Cracked a hellhole on a T56 tail cone by using a pick upside down

I was working on a T56 turbine engine tail cone at the base in Fort Worth last month and kept hitting a dead end with a stubborn crack that looked like a stress fracture. Tried dye penetrant three times and kept getting false positives from residue. Switched to using a dental pick backwards to scrape the area BEFORE applying the penetrant and it cleaned out enough old paint to show the true crack line. Anybody else have a weird trick like that for getting clean inspections on old parts?

2 comments

2 Comments

linda_mason8227d ago

Yeah I've done the same thing with dental picks on old Allison engine parts. Works great for scraping off baked-on crud that hides the real crack lines.

reese_lane2927d ago

Look, I get that dental picks have their uses, but calling baked-on crud on an Allison engine "serious" feels like a stretch. I've worked on old engines my whole life and that stuff comes off with a wire brush and some elbow grease most of the time. Unless you're dealing with something like a cracked block or a bad bearing, it's just normal wear and tear. Half the time people overthink this stuff and waste hours picking at things that don't matter. Just clean it off, give it a look, and move on.