Tweet
Re: Pitting or Peening?
Mike,
That gear is no good to anyone, but you know that now. With all your questions regarding welding and metal-working in the last few months, I would think you would be up for trying to do as Bill suggests and try to rebuild the gear. What the heck, you really have nothing to lose, AND when you are finished, assuming it is a success, you'll have a new gear and the knowledge to build another. You'll be the expert! Yay!
The only extra suggestion that I would make is to make sure when you reverse engineer the fixture to the part, make sure the supports that will hold the eventual loose parts are firm and in the correct position. When I say firm, I mean, it would be better if the wood blocks were shaped in such a way to hold the parts, just not block them up. And an aluminum strap or two in several positions would lock everything together. See the pictures that I hope I've attached successfully of my homebuilt nose gear weld fixture.
By the way, once I tacked the parts (tack from side to side, tiny welds opposing each other to keep the pull or shrink managed... I used an electric welder for tacking) I was able protect the fixture with sheet tin (not galvanized!) while welding. The final, final welds were made when it was pulled out, but by that time, there wasn't much left to do. Then flame normalized it and finally peened it to remove the stress.
Good luck,
Jack Dernorsek
N44057 (and N123XT)
Mike,
That gear is no good to anyone, but you know that now. With all your questions regarding welding and metal-working in the last few months, I would think you would be up for trying to do as Bill suggests and try to rebuild the gear. What the heck, you really have nothing to lose, AND when you are finished, assuming it is a success, you'll have a new gear and the knowledge to build another. You'll be the expert! Yay!
The only extra suggestion that I would make is to make sure when you reverse engineer the fixture to the part, make sure the supports that will hold the eventual loose parts are firm and in the correct position. When I say firm, I mean, it would be better if the wood blocks were shaped in such a way to hold the parts, just not block them up. And an aluminum strap or two in several positions would lock everything together. See the pictures that I hope I've attached successfully of my homebuilt nose gear weld fixture.
By the way, once I tacked the parts (tack from side to side, tiny welds opposing each other to keep the pull or shrink managed... I used an electric welder for tacking) I was able protect the fixture with sheet tin (not galvanized!) while welding. The final, final welds were made when it was pulled out, but by that time, there wasn't much left to do. Then flame normalized it and finally peened it to remove the stress.
Good luck,
Jack Dernorsek
N44057 (and N123XT)
Attached Files
Comment