New Member in Bath, Somerset

[swallow]

Hello everyone - new to the forum and new to anything welding related. Really wanting to find someone local to Bath in Somerset who might be able to help me with a little aluminium welding project.....

I need to have some extra material built up on some cast aluminium engine casings of mine. I'm only talking about a few square inches of area by maybe half an inch of depth. This is for a vintage vespa engine that I am tuning.

People I know have had mixed results having this kind of work done at local engineering works ranging from very good to very poor with warping from over heating etc..

So basically hoping someone with the knowledge and tools and not too far from me will be able to help!!

All the best, Tom

 

[paul33]

Hi and welcome. I have a mate who is a scooter nut and is based here in Highbridge, so not that far away. I should think we could help out between us. If I read your post right you seem to want a thick build up of weld - It may be better to weld a alloy plate of the right thickness on the crank cases. Cheers

 

[swallow]

Hi, thanks for speedy reply - its really weld bead that I need to build up rather than a plate - I'll try to post an image, but as I can see you're a bike person, its on the transfers, where the cylinder meets the case. The original casting is pretty shallow in a couple of places - I've been dremmeling out the transfers for a bigger/better cylinder, but there is just not quite enough meat there to do what I want, hence the need for an extra 10mm or so to be blobbed on the outside, so I can then open up the inside.

A lot of people use JBweld for doing this, but I dont like that and would rather have metal!!

Will put up a pic in a bit, cheers, Tom

 

[swallow]

hi again Paul - heres a pic of one side of the case - if you can see in the image there is a blob of JB Weld on one section, this is the outside of where the cylinder transfers are. Where the jb weld is I would like to remove it and fill in between the raised section with real weld bead!

In this case I am working on an engine case that was designed for a 50cc cylinder and modifying it up for a 130cc cylinder. Various other changes are taking place to the new engine to hopefully give a good increase of power.

Here's a link to my project page for my vespa - theres quite a lot of pages, but to see the finished (its never really finished though..!) article i would suggest having a look at pages 11-12!

http://davedaniel.proboards91.com/index.cgi?board=projects&action=display&thread=1018&page=1

Anyhow, let me know what you think re the building up of weld.

All the best, Tom

 

[paul33]

Hi Tom. I see what you mean! That is the sort of job I look at and think "if it was mine I would give it a go!" for someone else I tend to be a bit more careful. It seems to me most modern alloy crankcase castings are good quality - I have had success welding a few, but welding a o-ring boss back on a malaguti kids bike the other day I had an eruption of crap which needed a lot of digging out with the die-grinder. As for distortion I would suggest bolting the crankcase half’s together and fitting a cylinder barrel then preheat it all together before welding. I would be interested in the more experienced alloy welder’s opinions on here.

 

[swallow]

cheers Paul - I might have access to a spare and completely knackered engine casing of the same type (and also a cylinder, also knacked), will speak to my mate, so it may well be a case of trying on the knackered one to see what happens... will speak to him and see if he will let me have it.

Will give you a bell tomorrow, all the best, Tom

 

[swallow]

heres an example from a mate of mine, although this has been taken a bit further than what I am after

 

[swallow]

well - what a great forum! already arranged to visit Paul and his workshop on sunday

as Paul said, do any of the more experienced welders on here have anything to chip in before we attempt to build the casings up??

All the best, Tom

 

[Iain Westland]

nope, but hows the ale in the ring o bells or the hat n feather .... then again its about 15 years since i lived down there so they have probably closed.

Iain