[TheForge] welding question

[terry l. ridder]

hello;

is it safe to assume that since the church is not going to be rebuilt
that the church did not have insurance coverage?

did the bell drop from the supports into the ambers at the bottom of the
bell tower?

the first option of having it recast is probably not an option.
the second option is to let the bell finish cracking and follow the
below procedure, which i saw an old timer who runs a local welding shop
perform on a bronze statue a couple of years ago while i was visiting
his shop.

collect all the pieces of the bell and dry assemble the pieces and mark
with a grease pencil who they fit together.
build a modelling clay support for the bell. this is going to be a
project on its own given the weight of the bell. probably be best to
weld up a wireframe in the rough shape of the inside of the bell. 1/4
inch rod should be enough if supported internally by a stronger
armature. apply the modelling clay to the wireframe and sculpt to the
internal surface of the bell.

now position the largest piece of the bell in the modelling clay
support. flux the edges of this piece and the appropriate neighboring
pieces. using actual tin ( as in the metal ) foil cut thin strips not as
thick as the bell. using a soft burnishing tool rub the tin foil in the
joint. fit the neighboring piece of the bell where the tin foil has just
been applied. brush the outside of each joint spareingly with weld
release. gently heat each joint until the tin foil melts into the joint.

repeat with the remaining pieces.

when i watched the old timer repair the bronze statue you had to look
really hard to see the repair joints. of course he was working with
bronze.

an alternative to using tin foil would be to hammer hard solder flat and
thin and use it in the joints.

if i have time later this evening i will build a computer model the procedure 
and put it up on my web server.


On Thu, 8 Jul 2004, Mark & Sylvia Mondloch wrote:

mark> I'm sure the bell is full of internal stresses .It was in the bell tower
mark> which was acting as a chimney for the fire when it was hit by LOTS of water
mark> from the fire department.There is a crack that goes almost all the way
mark> around the bell about 1/3 down from the top.Also 2 large cracks from the
mark> bottom rim up to that crack.Also smaller cracks off of those.It is on the
mark> verge of falling into pieces.The church is not going to be rebuilt and they
mark> want to use the bell as a marker.Is there any kind of glue or epoxy that
mark> could be used on the inside to hold it together?
mark> 
mark> 
mark> ---
mark> Mark & Sylvia Mondloch

-- 
terry l. ridder ><>