Small TIG repair needed

[930dreamer]

A friend broke the oil drain plug off, anyone interested in welding this up without a threaded plug?

 

[chinboys]

you might better off if you brazed it. just clean it well and flux it. then get a fluxed bronze silica filler and flow it into the cracks while clamping the drain plug assembly. if you do it right, the rod will melt and flow towards the heat.
you might have to thread chase afterwards if the rod flows into the threads.

good luck

 

[Fix Until Broke]

Do you need to retain the oil drain plug feature? I'm not sure what you mean by "without a threaded plug).

If not - Is there material left to continue tapping the hole (cutting the rest of the broken part off first) and put a 1/8 or 1/4 NPT plug in?

if you need to put the other half back on and make it "original", I'd 2nd chinboys recommendation of brazing or using the aluminum "solder" they have. It's possible to TIG the other half back on, but would be tricky, particularly on oil soaked cast aluminum. Someone will have a couple hours in that.

 

[930dreamer]

I'd like to delete the drain.

 

[Fix Until Broke]

There might be enough material there to put an NPT plug in without any welding required.

If not, it wouldn't be too bad to weld the hole shut (likely using some of the remaining unbroken material as filler).

I could gladly weld it up for you, but guessing that shipping it would be more hassle and cost than it's worth vs someone more local.

Just for grins - what is it?

 

[930dreamer]

Boliy 3600 generator

 

[rlitman]

Any reason to not hacksaw it flush and JB Weld it?

 

[sberry]

I would love to get paid a couple hours for that few minute job but,, I tend to agree, might cut some of it off, dam it up with a little tape and fill it with JB. Wire with spool gun would be super fast too.

 

[zmotorsports]

Personally I think machining a small slug then mill down the broken area and weld the slug in would be a good way to go. You could even drill/tap the slug to retain the drain.

 

[930dreamer]

Drain plug area cut flush, we JB welded a piece to make the area round and will cut off the extra tomorrow.

 

[Hondafreak08]

You will not be able to weld the broke section., you could however, build a boss back up with weld and drill and tap that. Or I can weld the hole shut. Let me know

 

[930dreamer]

I did my part of the repair and the owner reinstalled. Generator works just fine I'm told.

 

[lilredex]

Looks like you have access to the backside of that piece. I would have installed a bolt through the hole with washers, before doing that buildup, just to make sure it stayed in place, and didn't drop out when you were not looking.

 

[930dreamer]

We JB welded a piece of metal over the bottom drain also.

 

[sberry]

That will work really good. I have fixed quite a few things like that are now decades old. I repair a crack in alum pressure pipe with JB patch with some sheet metal screws, fixed fuel tanks, radiators, lines, fittings, brackets, glued a stripped knob on the other day with quick.
Repaired a couple cracked engine blocks, so old and crappy iy wouldn't even weld.