Thread: bell repair

As some here know I make bells. The bells are made using bell metal, 80%cu 20%sn, I have a bell that has a cavity in the very top of the bell where some clay had dislodged from the mold and lodged itself in the top of the bell. Fortunately it does not affect the performance of the bell but it does reduce the hanging strength.

My question is would silicone bronze mig welding do the trick to fill the cavity, any tips and advice would be appreciated?

A lonnng time ago I saw a full size nude female bronze statue!

It was in an artist's studio in Philadelphia, USA. The bronze was sitting in a cane chair. When I saw it I thought that the cane chair could not possibly support the weight of the statue - being bronze. It turned out to be some kind of plastic / epoxy or something like that. It was hollow, looked like bronze, but was indeed plastic.

Perhaps for the repair, if you need aesthetics without affecting the bell's sound then an epoxy / plastic solution may work.

Originally Posted by A J in WA

A lonnng time ago I saw a full size nude female bronze statue!

It was in an artist's studio in Philadelphia, USA. The bronze was sitting in a cane chair. When I saw it I thought that the cane chair could not possibly support the weight of the statue - being bronze. It turned out to be some kind of plastic / epoxy or something like that. It was hollow, looked like bronze, but was indeed plastic.

Perhaps for the repair, if you need aesthetics without affecting the bell's sound then an epoxy / plastic solution may work.

Thanks A J, I was thinking along the same line so I had this shipped express, it literally arrived 20min ago. It will be interesting how it works what it looks like when patched. This stuff going by the price is gold not bronze! once I have patched it with this gear I will give some feed back!

Hello from the old goat.
Years ago I had a customer casting in Sil brz. He used mig welding with Sil Brz wire to repair defects. It will be a bit redder in colour as the CU content is 97%. 0.9mm wire only runs between 90 and 115A. You will have to clean up all the porosity first.
Regards
BC

Originally Posted by steamloco1954

Hello from the old goat.
Years ago I had a customer casting in Sil brz. He used mig welding with Sil Brz wire to repair defects. It will be a bit redder in colour as the CU content is 97%. 0.9mm wire only runs between 90 and 115A. You will have to clean up all the porosity first.
Regards
BC

I tried yesterday Mig welding Silicon bronze wire on a test piece of bell metal, while it did weld it did not feel or look right, I don't know how to explain it other than the base metal seemed to melt away. I tried welding a piece of heinz brass and it welded really well. After the test welds I have ruled out mig welding silicone bronze on bells at this point.

If you have a scrap of the same bronze, either oxy braze or maybe tig. With the same metal the repair will be invisible.

could you lead wipe it ? surely that would do the job

Originally Posted by Iron triangle

could you lead wipe it ? surely that would do the job

Yep, that works, I have done that before but I was looking for better options.

Originally Posted by vin

Thanks A J, I was thinking along the same line so I had this shipped express, it literally arrived 20min ago. It will be interesting how it works what it looks like when patched. This stuff going by the price is gold not bronze! once I have patched it with this gear I will give some feed back!

Well it filled the hole nicely and over all I am happy only because it will not be visible as it is on the top! The epoxy seems to be high quality but as for calling it a bronze fill or a putty, I think not, its a brown with a metallic fleck when applied and dries, but once machined and it loses it shine it is just a dirty brown. Why I would not call it a putty is because it flows just like other epoxy glues and flows to a horizontal level.