Anyone Got Pictures of Big Portable Line Boring Setups?

There are some compressor cases at work that need to be line bored for the diaphragm fits both radially and axially. Monster of a case, 13' long 10' wide and 8' tall for just one half.

They are having to farm it out as they dont have a machine or bar big enough to do the work.

Does climax make massive line boring bars for doing turbine and compressor cases? Like 12-20" dia 20' long.

Anyone got pictures of a set up like that or have done it?

I've spent the whole week machining the split lines on forgings they will make the impeller and diaphragms that go in this case. Smallest was like 2000lbs, biggest was like 10,000lbs



Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

I'm sure they make one big enough. I have used a 10' climax bar. I think they make them as big as your imagination.

A bit away from Texas (Milwaukee,Wi) but this company had some big bars and vtls last I was there.
Busch Precision, Inc.

Dave

Take a gander at In Place Machining’s website. On-Site Machining Worldwide | In-Place Machining Company. They do all kinds of giant portable machining, including line boring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

really portable or using a mill to drive the bar? I have access to plans for a bar set up ,you just need to figure bar and cat head sizes.
W
I'd go vertical CNC profile the dia's.
jim

You can fumble around with Continental Field Systems website, there is quite a bit of pics on there. I was their shop manager for a while and had my fair share of case and turbine machining both mobile and and stationary. Pretty much if it was over 4" bar we just made our own, basically just scaling up the climax for the size we needed then just build a cage for the application. Sometimes after we did the Blue it we would bolt it together and spin it on the 220 ton lathe but there is just something un-natural about spinning a 22' diameter 60' long casting whilst hanging half your body inside looking at the cut. Its much nicer bolting it together with the climax style bar inside then 3 or 4 of your co-workers inside playing cards waiting on the arm to come around so you can hit the feed star. my rule of thumb though. anything over 6" bar should be hydraulic driven. viable speed motors ran through a gearbox tend to stall for a second then snap forward thus drawing the ole sphincter muscle up.

cfsusa. net if you want to check out some of their setups.

I just re read your post and realized you said your doing the split lines on a large case. Is this your first time doing a large casing? If not i'm sure you already know this but machine the face in a unrestrained condition. By this I mean after you machine the feet make sure they are where you clamp and use shims if they don't all touch the table. Or, if your on a horizontal i'm sure you know you have to machine the face first but the same rule applies when doing the split line. If you really wanna piss off your coworkers that have to assemble it to do the Dykem blue hit (Since cases do not use a gasket) just cinch down on a pad not touching.

Iv'e seen this many times at Continental and Alstom. The guys spend all day clamping the two halves together with 150+ 3.5"-4 TPI studs weighing about 60 pounds each with a 50 pound hydraulic torque wrench only to take it apart and find a high or low spot from the guy who machined the split line. Then they spend another couple days running a 50 pound manual lapping machine to get the high spot out. All to just repeat the Blue hit again torquing all those bolts to 35,000 pounds. If they have to repeat all that two or three times usually someones getting an ass whooping. I've seen parking lot brawls, in the shop brawls, wrenches flying. Even saw a Gerstner roller box and top box get rolled off the loading dock. Not many things worse than pissing off a field machinist.

There's a place down in south Houston, just off HWY 288 and the beltway 8 my brother used to work for called Turbo Care. They may go by another name by now as companies get bough out and change names. They have portable line boring equipment that is shipped all over the world for reworking turbine housings and such. I once saw some of their equipment on the back end of a 18 wheeler being shipped who knows where. They do have in house equipment that would line bore the case you have there. Have no clue who to contact there. Ken

Yes, climax has bars long enough.

Easily reach across a 793 haul truck or a shovel

Unfortunately, it is no pictures / cell phones allowed at work....