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IndustryArena Forum > WoodWorking Machines > Commercial CNC Wood Routers > Repairing an old T-slot table surface
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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    87

    Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    Hi,
    I'm back to giving my MultiCam machine a bit of TLC in the 'Stay at home, unemployed' situation I find myself in, probably like many others because of a certain bug.
    I got my Vacuum motor working, manage to find a VFD that did the trick. But my table is in a terrible state- holes, gouges, dings. When I turned on the vacuum I could tell I had a lot of work to do to get the leaks plugged.
    Does anyone have any suggestions what I can use to fill some of the gouges with that I can clean back to surface height?

    I think for some of the holes I may tap and screw in alloy screws and grind back and use epoxy to on the screws first to keep them locked in place.
    I wondered about epoxy for some of the other repairs too.

    I would love to have it welded with alloy and machined back but that's probably above my pay grade right now, especially as I don't weld and would have to pay someone, plus I don't know what that does with warping and expansion with the heat.
    Thanks for any suggestions

    Attachment 441060

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    6463

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    Have you considered the low temperature aluminium welding rods?.........it only needs a propane torch to do the weld and is machinable afterwards although I would manually finish a weld if the machine is in one piece and not stripped down.

    Using those rods it is important to get the base metal up to temperature first and NOT the welding rod or it will just end up as a pile of blobs lying on the surface.

    I have a plasma welder and have repaired cast iron with mild steel rods as the resulting cast iron/steel alloy weldment is easily hand worked etc.
    Ian.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    87

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    I considered those welding sticks. I watched some YouTube videos and it looked like they were getting the surrounding metal bloody hot, like glowing. So decided that wasn't for me.

    Actually I did a search and found a product that might do the trick. It's an epoxy dough that you knead to activate and it's formulated for repairing aluminium, so I might have answered my own question. I'm going to try a test area first, smooth it back and see if it's any good.
    Attachment 441198

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    6463

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    I doubt that any aluminium would be glowing without melting into a blob.....it melts at approx 650 deg C or so......red heat would be around 1000 deg C.
    I've used a product many years ago that had a mix of aluminium powder in an epoxy mix and it was fairly user friendly in application and quite durable for light use.
    It will fill small cavities like drilling dings etc and being below the surface does remain in place with metal to metal contact once filed down and leveled.
    Ian.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    87

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    Quote Originally Posted by handlewanker View Post
    I doubt that any aluminium would be glowing without melting into a blob.....it melts at approx 650 deg C or so......red heat would be around 1000 deg C.
    I've used a product many years ago that had a mix of aluminium powder in an epoxy mix and it was fairly user friendly in application and quite durable for light use.
    It will fill small cavities like drilling dings etc and being below the surface does remain in place with metal to metal contact once filed down and leveled.
    Ian.
    Do you remember the name of the epoxy product?
    I've seen aluminium powder for sale, West Systems do it also. I think self mixing the consistency of the epoxy /aluminium might be my other method to use for the larger gouges. The table has some T slots machined away that I would need to make a dam with masking tape to try and rebuild the walls.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    3110
    Quote Originally Posted by pari View Post
    Do you remember the name of the epoxy product?
    I've seen aluminium powder for sale, West Systems do it also. I think self mixing the consistency of the epoxy /aluminium might be my other method to use for the larger gouges. The table has some T slots machined away that I would need to make a dam with masking tape to try and rebuild the walls.
    A trade product you may be thinking about is DEVCON.
    We used one of their mixes for filling little oops done into a cast iron machine table by a prior user.

    I would also sugget that when you rebuild a large area near a T slot , that that area is not used by a nut as it would be a very weak zone and resist any amount of force.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2006
    Posts
    6463

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    Quite right.....the fix is not all that strong and is mainly to render it cosmetically clean, however if the ding is like a depression caused by the dig in from a drill point then it will be quite good and flat to support work pieces on a flat surfaces that normally get swarf trapped in the hollows etc.

    Some time back, many years actually, we experimented with polystyrene foam dissolved in thinners, petrol etc and it forms a type of jelly that when the solvent evaporates.....eventually...... sets quite hard almost like plastic..........mixed with fine sand or any powdery substance like plaster, grout etc and it can be used to fill in cracks and hollows on concrete etc.....mixed with sawdust and it is a good wood filler.
    Ian.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2013
    Posts
    87

    Re: Repairing an old T-slot table surface

    Quote Originally Posted by Superman View Post
    A trade product you may be thinking about is DEVCON.
    We used one of their mixes for filling little oops done into a cast iron machine table by a prior user.

    I would also sugget that when you rebuild a large area near a T slot , that that area is not used by a nut as it would be a very weak zone and resist any amount of force.
    Good point about weakened T slot area. I'm really hoping once I get the table in a good condition I'll be able to get a good suck with the Vacuum motor... can't wait to have vacuum it's going to be a game changer for me.

    I looked for a distributor of the Devcon product and found a supplier.

    I'm using my machine to cut a project tomorrow, then that's it till I use this putty and start filling holes.

    I'll report back on the results.

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