Welding a gauge in a flame hardened cast iron machine base way?

[bigj3]

I have a large G&L boring bar saddle with a score in the 55Rc hardened machine way. I am grinding the machine base but to clean up the gauge, I would have to take between .020 to .030 off the entire way structure of this machine. This boring bar saddle is quite large. The gauge is approximately 12 inches long .030 deep and .13 wide. Any ideas on how to patch the defect so the grinding can be just a clean up grind. Can I TIG weld the gauge before grinding and if so are there any recautions or procedures that I have to give the weld shop? Open to other ideas.

 

[dhengr]

Gauge or gouge? Makes a fair difference. I don’t think I’d try to weld that gouge, you’ll just muck-up the works. You’ll soften and possibly cause warping in that area, assuming the weld will even stick. I’d grind the ways to clean them up and flatten them. The gouge is a small percentage of the total way area at that location, as long as the whole area is uniformly loaded. For example, if the gouge is 12" along the length of the way and in the middle of the way, no problem; if the gouge is all the way across the way, maybe another story. Then deburr the gouge edges, maybe making them steeper or almost undercut, clean out the gouge, and fill it with something as simple as liquid steel epoxy. Really all you are trying to do is keep dirt and oil from collecting in the gouge, aren’t you? Maybe some of the Mech. guys have a better product than my liquid steel, which you would grind down after it set up.

 

[bigj3]

Thank you for the input and gouge it is.

 

[ornerynorsk]

It's unlikely to cause any problem, accuracy-wise, if that's all there is to it. You have far more square inches of saddle-to-way support than what the gouge is affecting.

Have you checked the entire bed/ways for straightness? Do you know the cause of the gouge in the first place, there could be other issues.

It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong, than to be always right by having no ideas at all.