I volunteered to try to repair an aluminium step pulley (A series) that had part of the flange cracked off
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I did it by smoothing out the break, cutting a bit of sheet to suit, welding up and then machining the profile back. It sort of worked - the first go was a bit ropy (below) so tried again and was a little more successful
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I suspect that the alloy was a casting alloy so the higher silicon would not help, but I did have trouble getting a good bead in between the flanges. I tried switching to a gas lens, and that helped cover the longer than usual stick out that I had to use, but would be interested to know from members who have done this sort of thing before if there was a better/ more reliable/ easier way of doing this.
Plan B was to machine the whole flange off and weld a new one on, but I suspect that although the welding would be easier, the wedging action of the belt would cause problems down the track.
Thanks, Michael
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