TIG SS Auger fabrication
Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2020 11:40 am
Hi,
Disclaimer, not a welder or a machinist, just have to do a lot of machining and a lot of welding for the job shop. Looking for help/advice on doing this. Also have a company quoting out doing them from scratch but 6-8 week lead time and cost pretty high.
Got a project coming up to weld up (have repaired it a number of times) flights to a shaft for a new auger (2 or 3 of these). Still working out what the shaft material will be (most likely nitronic or 17-4) but the flights will probably be 304 or 316. When I've repaired this patching the flights back together is a bit of a mess and repairing the shaft is fun but not too difficult. So far I have quoted out the flights that come as ring segments, will need 10 of them, 1/4" thick by 6" OD and 2" ID. I am not sure how to edge prep the flights to match the photo and where the segments join, not sure what I will need to do there, maybe grind a v on the edges of each so I'll have a nice v groove type weld on each side of it to sand smooth after. I do have the option of going up to 2-1/4 shaft which means a continuous flight which would save having to stitch them all together.
My other concerns are in welding to the shaft, minimizing distortion since this needs to run true in a tube, making a nice large bead on both sides and then how to grind it smooth after. I have angle grinding and flappers and a couple rotary air tools but have never gone beyond simple grind and flapper and hand sanding/scotch brite. I do not think I need to get to a near polish because the material will smooth out the sanding but I do think I need to get to a decently smooth sanded type finish. I can give more details as needed.
Best
-Matt
Disclaimer, not a welder or a machinist, just have to do a lot of machining and a lot of welding for the job shop. Looking for help/advice on doing this. Also have a company quoting out doing them from scratch but 6-8 week lead time and cost pretty high.
Got a project coming up to weld up (have repaired it a number of times) flights to a shaft for a new auger (2 or 3 of these). Still working out what the shaft material will be (most likely nitronic or 17-4) but the flights will probably be 304 or 316. When I've repaired this patching the flights back together is a bit of a mess and repairing the shaft is fun but not too difficult. So far I have quoted out the flights that come as ring segments, will need 10 of them, 1/4" thick by 6" OD and 2" ID. I am not sure how to edge prep the flights to match the photo and where the segments join, not sure what I will need to do there, maybe grind a v on the edges of each so I'll have a nice v groove type weld on each side of it to sand smooth after. I do have the option of going up to 2-1/4 shaft which means a continuous flight which would save having to stitch them all together.
My other concerns are in welding to the shaft, minimizing distortion since this needs to run true in a tube, making a nice large bead on both sides and then how to grind it smooth after. I have angle grinding and flappers and a couple rotary air tools but have never gone beyond simple grind and flapper and hand sanding/scotch brite. I do not think I need to get to a near polish because the material will smooth out the sanding but I do think I need to get to a decently smooth sanded type finish. I can give more details as needed.
Best
-Matt