Hey everybody,
I need to get a broken part TIG welded back together and it’s way beyond my DIY ability even if I knew how to tig weld, so I was wondering if anybody can recommend a shop in the area that could do it. The part is the rear housing cover from an induction motor. The very back of it sheared off from the rest of the piece. That part houses the bearing for the rotor, so it has to be accurate enough that the rotor doesn’t scrape the stator when it’s mounted, but it’s not the space shuttle. I’m pretty sure the part is aluminum. I put a few pictures up with links below.
Does anybody know someone who could do a weld like that? Thanks in advance for your help.
Mike
pics:
https://i.imgur.com/Y6AXqF5.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/KSSIG0T.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/F6cWx41.jpg
Being a cast aluminum piece of likely a dirty alloy pour, it would be really hard to tig or braze it it back to begin with, and way way hard to ensure accuracy of dimensions/alignment. Not saying it cant be done, however it would likely be really expensive given the setup time and having to make a jig, control warping, heat treat, etc.
Have you had a chance to look at scavenging one from another motor? If it is super rare, drawing it up in cad and machining a new one would be the the only way to structurally know it would be in spec, handle vibration, etc. If it only needed an ear welded back on or a stress crack that started fixed things would not be to bad however with my experience with working on cast stuff such as that, it may give you a ton of problems.
If you want to try a fix that could work and be something done at the hive here is a link to an aluminum brazing material. I have used it in the past with sucsess on ears and cometic things like gouges in a motercycle case. If you try it and it does not work, preping the 2 pieces to tig them would be a lot of work. I dont know the stress it will be under but check this out https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1433461823439219&id=1114042628714475 the product is hts-2000
Could you cut notches in it, then back fill with epoxy? If not, HGR and others often have loads of surplus motors, and the cost for a used motor is likely to be less than welding that piece. It is not a rare motor?
Ah crud, it’s not a cosmetic cover… sorry. I’d go for a used motor.
Mike and Kevin,
I never got a chance to say thanks for your comments and recommendations for this. I ended up taking it to a welder out here just on the chance that it wouldn’t be bad and they charged me $30 to TIG it. Apparently the aluminum wasn’t too dirty, which could be because it is a very old motor.
Also mike, the issue was really just cost. This one is big (5HP, 24A), so I got it for a good price due to the crack. Even on the used market I think that’s probably a $300 motor.I didn’t realize at the time though that the crack was a non-cosmetic. Hopefully the weld holds, but for right now I’ve got it back on there ok. :-).
Thansk again for your comments. I did appreciate them.
Mike Nute
Awesome! If it does start to crack grab that hts2000 aluminum brazing rod and do it at home.
