Aluminium mma and cast aluminium?

[DAPPH]

Off topic I know ......sorry ....

I've just been given a " D" handled metal body Wolf similar to the one shown to refurbish & sell to raise funds for our Men's Sheds group .
It is a Wolf 1/4 " heavy duty type NW2 . E , 2600 rpm , currently a non runner as the rubber cable had to be removed before it crumbled off when someone used it .

That Hammerite green finish , is that really the actual original colour .. mine appears to be a light gloss finish grey ?

 

[gordon stephenson]

I don't think the drill had any paint left on it when I got it, It had spent years being used at "Smiths dock" shipyard and it will still break your wrist if you tried to hang onto it when the drill bit bites.

 

[ronan]

I don't think the drill had any paint left on it when I got it, It had spent years being used at "Smiths dock" shipyard and it will still break your wrist if you tried to hang onto it when the drill bit bites.

I worked with a guy who had broken his arm doing that, Two fellas drilling a hole in the side of a large machine, when the bit grabbed one lad bailed out and the guy i knew had his arm broke. He had a massive scar up his arm.

 

[hotrodder]

I have a cracked gearbox housing that needs repair, it's not too thick and I have no argon at the moment so I wanted to know if anyone has any experience with the aluminium mma rods on the market now? I have a 200A inverter set and as it's a little job I didn't really want to go and get another cylinder.
I'm hoping that thay can work positional so I don't have to take the engine and box out.
Yeah I know I can tig it but I will probably end up doing it in situ and that is going to be tricky and I will need to get gas, could set my mig to do alley but need gas, wire and a liner for my old torch

Beg, borrow or buy a bottle of argon if the inverter is AC/DC. Or take the box out and take it to someone that has an AC/DC TIG... be cheaper, faster and less frustrating than trying to get grips with aluminium stick electrodes (assuming your set will even run them they ain't even close to user friendly) and the results will be better than trying to MIG it in situ. Especially if it isn't a properly 'butch' MIG

If it's a mounting lug or the like that's cracked then an in situ repair stands a chance but IME most of the time it's still usually faster to take the thing apart/off
If oil is leaking out of it due to the crack then you've got zero chance of repairing it properly, if at all, without taking it out. To do it properly it needs stripping... even when stripped and properly degreased gearbox castings commonly 'bleed' oil when you warm them up and you end up swapping between a torch and a die grinder until you get a cleanish weldpool that'll accept wire without turning into a porous, brittle mess

Hey its been about 30 years now but I am fairly darn sure the rods we used on those tipper backs were not a solder

Umpteen different things have been talked about besides aluminium MMA electrodes. Lumiweld (along with durafix and a bunch of other trade names) is a zinc based self fluxing solder to most of the world. The exception is the shills that hype them up into a "brazing" rod that's "better" than welding and "stronger" than ally. They are stronger than some flavours of ally but the shills always forget to mention that the stuff is more brittle than many flavours of aluminium too. Great for repairing pot metal castings though

Proper ally brazing rods are 4047 aluminium which can be used for both welding and brazing http://www.alcotec.com/us/en/support/upload/a4047tds.pdf melting temp ~ 580°C while the liquidus temp for most flavours of ally is usually a min of ~ 615°
The zinc based solders melt at about 380 - 390° IIRC which is still waaaaay hotter than a little propane torch will ever get a gearbox unless it's for a toy car
Soap turns brown/black at the approx annealing temp of aluminium and it's alloys (343 - 410°C depending on flavour). At about the same temp soot from a pure acetylene flame etc and/or dark permanent marker ink burns off

 

[gt6s]

Those big Wolf drills should never have been a hand held drill, when the bit catches the drill will spin you round with it. I knew a guy who used one up a ladder, it caught threw him off the ladder ONE BROKEN ARM ! I have one brute of a thing.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

@DAPPH
I had one of those drills, it was finished in a straw colour, lighter than the classic metal case Black and deckers.
But I have seen them in lacquered finish and black.
I think the finish is up to you.

They also a Stand what they could fit in.
I never had an issue with them snatching, as the man who gave it to me said:

Treat it with respect and it will respect your work.

I think when those type of tools were made, they expected that the people who used them knew how to use them and had common sense.

Technically I still own it, but it now lives in Liverpool with a friend who maintains canal boats, and barges. He loves the long rubber cable and the fact it keeps going on and on and on.

Just like a nagging mother in law.

 

[gt6s]

Yeah mine is silver in colour original paint and permanently mounted on a pillar stand.

 

[DAPPH]

Those big Wolf drills should never have been a hand held drill, when the bit catches the drill will spin you round with it. I knew a guy who used one up a ladder, it caught threw him off the ladder ONE BROKEN ARM ! I have one brute of a thing.

In 1975 I was stood on the wing of a "Mighty Antar " fifth wheel tank transporter trailer towing vehicle my feet were about four foot six off the floor . My task was to use a massive four stone or more two handled Wolf 120 psi air drill that took morse taper drills and carefully drill ten or so 3/4 inch holes in the RHR. mud wing mounting brackets to fit a new wing on as it sat over the double wheels on the double axle .

Everything was hung /aligned carefully using the over head electric gantry crane and well packed under neath to stop things moving . A copule of ratchet straps were added to secure the new wing in place . . I'd measured up several times before carefully drilling 1/4 " pilot holes and slipped 1/4 precision bolts in them to make sure nothing moved .
Come the time to use the drill I'd got safety guys with a big fire axe ready to chop the 1" air hose should the drill grab and throw me off the wing. I drilled one hole , put the bolt in it and gently tightened it . At the next hole it grabbed , I fought it & was flung off the wing by the drills handle bars as it bit deep and jammed the taper drill ... to land on my back side in a massive 8 x 16 x 2 foot 6 " deep foot de greasing /cleaning tank that contained about 18 " of filthy cleaning paraffin .
As soon as the axe man saw me starting to fight the drill he chopped the air line , the drill died quicker than I could let the trigger go .
As a direct result of the incident and the near miss report I had to fill out , I asked that we ditched the 1950's air drill and got hold of a heavy duty 110 volt mag drill instead . A few days later our stores head honcho c/w commanding officer took me into Salisbury . We found a retailer of the mag drills and after a quick demo on 1" plate the army became the proud new owner of a super Bosch mag drill that could take up to a 1& 1/2 " morse taper drill .

 

[zeppelin builder]

them old wolfs great for breakin wrists ive repared lots of ali castings over the years oxy acetylene best for old dirty porous stuff , i repaired a casting previously done years before and cut it back as the flux from the previous repair had filled it full of worm holes ,did electron cases for Harold Daniels TTwinning norton to name a few the zinc base solder which ive occasionaly used to fit filler cap fittings on ali tanks etc less distortion ,but i used it for a mate who fits perspex windows into clutch casings for bikes ,heated up the new machined flange and cover with a propane torch and used a stainless puddling rod to scratch it in and wet out properly looked superb like a soft soldered joint no distortion ,thought d give it a die penetrant test and it failed miserably red die oozing out overnight had to clean it up and heat it then sealed it with epoxy ,so be carefull what you use it for ,igot mines from UNIBRAZE lm convinced that its these rods cut into three bits then repackaged and sold on as ALOOMINUNUM wonder weld
i used the mma rods to weld up some fire hydrant tubes into castings i seem to remember that after the job had a good preaheat they worked well and were pressure tight