Patent ID: 7591070

Claim:
A method of rebuilding a turbine blade for a gas turbine engine, the blade being of the type including an airfoil having first and second spaced-apart sidewalls defining an interior void and joined at a leading edge and a trailing edge, the first and second sidewalls extending from a root to a tip cap, and a squealer tip including at least one tip rib extending outwardly from the tip cap, the method comprising the steps of: (a) removing the squealer tip, including the at least one tip rib, from the tip cap; (b) adding new material to the tip cap to serve as a new squealer tip; (c) forming a plurality of spaced-apart notches in the new material between the leading edge and the trailing edge of the airfoil, wherein each notch is recessed with respect to the first sidewall to form a respective tip shelf, and further wherein each notch is defined by a top wall oblique with respect to a plane perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the blade and oblique to the first and second spaced-apart sidewalls, and the respective tip shelves are perpendicular to a surface of the first and second spaced-apart sidewalls; and (d) forming at least one hole in each tip shelf communicating with the interior void of the airfoil for channeling cooling air from the interior void of the airfoil to thereby form a squealer tip.