Page 129 - Machinery Component Maintenance

112 Machinery Component Maintenance and Repair

Figure 3-27. In hot or rainy weather, shade the baseplatelfoundation for 24 hours before
and 48 hours after pouring the grout.

If the mounting surfaces are machined to 0.002-in. coplanar after
welding has been completed, the same tolerance can be repeated in the
field. This helps to eliminate “soft feet” and speeds up alignment. The
common practice of machining steel plate mounting surfaces and welding
them to the baseplate causes skewed surfaces that cannot be leveled in the
field.
A void-free grout job is ensured by providing vent holes at the base-
plate periphery and in each compartment. Some pump purchasers never
look under the baseplate to see how cross-bracing makes a good grout job
impossible. Notice in Figure 3-28 that the center compartment is blocked
by cross braces and would not receive grout though only inches from two
grout holes. In this case, an additional 6-in. pour hole for the grout was
cut into the center of the compartment, along with additional vent holes.
The request for a 1-in. wider mounting surface on each side of the
equipment feet can be of enormous benefit if baseplate leveling is re-
quired with pump and driver in place. The additional cost of a few more
inches of steel plate is insignificant compared to the advantage of allow-
ing baseplate leveling with the equipment mounted. And, while placing a