Repairing iron pulley wheel damage

Hi all,

I have been trying to fix an oil leak on a 36” Midsaw bandsaw which was coming from a gear box wedged behind a large 310mm cast iron belt pulley wheel.

In trying to remove it with a three armed pulley removal tool and MAP gas to heat the part the wall of the wheel cracked. After building a frame around it with construction steel and eventually again with welded angle iron I finally removed it but I need to repair the wall or it will strip the belt. As you can see from the inflection of the box section there was some resistance…

Has anyone repaired successfully, the wall of a cast iron pulley wheel that will be able to take the force of a belt without stripping the belt or failing?

Dan

Hi Daniel

I have repaired cast iron wood lathe pulleys with similar damage with brazing metal and then filing back to riginal contours, followed by a polish with fine emery. If you don't fancy using red heat possibley Isopon steel epoxy or JB weld as a replacement for the metal lost. T hope this helps.

Paul

Get someone who can tig weld CI to build it up for you.

Neil

Thanks Paul and Neil, >>

I had thought of using an epoxy substitute but have no experience of how it performs under stress and whether the missing replacement material will through the balance of the wheel. >>

TIG sounds interesting and I may invest and give it a go.

>>

Dan

I'm not able to see your pics. Can others?

I can't either.

No pics shows up on my PC either.

Thor

iPad just shows three empty squares.

MichaelG.

I can get the picutres in the first posting (Windows 10 firefox)

Roy

No pics; just 3 'x' boxes

George.

I see the pictures. The site was loading pictures very slowly yesterday evening for some reason, but it's OK now.

Neil

I just get a small grey circle containing a white rectangle. Latest updates of both Firefox and Win10.

Sorry guys, I'm seeing the pictures and they are loaded on Google so the server should be accessible.

Not sure where I can load these locally.

Dan

here is the link to the album.

https://goo.gl/photos/65k6W3bkgMDy48at8

Dan

I can see the picture fine....

Personally, I'd go the cold repair route with epoxy....I did this with the pulley on my Perfecto shaper after it fell from its bench and took a chunk out .....filled with metal loaded expoxy, I cleaned it up in the lathe and it ran fine once belted up...

Hi Daniel,

Still no pics on my PC, but your link works. I would do as adviced by Paul or Neil.

Thor

Can't see the pics here or on the link, but do drill stress relief holes if there is any chance the cracks can propagate.... safety may well depend on rotational speed ...

There was no problem with the pics when the first post was made. Seem to have gone missing today.

Sounds like the images are really patchy. I just wanted to give you sense of scale and effort (over three days) it took to remove the pulley. I admit to doing a jig when it finally came free.

Even though I am intrinsically lazy and would opt for the epoxy metal this wheel has wanted nothing short of over engineered love from the start. I have ordered some high nickel filler rod and prepped for TIG welding with a couple of you tube video’s!

Sounds ballsy but what can possible go wrong!

Don’t answer that….

Is it mended yet?....

Edited By John Rudd on 14/07/2016 19:10:31