beaudry hammer roller track repair

[OneAcre]

All.....

I have a pre-number Champion, serial #8037, looks equivelant to a model 8. The rollers are round and turn free but the tracks are grooved about 3/16 deep.... most of the wear is from PO's. It's been run well lubed since I acquired it in 1992 using the oil/rag technique in the tup.  Has anyone successfully used weld metal to resurface the tracks?

.....Oneacre

[Andrew T]

Great looking hammer, is it not running right?

 

[OneAcre]

Andrew T. ...

It works and works very well, doing the heavy lifting on architectural projects for many years. The hammer and I are now entering the 'hobby' portion of our journey, along with the rest of the shop. There is now time to give attention to a few projects, one of which is maintenance on the Beaudry.

My skillset includes industrial welding, with both the experience and equipment to properly surface the worn tracks. Choosing the proper welding electrode for the tup alloy is critical to long term success. Some distortion of the tup is possible and perhaps probable. I was hoping someone here would have some insight to share before I begin the project.

...OneAcre

[OneAcre]

Andrew T. ...

It is cast steel and weldable. The rollers are hardened. When I got the hammer in '92, one of the rollers had a flat spot. It was purchased for a specific job and I needed it running ASAP, so I just annealed it, welded it up with E70-S6 GMAW, ground and polished with scotch brite, case-hardened with acytelene soot, quenched at non-magnetic, and tempered to straw. I really wasn't expecting it to last, but it is still good after all these years!

I'm fairly sure the tracks are not hardened. Some steels are designed to work harden in use. Railroad track comes to mind. There are hardfacing electrodes with different properties designed to be used 'as welded' for the intended use. The question is which one?

One user on another thread rebuilt a beaudry and just ground off the high spots  next to the grooves so tne rollers wouldn't drag. That's probably what I'll do rather than experiment. Hopefully someone will respond with a successful welding repair.

...OneAcre

[arftist]

D-2 would work good and isn't too expensive on rolls. If you are worried about it butter it 308-16 first. Preheat and post heat in addition to an equal application of wire will help fight distortion. 

Forget hard facing, too risky.

Grinding nightmare as well.

With the D- 2 hardening is easy.

[K A Willey]

I’ve resurfaced a few padded them up with dualshied on a couple and 7018 on a couple bigger ones and super missle on one I wasn’t sure bout that looked like it had been welded on before, ( that one was kinda spendy) I found though it is kind of a waste of time unless your ram is cracked the ram is not hard yet should be pre and post heated to minimize distortion to the ram and if a lot of welding is required should be clamped to a fixture plate and post heated for a few days with the fixture plate depending on the size of the ram ( your hammer looks like a 200, what is the casting #s on the spring box ?they are right under the wedge boss in the center of the spring box on bigger hammers like yours ) unless you have enough meat which most of them do and can mill the surfaces back true and re groove the lube channels. Unless the tracks are excessively deep like a 1/2 or more I would not waste my time there is a lot of meat in most of the rams and you will be fine feathering the ridges out if that is the case with your hammer , these are just my experiences don’t mean there right. 

[OneAcre]

K A Willey.....

The grooves are only 1/4 " deep. Your experience based response convinces me that just grinding the ridges is best for this hammer. Sometimes the simplest solution is best. I have had experiences similar to yours trying to control/minimize distortion on heavy weldments.

The spring box casting number is 24H. What's kind of interesting is the ram had two 3/4" plates through bolted over the oval access holes. The driven flywheel also had heavy plate bolted on to help balance the added ram weight.

The hammer spent much of it's life in a busy farm community with a dedicated taper shoe die over the bottom flat die. I'm not sure if the extra ram weights were factory or later add ons. In any case I removed them when I first  set the hammer up and have never felt the need for more ram weight.

.....OneAcre

[K A Willey]

One Acre your ram could have possibly cracked at one time and the plates were the fix and counter weight to balance as you described (possibly) I have seen that a number of times and have made similar repairs when needed, the hammer was a 200# model when built.

[OneAcre]

The hammer was dismantled and sandblasted before modification to electric drive and returning to service. A thorough inspection at that time revealed no evidence of repairs or cracks.

The ram plates were not structural, they were attached with long bolts through the ram access holes, one in front and one in back... a pretty good idea, actually. It seemed to work for them.

It was used in a busy shop with a tapered die over the bottom flat die showing much use. It is probable the PO used it to re-point jack hammer bits and felt the need for more ram weight.

The history of old tools is fascinating and one of the main reasons they are so enjoyable to use!

.....OneAcre