[TheForge] Repairing power hammer dies

[Ralph Sproul]

	Thanks Cameron, If the die is junk in the first place a decent repair is a
lot better than a poor one.  Thanks for this info and what you've had luck
with and the experience on outcome.

Ralph

-----Original Message-----
From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
[mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Cameron Stoker
Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2006 8:47 AM
To: Sponsored by ABANA
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Repairing power hammer dies


I'm afraid it was smaller than you're talking about - one side chip
about 3/8" w x 1/8"d x 1/4 h - doing fine.  A couple other divots caused
by a hard chisel shank 3/8" diam x 1/16 deep. Make sure to pickle or
otherwise clean your rod/spring wire very well & degrease the die. I had
a handful of pinholes apear when I used a wire with a little surface
rust present.  This is just good welding practice. To get really clean
welds you have to follow all the rules. I fudge the rules on 'hidden'
tig tacks on ornamental pieces and this can lead to bad habbits.
	I've also thought of using small O-1 rods or w-1, but have yet to try
this. The cooling from the large die block works just at about the right
rate to get tough 5160 weld repair spots. There is probably a
ring-shaped band around the weld repair that gets hot enough to temper
further, but not hot enough to harden. In practice the whole weld repair
is a bit softer than the parent metal, but tougher than 70xx rod repairs.

Ralph Sproul wrote:
> 	Cameron,  Thanks for this info on the die repair.  I have a chipped die
and
> will try this.
>
> 	It sure make sense that a medium carbon spring wire would lend itself to
a
> tough but not to hard repair in tig welding - I see that 5160 is a
> low chrome alloy for springs.  So a tough repair with a chrome (being that
> it has good impact qualities makes a lot of sense) should be a good one
> for impact and toughness.
> 	Just curious as to your results - what is the largest repair area you've
> done on a die?  about a 1/4" square - or something 1/4 x 3/4 as like
>  a chipped edge?  Or have you filled scale abraded hollows with good
success
> as well?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ralph
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:theforge-bounces at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of Cameron Stoker
> Sent: Wednesday, June 07, 2006 5:21 PM
> To: Sponsored by ABANA
> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Repairing power hammer dies
>
>
> On a set of little giant dies I've repaired chips by tig welding the
> void using an uncoiled spring (~1/8" diam wire) as filler material.
> I'd guess most springs are 5160 -ish in composition. I've had
> surprisingly little cracking of these repairs.
>
>
>                  Cameron Stoker
>                  cameron at stoker.net
>                  "May you run like a vicuña!"
>
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--
                 Cameron Stoker
                 cameron at stoker.net
                 "May you run like a vicuña!"
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