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Alec, There exist bolt on
machines for facing flanges or boring diameters on-site. Burt it is not so
common that every hire shop has them. Or an old shipbuilders
trick; make a small, local area where is to much material red hot. When cooling
down that area shrinks permanent and can stretch a plate or bend pipe. All the best, Emile Van:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] Namens Smyth, Alec I have a typical fabrication difficulty,
and am wondering if anyone can recommend a tool or idea. The ends of my battery pods that receive removable endcaps
have a SS inside shoulder, and were buttered in SS. The shoulder and SS were
then machined to a close tolerance to seal with a similar SS ring on the edge
of the endcap. When this machining was done, the pod pipe was
only about 18" long so that it would fit on the lathe. That short bit
has now been welded to a much longer one, and I've also welded on external
stiffeners, through-hulls, etc. None of the welding was less than 10" from
the machined end, which I thought would prevent heat distortion. One of the
pods came out fine, but with the other I was wrong, the pipe end is now an
oval. I've tried stretching the short diameter of the oval with
a 2 ton hydralulic jack. That corrected it a bit, but I still have
about 0.015" to go. This jack can't stretch the pipe any further,
it's reached its limit. But in any case, that's such an inexact way of
fixing the problem I don't think I could get it properly round to the final few
thousandths this way. I think I need to re-machine this pipe-end in place, and
obviously it isn't going to fit back on a lathe as is. Ideas: - Cut the pipe again to put the pipe end on the lathe, and
re-weld. - Make a jig that will center on the pipe ID and have a
longitudinal shaft, with an adjustable arm mounted to it
and a lathe cutting tool on the end of that. Yuck, a lot of work. - Is there some specialized tool out there? Any ideas are welcome! BTW the pipe is 12.75" OD. thanks,
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