Reworking T-arm toggle links

[Black Frog]

I'm going through a 50# Mayer at the moment, complete disassembly.  Redoing all the linkage arms, pins, etc...

The threads on the T-arm toggle links were quite worn and flattened, and the castle nut had way too much slop and play in it.  I really did not want to fabricate entirely new T-arms, buying new ones was quite expensive, so I had to think about how to redo the threads on the existing arms.

I don’t have a lathe with a large enough bore to get the “T” inside, so I had to improvise….  Here’s how I did it in case someone else has with similar problems, has access to a metal lathe and a welder, and wants to give it a go themselves. 

I welded a ½” dia piece of rod nub on the end of the T.  I centered it up best I could eyeball it for welding.  I then put the main shaft of the T-arm in the lathe chuck and trued up the welded ½” nub with the axis of the arm.  I center drilled the other end of the T-arm so I could use a live center in tail stock of the lathe. The trued-up nub was held in the lathe chuck, and the other end was supported by the live center.  Now I had a way to remove the old threads and get down to a fresh surface.

Once the offending thread material was removed, I welded up that area to add enough meat so that I could turn it back down to a 1” diameter and then re-thread.  Once the threads were complete, I sawed off the ½” nub and cleaned up the weld area on the end of the T. Worked quite well, the new threads turned out nice.

 

Edited April 7, 2015 by Black Frog

[kubiack]

Nice work. Did you have to do any build up on the T part of the link? Does this make 2 hammers for you now or have I missed some posts?

[Leeknivek]

hey, that's a good idea! Are you using your anvil as a welding table? 

[Black Frog]

I didn't add material to the T portion,  lots of meat there.  I think material had been added at an earlier date. This is the second hammer I'm going through,  but I already have my hooks into a third and possibly a fourth as well as helping out with a friend's.   I think I'll be putting my finished  25#LG up for sale now that I have this 50#. 

I sometimes put the ground clamp on the heel of my anvil and use it as welding table.  Only when doing top welds aways from the face. I'm ultra cramped in my overly-stuffed garage, so efficiency of space requires multi-use tools at times. 

Edited April 9, 2015 by Black Frog