Project 1 from Rambozo. Category: General Welding repair

[Rambozo]

First project for the contest, just the kind of work I hate to do. Hot, messy, rush job, and missing materials. Oh well, someone has to do it. Needed to fix both skids on a 60" flail mower.

Kinda worn out.


Cut a couple of new skids from half inch thick abrasive plate steel.


Of course the shop is minus a bunch of stuff out on loan, one of which is the torch, so I ended up cutting a groove in them with a cutoff wheel about a quarter inch deep, then bending on the groove and welding the groove shut, instead of heating and bending. Welded them back to the mounting pieces. All with 7018AC and an old Miller Thunderbolt AC buzzbox. It's about the only thing left around here, but it worked fine.


What it had trouble with is the hardfacing I put on the bottom. I was only able to get 5/32 hardfacing rod instead of 1/8 and that little Miller had it's tongue out for that. AC is not the way to go, but it works and I'm hoping this will increase the lifespan. This mower is only about a year old and has not had a lot of use, but plenty of abuse. And of course it has to go out first thing in the morning for a job.

[undercut]

Would have never have known you were disadvantaged in terms of having the right equipment on hand. You did a great job. Question for you, how did you determine the pattern to use for the hardfacing? I hear there are some pretty differing views on this and was just curious how you came about the pattern you used. Cheers.

[Rambozo]

I copied what I have seen on the sides of excavator buckets. Lincoln electric has a nice white paper on the subject. For best wear on dirt, you lay the beads across the path of motion, for rocks you lay the beads along the path of motion. This one has to deal with dirt and rocks, so I did the crosshatch pattern, then ran one last bead down the middle just for the hell of it.

[undercut]

I copied what I have seen on the sides of excavator buckets. Lincoln electric has a nice white paper on the subject. For best wear on dirt, you lay the beads across the path of motion, for rocks you lay the beads along the path of motion. This one has to deal with dirt and rocks, so I did the crosshatch pattern, then ran one last bead down the middle just for the hell of it.

Thanks. Happen to have a link for that white paper? I'll google so no worries if you don't happen to have it handy.

Cool, thanks for the link!

[Rambozo]

Thanks. Happen to have a link for that white paper? I'll google so no worries if you don't happen to have it handy.

http://www.lincolnelectric.com/asset...ture/C7710.pdf

[DaveO]

Hard to believe the machine is only a year old, with that kind of wear and tear! Did you get a look at the cutting area? Not sure if that one has blades or hammers, but if the skids were in that condition, I can only imagine what the cutters look like.

Sure doesn't look like a rush job, nicely done.