Atlas Shaper ram lever repair

[ieezitin]

Gentlemen

This little critter is creating untold frustration for me; it is the slide ram bearing holder on my Atlas 7B shaper. This is the plate that’s bolted to the gear wheel. I had a slight knock while the machine was reciprocating so I dug this block out and found that the hardened boss had worked its way loose, so I ground off the steel that was holding it and cleaned it up then seated it back and while holding it square and under pressure from clamps I back welded it.

The repair did not work. The weld cooled and now it’s not square. So I want to machine it on the face plate of my lathe but alas the boss is hardened and that’s my dilemma.

Can I, and how would I anneal this in one piece? I would rather keep it in one piece as that it would only take one set up to machine and re-harden. If I were to grind off the boss again it would need to be machined then I would have to repair the base plate, center and locate the boss affix it somehow, as you can see its would be a messy deal.

This plate has a flat surface on the back to which is perpendicular to the ram bed on top, and the boss diameter has a tolerance of about .001 +/- The base plate is not hard it’s just regular cold rolled steel. Would through the heating process the base plate warp? Then when heating the boss back and hardening it would it affect the base plate? How do I just harden the boss and not the plate blow torch, fire, oven? . Tools I have at my disposal are Oxy-acetylene rig, open pit fire, an oven.
Remember when giving your thoughts please be quite graphic and detailed in your explanations as I have never hardened, case hardened or tempered anything in my life. Whatever we come up with I will post as a project.

Many thanks in advance. Anthony

 

[MachineTom]

If the pin was hard before, I doubt welding it lost much if any hardness to the pin. You have in my opinion made a fair but not great repair. I will assume that there is a degree of looseness in the bore to pin fit up, some given enough time and work it may well loosen and crack the welds again. The right fix is to bore the hole larger and round, make an oversize pin and press it in, but you already knew that. But your grandkids may have to fix it not you.

THe issue of hardening the whole piece should not be taken up. It will warp all over, you have little material to grind it flat again, there is no upside for you with that idea.

Make chips.

 

[Herbiev]

Anthony. I would affix it to the bacplate of the lathe, square the boss up using a tct tip then with the oxy/acet heat the boss to orange heat with the base plate in a shallow tray of water. Once the orange heat is attained dip the boss in Hardite or similar product. Then make up a sleeve (also case hardened as above) and press fit and Loctite the sleeve in the machine where the boss came from. Hope this helps

 

[steamer]

I'd vote for nibbling out the weld and driving the pin out. Then bore the hole oversize and make a new pin

Document what you got first......

Dave