Last night my friend and I took my housing to his shop to drill the welds.We blocked it to the table of a 2b Devlig Jigmill and went to town.
We started with a High speed steel face cutting 4 flute endmill , that was quickly turned to junk !!! so we switched to a carbide end mill . this was the ticket.
The wierd thing was that some welds cut like butter and others were harder then hell !!!
two 1/2 hours later this is the end result

Good job man. Thanks for the pic!

-D

Just did mine. The bridgport was taking to long, so I dropped the housing in a "Tap Burner"..... Took about 15 min to get all the welds out.

I pity the fools that drilled plug welds by hand:eek: :flipoff2:

OK I just smoked a 2ton bottle jack trying to get the tubes out
Any other ideas?

tap on the housing while pressing. With a hammer.

A 2-ton bottle jack you say? 2-ton? did I read
that right? 2-ton? My axles laugh at 2-tons..
I used a 30-ton enerpac ram inside the housing
on my 60. it successfully pressed out the short
tubes on each axle. Then, off to use my shop-
made 50 ton press.. still look a bit of force
with that one. The actual hole-size in the
housings on mine were 5/8". The holes we drilled
were 3/4 to hopefully* get all the weld penetration as well. worked on most, but on one
stubborn hole I had to add some time with the
die grinder. then viola! I probably had about
40 tons of pressure on the press when it finally
went POP! then the tube had moved about 1/2"
out of the housing.....

Simply put, you might need to dress up the holes
a little bit more, and use alot larger force
to get those tubes out...

--Sherpa

i have decided that i will carbon arc the plug welds. it shouldn't take more than ten minutes. anyone else done this, it just seems to be a world easier to me. mike

Originally posted by gunracer1
i have decided that i will carbon arc the plug welds. it shouldn't take more than ten minutes. anyone else done this, it just seems to be a world easier to me. mike

I haven't, but that's what I'm thinking of too.. I'll need to practice first. I bought my carbon-arc torch about a year ago.. right about the time I tore down the garage n' started the new one.

I'm almost ready to wire the 220 welder outlet back up and then try out my new toy.. and the HP44 is sitting just outside the new shop lookin' all lonely...

We blasted mine out with a plasma cutter in about 2 minutes. Then pressed the tubes out with a 10 ton Hydrolic ram.
in about another 2 minutes.

The thing is, when you plasma cut the holes you destroy the tubes at that part. You will need to either cut the tubes after you remove them or make new tubes.

Drilled/torched the welds, put between two trees, used a come-a-long and heated the center up poped right out.

OK, so has anybody had any luck with tools other than a mill machine or a carbon arc (don't know what this is)?

I have a torch, arc welder (cutting rods maybe?), small plazma cutter, drill press, and a big hand drill. What would you guys recomend with this machine selection? Can I try using the carbide mill machine bits in my drill press? Suggestions please. :)


thanks,

Originally posted by liveaxle
OK, so has anybody had any luck with tools other than a mill machine or a carbon arc (don't know what this is)?

I have a torch, arc welder (cutting rods maybe?), small plazma cutter, drill press, and a big hand drill. What would you guys recomend with this machine selection? Can I try using the carbide mill machine bits in my drill press? Suggestions please. :)


thanks,

Torch.


Thats how I got mine out, and after talking to an old/crusty axle builder thats how he gets his out too.

Torch out the rosets, blasting through housing and tube (remove the inner seals :rolleyes: :D ). Heat and blast strait down. Really slick actualy.

I then set it up in a good sized vice, took a long rod and some pices to giveme a push surface (Im my case it was a pice of rigid conduit and some fittings... because thats my work :D). Got my sledge and when to town. One side was easy, the other side tougher, becasue I missed a little spot.

Only 2-hour or so and it was done, next one will be faster.

The axle guy said not to worry about the holes in the tubes, if your rotating the tubes (adding caster) the holes will be covered, or you just weld them up. Or, if you need to, you just have new seal mounts machined up...

-mark

I've completed my second d44 retube- doesn't make me an expert but here it goes... If you aneal out the roesette weld, they can then be drilled out. Carbide is you friend- if you are drilling by hand a masonary bit works and is a lot cheaper than a $50 dollar endmill. I had too mutch heat reflecting back when I tried using a torch to cut the welds and it would ignite the gas in the cutting head, did find going to a #2 cutting tip helped this and can do the job but it looks like crap and is hard to keep a cut going. It will also also leave a lip so when you go to rotate or pull the tube it will score the casting - did that once n now have a leaker. The answer to that was I line bored the tube out thinner than a tin can - came out easy.
My issue was the rear diff is slightly smaller than 2 3/4" and the front is just under 3". Still looking for that one if anyone can help.
I used a 3/4" diam of allthread to pull the tube into the housing. I'll post picts as soon as I figure out how.

Originally posted by hybrid
If you aneal out the roesette weld, they can then be drilled out. Carbide is you friend- if you are drilling by hand a masonary bit works and is a lot cheaper than a $50 dollar endmill.


Hybrid, what is anealing? What it sounds like you are saying is to heat up the plug weld and then drill it while it's hot. Is that it?


:)

not exactly. When you arc weld you put a lot of heat in a small area. It cools rapidly from the surrounding metal and gets hardened. You can undo this by using a torch (rosebud tip if you have one) and heat the weld and surrounding area till it just starts glowing red. Then slowly back the torch away. The goal is to have it cool slowly, slower the better. I went from taking 8 hours to drill one rosette weld down to one in a half hour. Sounds like a long time, but it'll be clean when your done. I driled them out in stages, first 3/16 to 1/2 the final 5/8". Remember, if you aren't removing metal when you are drilling, the drill bit will start hardening the weld again. You'll have fourarms like popeye by the time your finished if you are doing this by hand.
After I retubed and welded them, I again anealed the welds to keep the welds from breaking. The weld material itself won't break, but the casting around it may- this will prevent that.
Are you going to rotate the tubes? replace them? shorten them? Man I'm nosy....

For you guys re-tubing. What year housing are you using and what is the thickness of the tube?

I'm guessing 78-79 and 3/8" thick tube. Anyone run into a 1/4" thick center tube like I did? (on a Bronco 79)

Originally posted by hybrid
...I'll post picts as soon as I figure out how.

Host them here (http://dkg.elmo-the-dog.com/cgi-bin/login.cgi)

Originally posted by hybrid
Are you going to rotate the tubes? replace them? shorten them? Man I'm nosy....


I am retubing the driver's side tube with a longer tube. The Passenger's side I will just cut shorter. Just doing what I think most of the other guys are doing, making a pass side drop Dana 44.

Thanks for the advice. I think I'll try this method anealing and then I'll put the housing in the drill press.

:)

[QUOTE]Originally posted by liveaxle
OK, so has anybody had any luck with tools other than a mill machine or a carbon arc (don't know what this is)?

I have a torch, arc welder (cutting rods maybe?), small plazma cutter, drill press, and a big hand drill. What would you guys recomend with this machine selection? Can I try using the carbide mill machine bits in my drill press? Suggestions please. :)


thanks, [/QUOTE

Die grinder with finger stone.
I used the same setup to remove plug welds on rock bits.
Did a 14 bolt with it, took some time but got the job done.

the axles were out of a 76 cherokee chief. The rear tube is 3/8" thick and the front is 1/2" DOM.

When you press the tubes out, what are you pressing against(opposite the tube) in the diff? Just up against the housing near the bearing bores? I considered this, but was worried about distorting, or cracking the housing,

On the first one I used a Harbor Freight press and went through the opposite side to a socket against the tube on the inside diff. A lot of work, and scarred the casting by not removing enough of the weld, now I own a dripper.

For the remaining 3 tubes, I line bored the old tube section untill it was about 1mm thick. pealed out like a tin can on one and fell out on the others.

I'm thinking if I had to do another, I may just line bore the tubes again and leave the old welds, just drill new holes and weld to the tube, and then weld the outside of the casting all the way around the tube just for the feels good. May not hold the same prestige, but only takes a couple hours. Can't believe I'd spin a tube or pull one out of the case with that combination. Anyway, an option.

Before you go to town cutting, use a micrometer and measure the tube diam. at 1/4" fron the diff and again every 3". The stinking thing changes on some (mine). Gets larger in the ceter and then dropps again.