few places and it looks like if I can repair them I can readjust the track tensioners back down into a reasonable range.
need to pull the rollers or idlers or whatever and replace the bearings in some of them too. and seals. and probably inner shafts. so will wait a bit longer for that. need to go ahead and get the other two machines. can try going over and talking to him later this week. see if he will deliver them. would make the repairs much easier if I had spare parts.
and the 12×60 is still in the mud. deeper now too. noted that I had torn the roof vent off in the power line difficulty. so bill got the ladder and i found the caulk and screw driver and screws and went up and reattached it. sealed around it and the one over the bathroom that leaks too. hope that got them both.
think that I will make the mold out of iron or steel. flat pieces cut and bent and welded into shape then use copper to line it. got a lot of old water pipe that i can split and get wide enough pieces to form the inside out of. bent over top and bottom edges to keep in place. heat pipe first to make malleable and easy to work.
tis late. time to start the new day…l
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