Busted 30 lb welding spools

This Inconel welding wire, unfortunately came with both spools busted.

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I have reasons to believe that it happened during shipping.

Anyway, given that this is Inconel, expensive stuff, I am wondering how I can fix this situation, if at all. Maybe I can somehow respool the wire with the lathe, or fix the broken spools. The spools cannot be put together back with wire on it, the wire would not let me.

These are standard 30 lbs spools.

This is 0.045" Inconel wire and it is quite tough.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7319
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I would either fix the broken one or re-wind it to another. Re-winding, even by hand doesn't take very long. I transfered an almost full 40lb reel of .035 mig wire from a Lincoln style reel to Miller years ago. Used an old washing machine agitator to hold the clumsy metal Lincoln style. My Miller ate the re-spooled wire with gusto! not a single hitch or problem with it and it was far from being a pretty job.

Just try not to contaminate the wire with salt from your hands and such.

I just threw out 3-4 of those style reels last September. Only been lying around for ~20 years or so, finally gave up on keeping them...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

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Sounds like a job perfectly suited towards a student or a youngster. Re-spooling the wire by hand could be a chore, for use as a punishment or worthy of reward when done.

I've built a bit for my 1/2" drill motor that fits into a series of short pipes, each larger than the last, all drilled for keeper pins. I can use that to spindle a spool from 5/8" up to 4" diameter. Pull the trigger and draw the wire off the old spool onto the new, guiding the wire with the other hand.

A simple stand or clamp to hold the drill vertical, and a spindle for the old spool make it much easier. Try finding a coffee can or some such that will match the diameter of the broken spool and use that (rammed tight to the old spool) to help keep the wire from wrapping around the spindle as the old spool unwinds.

Tin Lizzie

Reply to
Tin Lizzie DL

Yes

Yep on all counts... What REALLY sucks is that I gave some almost empty spools away...

Re: stiff wire, I know that I need to remember to never let it loose, or else I will have to deal with a REAL mess...

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7319

You might consider getting some 10 lb welding wire spools instead of thirty lb welding wire spools. The 10 lb spools are easy to handle and will go on small mig welders ( although the 0.45 wire is probably not usable on a small welder).

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

At this point I am desperate to find 10, 30, or 60 lb spools.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7319

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Be very careful! I've seen 200 lb spools leap out of a set of rollers and go flying through a window. DO NOT use your lathe, it might kill you! We do it all the time due to damages spools but we've been doing it for 132 years. If I were you, I'd scrap it or do it by hand.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

If it was an item broken in shipping, why are you messing with it at all? Yes, you, and YOU particularly Iggy, will probably figure out a rescue for this. But it is something that can become kinked or fouled up easily, and then the shipper will deny all claims.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

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Done perfectly and ideally, it may be salvageable. I would try putting it on a spindle that is oriented vertically, so that the wire can't go anywhere. If one loop has passed under or over another, there is potential for jamming or kinking, and game over. The deeper you go into the spool and find this overlap, the longer your running end is, and the more complicated it is to get straight before proceeding. If it is under power, then it sets the scene for a spectacular failure, and no refund.

Good luck.

Stve

Reply to
Steve B

These two spools of Inconel wire cost $1070 each originally (I called to find out). I bought them for $40 each. I do not want to return them.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7319

On Dec 30, 5:37=A0pm, Ignoramus7319

Relax. Unless you need to use some of this wire immediately, what is the panic. The wire will not spoil. And if you do need to weld something with this wire, cut off some pieces and TIG it.

If I remember you took a welding class at a community college. Why do you not see if they have some empty spools? Or will save you an empty spool when they get one. I can not see why you would need to get it all on useable spools. One ten lb spool ought to hold you for a while.

I have respooled welding wire from 30 lb spools on to 10 lb spools. Some of the welding wire on 30 lb spools was from Boeing Surplus. It was smaller diameter wire. Anyway it is no big deal. I think I used an AC servo motor and a variac for the slow speed. But a DC motor or a 3 phase motor and a VFD would work just as well.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

True. Sometimes I want to have sometihng right away.

i
Reply to
Ignoramus7319

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Perhaps rather than unwinding and rewinding the wire, could you make a new spool that you can disassemble and then just transfer the wound coil from the broken spool to to the split spool.

This way the wire can retain the original shape.

Roger Shoaf

Reply to
RS at work

If it was ME, I'd mount a pole to a big piece of plywood, then put the spool wire over the pole. This will keep it from spinning out. Find the outside end, and loop by loop, raise them. By doing this, you can pass the whole coil through any bight that the wire may have run through and keep your constant spiral. Take the completed roll that will now be bigger than it was, and duct tape together securely in three places. Mount this on a cylinder or rim, and add some long spokes so, again, it can't hop off the spool. Get the end under control and cut the tapes. Keep a hand around the coil. This will be a two person job. Then have a second person roll the wire up onto a reel. If you have to do this using several reels, you can stop when the reel is full, tape the wire, and start again when you get a fresh reel. We used to straighten out wireline like that, and that shit is about the worst thing to work with that there is when it comes to a springy steel that comes on a roll. We had a system that we would never divulge, and we got some damn fine perks and kudos when we could save a very expensive roll of wireline.

Steve

Reply to
Steve B

I've had that happen before. Luckily yours didn't form a sphere of wire.

It is pretty easy to rig up a spool mount for a large hand drill. That is how I did it.

Even better is if you have a variable speed foot pedal to run the drill. That way you can use both hands to guide the wire.

I rigged up a mount for the broken spool using a piece of all thread and a circle of plywood. You have to have a friction brake on the wire spool so the new spool is tight.

BTW I just finished sorting out my TIG rod rack. It began life as a plan file for rolled up blue prints. It is 16 inches wide, 36 inches deep and 48 inches tall.

I had it all loaded up with my entire collection of rods, and then.....

I forgot to take into account hundreds of pounds of rod in cardboard square tubes in a slightly damp basement. Lets just say the collapse was epic. Yesterday I finally tackled it and replaced the cardboard with 1-1/2" pvc conduit. I then sorted and reloaded all my rods. I didn't realize how much Inconel 625, Haynes 556, 4047 aluminum and Hastelloy C-276 I had. Unfortunately I am down to about 1 lb. of Hastelloy W, my favorite rod of all time. Arc-zone is selling Hastelloy W on eBay for about $60/lb. Painful.

I found a lovely PDF on the Haynes site

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It is a guide to the most popular super alloys

I would love to set up a wire straightener so I could convert all the spools of fancy wire I have into TIG rods.

Reply to
Ernie Leimkuhler

Hi Iggy, you should already have heaps of empty spools lying around - they are great for winding power cords, ropes, cables, aerials, etc on. I get mine from trade school, and local shops that use a lot of MIG wire. Yours for the asking. (Dumpster Diving?)

Rig up a Cupple of supports so the spools can turn, go for it. You want to spend five years developing a machine to do it, well........someone here will come up with a Good Idea fer sure...

Andrew VK3BFA.

Reply to
Andrew VK3BFA

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