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,
Alec
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