I have really liked the Linclon BU series rods for what roller build up I have done.  I used my torch with a rose bud to do the preheat and had a infrared thermometer to check my preheat and my interpass temps.  The Sixty rollers that I did were large enough that the interpass temps were good by the time I had burnt one rod, chipped the slag off and then wire brushed the weld with the angle grinder before the next pass.  I had them mounted on a welding positioner that turned them so all I had to do was feed the rod.  I could not find a picture of the welding process but did find a picture of a finished roller after lathe work.

Ya, thanks. I had built a roller drive machine to weld rollers long ago. I actually did those wrong by going straight line around the circumference. But all work out it was a show tractor so not many hours traveling.This set I am going by Cat restore bulletins which I didn't have long ago.

Herb

-so what was the actual preheat number in F before applying weldment?

-do you think 7018 or 6010 electrode would give satisfactory results, durability, etc...?

-so it's recommended to weld side to side on the tread portion of the roller and work your way around the diameter?

These are the Cat service bulliten that are here on the website
 


   

Herb


 

One of the reasons that I had no problem going around the circumference was in later years of you took your rollers into a Cat dealer or any track shop the build up would have been done by submerged arc welding that ran around the circumference of the roller and not across the roller. How the heat transfer and shrinkage would be different between the submerged arc and the stick I do not know.
Onto 7018 and 6011. The first few rollers I built up for a PS Thirty I did with 7018 and have had no problem with it. That being said it is not a high use machine. What I have been told is that in normal or high use machines is that it will not last long. Now if I remember the instructions from the BU series rods they do not recommend building up over two layers thick using BU rods. The recommendation for more than two layers was to do the base layer build up with a rod like 7018 and then put the BU rod layers over the top of that.

Well that is what I thought. The ones I did long ago I used the machine I built and wire feed going on the circumference. These D2 rolls seem to have the shafts pressed in., so I don't really know the answer.

Herb

Hi Team,
as naylorbros said above, at the Dealer we used submerged arc to do the rollers and idlers.
With the rollers the inner bore has to be resized afterwards or else the bearing cages get extra crush due to the roller bore shrinkage and I have seen them pick up and gouge out the roller bore and crack the cages when the un-initiated tried to reassemble or disassemble them when the shaft did not turn afterwards.
Cheers,
Eddie B.

this is part of the reason a friend of dads has a old electric oven mounted under the bench. need to preheat a small is part before welding you can. need to heat a bearing or sleeve that shrink fits on a shaft you can and its temp controlled and bonus no flame and no gas bills. yes big pieces and high temps would require flame or induction heaters(nice, but very pricey). you could "borrow" the oven in the kitchen just dont get caught.

my suggestion is run the rod on its lowest recommended amperage less heat less problems. its also a good idea to slow cool it too so bury it in dry sand or dirt after lighting a fire in the hole to warm the sand.

naylorbros wrote:

How the heat transfer and shrinkage would be different between the submerged arc and the stick I do not know.
Onto 7018 and 6011. in normal or high use machines is that it will not last long.
 

7018 is just a high grade mild steel hydrogen controlled rod so less prone to cracking. yes its recconmended with some hardfacing rods to have a buffer layer of low hydrogen or stainless steel rod underneath the hard face as it is hard and somewhat brittle.

6011 is just a basic type flux mild steel rod

stick has higher heat transfer as it is slower being a manual process the sub arc is automated in most cases and is quicker more even travel speed so the heating is more even.

yes very important to ream or skim the bores to the correct size after welding as the bores could even be ovalled by the heat. if the heat or cooling was uneven.

what could help is to have it on a rotating table. i saw a video a while back of a bloke welding pipe flanges he had it on a rotary table that was grounded to the work lead on his welder via a carbon brush setup underneath and he just worked a foot control to run it while he laid down nice neat passes it was even variable speed control dial on the gearbox

This is the stand that I built and used over the years. All I need now is the Submerged arc welder! This is shown on pg.99 of Service tools 1955.

 
   
Thanks  Herb