It’s a “Boring” Job.

[jackieschmidt]

One of our best customers called me yesterday and said they had rudder bushing problems. They had bent both rudders pretty band, and actually knocked the upper and lower rudder bushing fits out of alignment.

So today we have our 3” x 8’ bar in the tubes and will re machine the fits back in true alignment. The nominal hole size was 9 inches diameter. We will skin them out just enough to get the fits round, straight, and back in alignment.

It’s about a 2 day job to do both tubes, the upper fit is 12 inches long and the lower is 14 inches long. We will freeze fit CIP Bushings in the fresh bored holes.

This is good money making work. And I like fixing things that are messed up.

 

[ELR LVR]

I worked on Heavy Equipment as a Welder for years
Dozers, Excavators etc,
But you got some serious tools I've never seen before
---
I like seeing different tools for different jobs like that

 

[tobnpr]

So the wheels cleared the obstruction but the rudders didn't?

 

[jackieschmidt]

So the wheels cleared the obstruction but the rudders didn't?

Amazing, huh. I suspect they got wind bound and got backed into the bank from the port side, or something.
They pulled the port wheel, it apparently got smacked pretty good. The taper has about .015 inch runout, they will not pull a shaft and straighten it unless it shows more than .025.

The way they found out the rudder tubes got “bent” so to speak is they tried to install spare rudders and they would not go into both bushings.

That’s when they called me.

 

[Fast14riot]

Is your boring bar a hydraulic drive?

 

[jackieschmidt]

Is your boring bar a hydraulic drive?

Not this one. If you look at the picture, this bar, which is a traveling head bar, is run with a simple gear head and a modified #4 Ingersol Rand corner drill. I adopted a 5 horse power reversible Ingersoll Rand air motor to the drill.

Two of our other bars, one 4 inch diameter and 14 foot long, another 3 1/2 inch by 6 foot long, have a similar drive set up. We have a big 7 inch diameter bar that is 10 foot long that does have a hydraulic drive, but we have not used that thing in years.

You can see how compact this set up is.

 

[Retired shooter]

I worked on Heavy Equipment as a Welder for years
Dozers, Excavators etc,
But you got some serious tools I've never seen before
---
I like seeing different tools for different jobs like that

I really enjoy seeing someone else use the tools.

 

[jghoghunter]

I really enjoy seeing someone else use the tools.

As a retired Industrial pipefitter I really enjoy these pictures also!

 

[DShortt]

One of our best customers called me yesterday and said they had rudder bushing problems. They had bent both rudders pretty band, and actually knocked the upper and lower rudder bushing fits out of alignment.

So today we have our 3” x 8’ bar in the tubes and will re machine the fits back in true alignment. The nominal hole size was 9 inches diameter. We will skin them out just enough to get the fits round, straight, and back in alignment.

It’s about a 2 day job to do both tubes, the upper fit is 12 inches long and the lower is 14 inches long. We will freeze fit CIP Bushings in the fresh bored holes.

This is good money making work. And I like fixing things that are messed up.View attachment 1746639View attachment 1746640View attachment 1746641View attachment 1746650

I especially identify with your last sentence.

I like fixing broken stuff.

 

[tobnpr]

. The taper has about .015 inch runout, they will not pull a shaft and straighten it unless it shows more than .025.

That amount of runout won't cause vibration or premature wear to the cutless bearing?

 

[ELR LVR]

As a retired Industrial pipefitter I really enjoy these pictures also!

That's what my dad did all his life,
Refinerys, Medical TIG(Genentech), Alaskan Pipeline, Mare Island Shipyard etc
---
Which is what got me into becoming a Welder when I got tired of being a low paid Technician
You Pipefitters know how to do a lot more than just lay down some serious welds for every application imagineable from any position (IE: using mirrors behind a tank)
The first time I got into a predicament and my dad told me to use a mirror
I stared at him for a second and thought he was messin with me.

 

[jackieschmidt]

That amount of runout won't cause vibration or premature wear to the cutless bearing?

Companies weigh the consequences of leaving a shaft in or taking it out. It takes quite a bit of money to pull a shaft, send it to us to straighten it, then re install it.

Some where at sometime everybody kind of agreed that any runout under .025 was not worth worrying about.