[TheForge] Silicon bronze

[Dave Mudge]

Well thanks for your input Andrew. I finished the job quite some time ago.
I don't have access to a tig machine and it's been 38 years since I tig
welded anything
although as I remember I was pretty good at it when I was 28.
As I recall, (which might not be real accurate) the tig welding we did in
the ship yard
was mostly butt welding making up duct work for the hvac system on a
destroyer escort.
It was all pretty light gauge metal. This gear was approximately 6 inches
wide (thick) and
about 36 inches in diameter. This was a huge chunk of bronze with a deep
gash in the top
of one of the teeth. I was lucky enough to have held on to several spools
of silicon bronze
mig wire from way back. I took my spool gun and bronze wire and my own
small tank of argon
to the job site at the customer's machine shop where they make gears. I
cleaned the damaged
area real well with a soft pad on a 4-1/2" grinder and some solvent that
the customer had.
I rigged up the equipment on their welding machine (Millermatic 251) I made
a few passes
on some scrap material that was the same as the gear was made of to get my
settings right.
I decided to just go for it. I made about 4 or 5 passes over the damaged
area. Cleaned well
with a stainless wire brush. Ground the weld beads smooth with the grinder.
Visually inspected
for porosity holes (there were none) Called the owner to inspect the job,
he liked it so I rolled
up the equipment, policed the work area and was on my way..........

On Fri, Apr 29, 2016 at 10:43 PM, Andrew Vida <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:

> I'm sure this is way late in the game, but this strikes me VERY MUCH as a
> job for TIG.
>
>
> On 3/10/16, 12:32 PM, Dave Mudge wrote:
>
>> I have a client that makes large gears. He is making a brass  (or similar
>> alloy ) gear that is roughly 6" wide and 36" diameter. Somehow they cut a
>> gouge in the top of one tooth. Maybe 1/2" wide and 1/2" deep and a couple
>> inches long. Asked me if I could silver solder the gouge. I said that one
>> really can't "build up" silver solder but I happen to have a large spool
>> of
>> Silicon bronze mig wire. I am sure that I can fill the gouge with that.
>> Any
>> ideas on machine settings (Millermatic 251)
>> or preheat or process? Anything will be helpful. thanks, dave
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