I need opinions on this repair...Please

[tom37]

I have two sets of Greenlee 778 communications cable cutters. The bad news is they are broken ( by abuse of course )

The boss has checked into buying the side of the cutter that has broken and its as much as the whole cutter. Within a few bucks anyways.

My question is since these jaws are hardened, can they be tigged and machined back to the correct profile? I have a guy that is willing to machine them for a little BBQ so that part is easy.

I would like to have a glimmer of hope before I build them up, machine, and try to find someone to treat them to gain some hardness back into them.

Right now they are Junk! And since they broke from abuse the boss won't replace them, the two crews that they belonged to have to use the old fashion scissor type cutters now. If I can make these work again, these guys will owe me big time. Who knows the boss may even take care of me. Back scratching goes along ways.

Here is a couple pics of the damage.

[cncmachinist]

its all a guess here but if tig welded back and machined is worth a shot worse comes to worse your out some time and effort i know these are pricey new that gear doesn't seem to a super stressed part how were they broken thrown around in the truck or cutting to much and busted that gear if welding fails theres enough of the steel there to machine the profile down and with a bit of adjustment could be just like new

again all my guess at it but id give it a go

[bayweld]

from the looks of the fracture line , that ratchet gear is some very hard steel...this could be an interesting repair........If there was another of these tools around that has been broken, you could cut out a good piece of the gear and section it in .....Don't be scared.......

[Daniel]

You could try to build it up with some hard rods, stainless rods could be alright,
Or build it up to the last bit and hard surface the teeth portion and do some grinding with some Zipblade.

[tom37]

Fabulous gentlemen,

I am so glad that my thoughts were not for a totally lost cause.

I have seen what happens to these and its a rather silly mistake that can be avoided. The phone cable that we cut ranges from 1" to almost 4", sometimes in hard to get to places. The guys that are either to young to pay attention or just don't care will try and wedge the cutters in place by twisting them. If the cut action has started and the blades are just about ready to pass by one another, then they twist and crank the handle. This does not allow the bypass and they bind.

Well what else could they do but crank the handles harder, then the teeth are gone.

The reason the break is so large is, after they broke the first time they kept on using them and with each cut the damage got worse. In there defense they thought the part was trash, I sure wish they would have stopped the first time it happened. This pair has set for a couple years being the first damaged. The second set just happened and I figured a repair was worth a shot.

I still need to examine them to see exactly how the automatic two speed mechanism works, but I believe that the cam that provides the heavy thrust has 5 or 6 teeth on it and the fast speed cam is the one you can see up close about to engage the teeth in the second pic.

We got a little ice this AM and there calling for snow tomorrow and Thur so it may be the first of the week before I can work on them much.

Thanks for the advise, I would welcome anymore advise or ideas.
If it works and holds up, it will give me much confidence that I sometimes doubt.

[Helios]

Do you know any blacksmiths? A lot of those guys have a lot of knowledge of normalizing, hardening and tempering, which could probably be real useful for that repair.

Might be good to ask the manufacturer what kind of steel was used in the broken part, too, so you'll know what you're trying to weld / machine / heat treat.

Good luck, that's about all I can offer.

[lens42]

This is not an answer to your question, but it seems to me that if your employer bids by the job and pays his employees by the hour (the typical situation), your boss is being a bit of moron by not buying a new cutter (it's under $400). It sounds like the "boss" is just another employee trying to prove some point, but to the detriment of the company. If it were my money, I wouldn't be wasting time like that, unless of course you are all working for free.

[tom37]

If I can fix these and someday down the road mine break I will have the assurance that I will always have a nice pair of cutters.

Good point lens42, and I agree with most of what you have said.

Yes some jobs we bid and others we bill by the hour, and yes we all are hourly vs salary.

I do agree that these cutters are faster in some cases, but the biggest difference is the ease of use. These things ratchet with no more then 50 lbs of force to cut vs the scissor style takes ones full body weight to cut.

I can actually cut more cable faster with the scissor cutters, but it wears my tail into the ground.

So yes, he is being a jerk to the guys that broke them to show the importance of taking care of the nice tools we get on occasion.

What I think should happen is, (and accidents do happen) but when something is abused and trashed, there should be discipline in order. After a couple times, said person needs to look for a new job.

Very few people in this day and age are so valuable that they can't be replaced, myself included.

I guess I have been in the jerk position myself a time or two. I work out of a pretty nice bucket truck and had a guy that kept hitting trees and poles with the fiberglass bucket. Even tho its faster to work in the bucket I told him one more smash and he was out of the bucket and on his hooks, climbing like the old timers. Yes thats makes it so the company makes less money if its a bid job. So if some a$$wipe is gonna tear up my stuff and make me work harder then necessary,he is gonna pay the price of working harder and if he don't like it he can walk on down the road.

Just for the record, the first pair that was broken belonged to my truck and after a loan out they came back broke.
The boss did replace them for me, I wasnt the one that tore them up.

[tom37]

Would it be recommended to preheat the part like one would do with AR plate?

Or will that take more hardness out then it will do good. In my head I want to think the less heat overall the better.

Once again guys I am doing this to see if I can even make it happen and learn from it.

Thanks for the help.

[tom37]

Here is where I'm at.

I made 4 passes to build the outside profile, rough ground with a regular old grinding wheel. Then went after the tooth profile with a diamond wheel. Its not perfect but I do think it will work if I can get a little bit of hardness in it.

I did have a little contamination but that area was ground off.

[Daniel]

Looks good, nice job. Did you use stainless steel like I mention, stainless is nice and hard.

[mikecwik]

i dont know if it was right or not but like you i thought it was best to heat the tool as least that i could so i went with mig on a wire cutter anvil.

ask your buddy how long it would take him to make the piece out of say an old ring gear or something like that. im just curious if it would be worth the while and also in case this repair doesnt work out.

[tom37]

I tried 308L and did not like the way it was laying down, so I ended up filling it with 70S-2.

I don't have any copper cable here at the house so I will have to wait till tomorrow at work to test them out on a chunk of wire.

I did some practice beads with the 70S-2 on mild steel then ran the 308L on top of that. It seemed to flow better on top of the 70S-2 then it did on the actual part.
If the teeth don't hold up I will grind gullets at each tooth and try to fill them back with the 308L.

After I finished yesterday I noticed that I have an old mower blade that is pretty hard and just happens to be the same thickness at the part I am working on. So I probably could have profiled the edge and then inserted a large piece.

Thanks for the help, I will post the results after its in use next week.

[Daniel]

If you can find some 309L It might flow and fuse a little better.

[popspipes]

300 series stainless is a tough material but isnt hardenable other than work hardening it. Chances are that the part isnt regular steel but a more exotic alloy. The heat treat process is critical too, probably why the teeth broke off in the first place as there isnt much damage to the locking pawl.
Heat treat is a science as well in itself. There is a product called "Kasenit" I have used it at times to case harden homemade reducer dies, works very well but it only hardens the surface, follow the procedure on the can.

I would try to repair it too if it cost 400 dollars for a new one!! Even if it doesnt work out it will add to your knowledge base...........