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Tire hammer possible lead repair?


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Been running my tire hammer for several years and it's been great.  However, in the last couple of days it's spit a couple chunks of lead out of the hammer, probably around 500 grains to 1000 grains each.  It's easier for me to picture a couple cast bullets than try and figure out the grams or tenths of pounds.

So far it seems the lead is holding OK, no rattle or doesn't seem to be loose, but I'm wondering if I'll be fixing it in the not to distant future?  I didn't build this hammer, it was built at one of Clay's work shops several years before I bought it.  I did have to go over several of the welds and fix them shortly after bringing it home.  I'm wondering if maybe they didn't pre-heat the head before pouring the lead in.  If I have to repair it I have a turkey fryer that I use to smelt scrap lead into ingots, so it's not that big an issue to melt it out.  I'm thinking that if I do have to do that I will sand blast the inside and weld in a rebar cross member to lock it in place when I re cast it.

Or is it a non issue and I'm worrying over nothing?  Too full of silicon and grease to get a good look in the head, may just be a little extra that flaked off.  I plan to run it till I start seeing the lead get loose.

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Just kinda surprising is all.  If I'm understanding you correctly you leave the flat bar in there?

Kind of a PITA, but I'll most likely take it apart and clean and melt the lead out, then clean and heat the head and pour lead back in.  With or without a cross member the secrete to getting a good bond is clean metal and getting the head up to heat.  And alloyed lead with a bit of tin in it melts at lower temps than pure lead.  Still think if I have to go that rout I'll add a cross member or two as well.

That is if I have to do it, may just be a little puddled lead that is breaking loose, we'll see.  Hopefully if not then it will wait till winter, it's too bloody hot right now to screw with.

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Cross members to key the lead in works a treat but Will is exactly right, clean is your friend.

Clean it out wire brush or sand blast the inside as clean as you can. Get out your rosebud and brazing rod and plate the inside with brass. Clean it add a little soldering flux and tin it with solder. Preheat it to almost soldering temp before you pour the lead and it'll make in a solid unit.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Would the brass help bond it better than clean steel?  Looks like I'm going to have to do it sooner rather than later, was using it just a little while ago and felt and heard it "lump" a couple of times.  Not looking forward to it for sure.

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Got it fixed, now just for it to cool down and get it back together.

The lead was sliding up and impacting the toggle arms.  It would not come all the way out and I decided to quit over engineering it and just heated it up on the turkey frier.  Then had to stop and drill out the die bolt holes and run bolts in and tighten as lead was leaking out around the loose bolts.  Drilled out the lead and chased the threads with a tap and tightened bolts and washers in place and re heated till liquid.  Once it solidified I cut a 1/8" piece of sheet metal and welded it on top of the lead.  I figure even if it comes loose it isn't going anywhere now.

Hopefully will get everything back together and up and running in the morning.

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Good deal, sometimes the direct approach is best. to answer your question, yes, common solder and even lead stick to copper alloys much more readily than to steel, that usually requires a hard or silver solder. Thinking about it just now copper plating it would be super easy, a battery charger an electrolyte and some time. If you wanted it to go fast copper sulfate and a battery charger would only take a few hours but it'd take a lot.

How did you secure the lead so it can't break loose again?

Frosty The Lucky.

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I haven't had a chance to get it back together yet, had to go pick a few set screws up for the head cross pins, it'd slung all but one out, there what keeps the pins in head from moving to the side and hitting the ram guid.

Anyway, got to thinking, the toggles only have oil holes and I've been using silicon spray on everything but the upper pillow block bearing on the pitman arm. Would now be a good time to add grease certs to the bushings?  There is a little slack in the bushings, but not bad.  I'm thinking a good quality grease would cushion as well as lubricate the toggle arms.

Thoughts?

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I use chainsaw bar oil with about 1/4 cup of Duralube to the gallon to lube my Little Giant. It's sticky and slippery so I don't need to have the hammer slobbering oil on everything. It also lubes the chainsaw chain well enough you don't need to adjust it in use, it doesn't get hot enough to loosen up.

Grease is good it's minimum slobber lube.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Finally got time to get everything back together and give it a good work out.  I put grease fittings in all the linkages, except for the ram guid, that still gets silicon spray.  Man what a difference, I'm thinking the lead had been loose for a while and just finally worked it's way to the top where it was hitting the link pins.

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Grease plus scale or grinding dust or the stuff kicked up off the floor from walking around the shop equals a mighty fine lapping compound.  Abrasives in a media that is designed to stick to the sliding parts of your machine.  Part of the idea behind a total loss oiling system found on most mechanical power hammers is that it washes out grit before it can do too much damage.  

Mechanical hammers are supposed to be a little drippy.  

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I understand that, but this is not open bearings, and I have been greasing before every day of running, new grease pushes old crud out, same as on a disk or bush hog.  The old oil holes were just that, holes leading directly into the bushing.  We'll se how it goes, so far I'm liking it.

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