Best way to repair sintered metal parts?

Gunner Asch · 2013-04-24T00:57:28+00:00

Fella brought over a gun part for a Marlin lever action..he was missing a pin..so I made one up for him and installed it..and as I was inspecting it..I noticed a rather serious crack starting to develop at one end of the sintered metal part. I fixed it by using my tig torch and silver bearing flux..I packed the crack full of the heavy green flux and zapped it with the tig..sealed it up well enough and I put a slight layer over the area of the crack. After polishing it up with a fine wire wheel, it looked good. But...is it? How well does this sort of thing work with sintered metal parts? Should I warn the guy to buy a new Widget? (Marlin just closed their doors...so parts may become hard to find) Any suggestions for other similar fixs with sintered metal parts? Gunner

Apr 24, 2013 24 Replies

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Ed Huntress 13 years ago

There were several basic engineering screw-ups, some so obvious that it was hard to believe.

You may remember the Cosworth version of the Vega, which had an aluminum, dual-cam Cosworth head on the same engine block. Some car enthusiast wrote a letter to one of the two big US sports-car magazines -- Sports Car Graphic or Road & Track -- and asked how you could tell a regular Vega from a Cosworth Vega. There was no obvious Cosworth insignia on the car; just one little badge somewhere.

"Look under the car," said the magazine editor. "If there's a puddle of oil under it, it's a regular Vega." d8-)

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David Billington 13 years ago

Yes I was aware of a Cosworth version, maybe the wheels give it away as well. The oil leak maybe like the old joke about British bikes, it's not leaking oil just marking its territory!.

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anorton 13 years ago

I do not know the Vega engine, but it sounds like the result of a process I have seen too many times. A senior executive gathers the engineering group and says, "We need to reduce the cost of goods by $100 and pull in the schedule by 2 months. Give me any ideas you have. Don't be bashful, we are just brainstorming here" After some silence he says, " Oh, come on, I know you have ideas." Finally some competent but naive fellow will meekly speak up and say, "well, we COULD do X, but of course that would mean Y." The fellow just assumed anyone in his right mind would never want Y to happen. The executive who does not really understand the technical implications of Y gets all excited, "Really! We can do that? That makes me very happy, lets do it!" As others around the table try to gently tell him the problem with that decision, he is not even listening as he mentally tallies his year end bonus.

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Ed Huntress 13 years ago

I don't know what happened with the Vega design. It had so much going for it when the first design ideas were made public; then they built it and the problems started cropping up; then the engineering details came out, and even us amateur car buffs said, "Whaaa?"

It's not like they didn't know about the differential expansion problems.

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