Block Mold Repair

[Bulldog]

Hey Guys,
I thought that I would show ya some of the repair work that I do for Concrete Block plants. The pics are of some of the core repairs that I do.

The 1st pic is how I get the parts. I have to clean the parts and then cut off the top bar.

The 2nd pic, Once it's in the vise you can see the wore area pretty easily.

The 3rd is of the warn area welded up.

The 4th is of the core after the weld was ground you can see where it needs more welding.

The 5th is the area touched up.
(More pics to come)

[Bulldog]

Ok more pics,
The 6th pic is after it was ground more you can see more touch ups were needed.

The 7th is after it was touched again.

The 8th is after it was ground some more...

The 9th after grinding I use a 40 grit flap disk. This pic is how it looks after the 40 grit flap wheel.

The 10th is the same part after the 40 grit .

Now tomorrow I have to go after it with an 80 grit wheel.

[Bulldog]

Ok I hope I'm not getting you guys confused with all the jumping around. The cores are the parts to the mold that makes the holes in the blocks. The mold I'm working on here is a retaining wall block mold. These molds cost around $40,000 to buy so they sure like it when I can build up the worn parts and send them to the heat treater and get them back to them so they can make more blocks. They are heat treated to about rockwell 70 (pretty hard) I have to rebuild the core and put a new bar on top before treating though. After heat treating I polish up the parts and send them on there way. I'll take some pics tomorrow of the rest of the parts. (There's lots more)
Bulldog

[tigman250]

Bulldog, looking good! how do you clean the cement off of thoes parts?

[Bob Sigmon]

Bulldog,

Thanks for taking the time to do the pictures! It's really good to see these great real life jobs that a quality welder can get!

Terrific Work!

[Bulldog]

Tig,
I use the grinder in the background in pic 7. I use the Matabo with the wire brush to clean the parts and I use the Matabo with the grinding wheel to cut the welds to free up the top bar.

Bob thanks for the kind words! It's nice to have such a nice place to hang out where people think the things that I do are worth looking at let along talking about.
Thanks guys!
Bulldog

[wb5jhy]

That's a lot of work. Looks good though.
I didn't think that a mold for concrete blocks needed to look so nice.

[gmc1999]

Bulldog, looking good! how do you clean the cement off of thoes parts?

Fuel oil,diesel fuel, or kerosene works great for blacktop.(LOL).

[tigman250]

Tig,
I use the grinder in the background in pic 7. I use the Matabo with the wire brush to clean the parts and I use the Matabo with the grinding wheel to cut the welds to free up the top bar.
Bulldog

a year or so back a contractor brought in a cement mixer he needed repaired, as most of you all know even a well cared for cement mixer is impossible to weld on (due to all the dried on cement). wasen't sure how i was going to remove all the cement to do a decent job repairing it.....until i stuck my needle scaler in there and let her rip. WOW that is the only way to remove hardened cement off of metal! it looks like the stuff you are dealing with is fairly sandy so the wire brush treatment is probably best but for the courser stuff try a needle scaler they work great!

Craig

[Bulldog]

Hi guys,
Well Thomas they do have to look nice! Any wear on them shows up as bumps on the blocks. They have to be very hard as not to wear out. They can get around 50-60 thousand cycles out of a mold. Then they pay about $20,000 to buy new liners and run it for another 50-60 thousand cycles. Or if they get it to me before it's absolutly junk for less than $10,000 they can get it rebuilt and re-heat treated and it'll be good to go again.

Tig, the concrete that's on a block mold is MUCH easier to get off then what you would find on a concrete mixer or a precast concrete form. I agree a needle scaler is the tool to use to clean them.

As far as an answer to Gmc 1999... What can I say??? I think you've been around all those nasty fumes to long!!! LOL
Bulldog

[Bulldog]

Hey Guys,
Well the cores are done. It took a few extra days to get them done. I had a few emergency calls. They are first priority obviously. Anyway the cores came out ok, I sent the person paying me the pics and he has more for me to do so I guess he's ok with them.
Thanks for showing interest guys,
Bulldog

[Bulldog]

I thought that you guys may like these as well.
Spraying does get HOT!
Bulldog