Flop

Clinton, I am going to take the handle off this afternoon and put it back in the diesel. There is a ton of trash down in the bottom of the gear housing so hopefully the diesel can loosen that up, I hope I can get it freed up without having to remove the gears.

The screws on the cover had been coated 4 times a day with PB Blaster for over 2 weeks, they were flat head machine screws and the heads just stripped. I'll definitely be replacing them with hex head or allen head bolts. Anyone know what this is on the side of it, looks like it has a key hole.

Figured I'd give you guys an update, finally got the gear box cover off over the weekend. I ended up having to drill out the screws holding it on. Now I have to get the gears out...

Thanks, for all the replies guys, I still have the gear box screws in the PB Blaster, been hitting them about 4 times a day for 3 days now with PB as soon as it soaks up, I haven't tried to turn the screws yet figured it was best to give the oil a chance to work. If I can't get it with the PB then I'll give the Kroil a try. If that doesn't work then I'll probably just drill them out and re-tap them. With that being said I did manage to get the fan housing off last night and am in the process of soaking all those bolts on the inside, again, thanks for all the replies. Here's a pic of the fan housing removed.

I was wrong, I guess my dyslexia kicked in, it's a champion blower number 40, don't know what the difference is between it and the 400, but here is what I'm working with, gear box wise.

It's the champion 400, I did a little research while it was soaking in the diesel and glad I did, I read how the top had a slot and slid on, thanks for the heads up though. I think I'll give the acetone mixture a try this afternoon, still have it soaking in the PB blaster. I'll post more pics when I get inside the gear box, after that I'm going to work on getting into the fan housing.

Pulled it out of the diesel and have it soaking in PB blaster for a few days, no luck on the screws yet, thanks for all the replies, I'll try tapping on it with a hammer tomorrow, any other ideas are appreciated, might fire up the torch and try heating them up.

Thanks for the info still learnin, my dad picked this up for me from a friend of his. I was hoping it would be a good anvil, I've been using a piece of railroad track for a few years now. Anything should be better than a piece of track though.

Wanting to know a little history on this anvil, its got crescent stamped on the side weighs somewhere around 200 pounds if I had to guess. I appreciate any info on it.

Picked up a champion forge blower over the weekend for 10 bucks, its frozen up so I have it sitting in a 5 gallon bucket of diesel trying to free up the set screws so I can get to the gears. Figured some of y'all might like to see it.

Not saying it can't be done, just not with the machine Larry has.

Couldn't agree more about the "professionals" aametal, and it seems to be getting worse.....

This is off another site, on a motorcycle frame where the down tubes go into the steering neck, this snapped off going 60mph down the highway, luckily the rider wasn't injured, the frame was built by a "professional" motorcycle frame building company. Nowhere near the thickness of that shaft you have, you can clearly see that things might look good on the outside but the inside is a whole nuther story.

Larry, heed Thomas's advice. From the pictures you took of your welder, it looks to me like it's a Northern Tool Mig 135, this is a 110 volt unit with a 20% duty cycle, you will get nowhere near the proper penetraion with this machine needed to hold things together even with pre-heating. That small of a machine will not cut it, it is probably rated to weld 5/16" mild steel at max with flux cored wire, you might could get up to 3/8" with a bottle of gas but I would not want to be around anything that something could come loose on a possibly hurt someone or yourself. I have a small lincoln 140 in my shop that I use to tack and weld stuff 1/4" and smaller, for anything thicker or that is structural I pull out the Ac-225 buzz box or the Champion 10,000. Just my .02, I was reading on the other thread what you were planning to do and would take Thomas's advice.

AP Man, did you forge the bevel in or grind it in?

Here are a couple of mine.

Ice that is a real cool design, I might have to steal that design as I do a little bronze casting on the side as well. Very interesting.

Glen, thanks for the info, I'll have to get in contact with him, Monroe is about 2hrs from me.

Glenn, I got a piece of RR track to beat on, can't see it in the pics though so I got that covered. Hammer kid, you should I fired it up again last night and the thing works great, gonna put a piece of 1/4" steel around it this weekend to make a table and to sink the fire pot, that way I can rake coal in as I need it.

Where is he located, north or south LA.?

Cool deal, not a whole lot of places around here that I'm aware of to get good quality coal, thought about just using some real hardwood charcoal just for messing around. That should work just fine.

Yeh, I have the extension I just ran out of welding wire, got it all put together now though, gonna fire it up this weekend and play with it more. I'll take lots o pics.

I got bored the other night so I decided to make a brake drum forge, check it out and tell me what you think, I used some charcoal to try it out, as I don't have any good coal as of yet. It heated a piece of rebar up in a matter of seconds, don't tell the wife I used her hair dryer.

Never heard of the corn thing, I might have to try that as well.

I remember reading not to long ago that someone on here was using wood as fuel instead of coal or gas, just got me to thinking what the advantages/disadvantages were of it, as I've never heard of it done before. Any kind of wood in particular and special process involved. Just curious.

Here's some helpful info on welding cast iron...

Guidelines for Welding Cast Iron | Lincoln Electric