welding a crank

What method of welding is used to weld a crank? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

tig welding is the most common

PLUMMEN wrote:

tig welding is the most common

And make sure it is not twisted before welding

To make sure a crank is straight, buy a 17mm drill blank. The 17mm drill blank will just fit through the hole in the rod where the pin would go. If you can put the rod through all four rod holes, it is straight. Some folks refer to this as indexing. Drill blanks can be purchased through tool stores I believe. I have had mine for quite awhile. This is something like you will need except is a yard long:
metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1749117

wiredgeorge wrote:

To make sure a crank is straight, buy a 17mm drill blank. The 17mm drill blank will just fit through the hole in the rod where the pin would go. If you can put the rod through all four rod holes, it is straight. Some folks refer to this as indexing. Drill blanks can be purchased through tool stores I believe. I have had mine for quite awhile. This is something like you will need except is a yard long:
metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1749117

Am vaguely recalling that some particular welding rod could also be used for this purpose.

Edit -- Nope, memory failure.

you can weld it with just about anything i guess depending on your skill level,tig welder just seems to do the nicest job ofwhat ive seen !:laugh:

wiredgeorge wrote:

To make sure a crank is straight, buy a 17mm drill blank. The 17mm drill blank will just fit through the hole in the rod where the pin would go. If you can put the rod through all four rod holes, it is straight. Some folks refer to this as indexing. Drill blanks can be purchased through tool stores I believe. I have had mine for quite awhile. This is something like you will need except is a yard long:
metalworking.mscdirect.com/CGI/NNSRIT?PMPXNO=1749117

If the motor is still together, you can also check it. Using your genuine APE TDC tool and degree wheel, find TDC on cylinder #1, then move the TDC tool to cylinder #4, TDC should be exactly the same, if not, it is out of index.

Jay

Great tips, thanks guys. I once had a forged steel sawmill blade welded by a fellow and if I recall he used a special high nickle rod with a dc stick welder. I thought maybe something like that was used? I guess I does not take much to greatly increase the twist resistance.

Exitpupil wrote:

Great tips, thanks guys. I once had a forged steel sawmill blade welded by a fellow and if I recall he used a special high nickle rod with a dc stick welder. I thought maybe something like that was used? I guess I does not take much to greatly increase the twist resistance.

just my useless .02, but you could probably weld a crank with a stick welder using 6011 or 6013 rod...
its been years,(like 25) since i laid down a bead,
but if i remember that was a pretty thin rod and you wouldnt need a shit load of heat (juice) ...then again warping probably would nt be an issue....

make sure you don't clamp your ground at one end a nd just weld the pins if you do you will kill all the bearings in the crank ground on each throw that you are welding seperately .i speak from experiance.i lost a crank fromdoing that years ago.

welded the pins on a dump box solid one time by grounding to frame while welding on the box!:laugh:

falicon also sells 17mm index rods if you plan on doing more than one i would recommend it it is a handy item to have.