Wood Splitting Maul Repair

[zoama]

A friend brought me his wood splitting maul and asked if I could put an edge on it for him. I noticed it had a crack all the way through one side, into the opening where the handle goes so I repaired it.
I had already started cutting when I decided to take pictures. I cut a wedge out to the bottom of the crack, then ground all the rust out to get a clean weld. I heated the part with a propane torch to about 500 degrees to minimize warping when the weld cooled. It took about six passes using my I-MIG 250P and .035 wire at 19v. I cut the weld back down to match the other side with a 24 grit flap disk on a 7" grinder. No warpage from the weld, I just had to touch up the underside of the weld in the handle area with a carbide burr to make the handle fit well again.

[Kempy]

zoama

Nice job on the Maul I hope your friend appreciates all the work you did.

[zoama]

zoama

Nice job on the Maul I hope your friend appreciates all the work you did.

Thanks... I do most jobs that I've never done before for free just to gain experience.

[Kempy]

Thanks... I do most jobs that I've never done before for free just to gain experience.

Your right and then some times you wish you didn't touch it you could have bought a new one cheaper or some times it would have been cheaper to give them $20.00 and tell them sorry. I did jobs that for a friend that took 20 minutes and destroyed $100 in tools trying to fix it.

[zoama]

Your right and then some times you wish you didn't touch it you could have bought a new one cheaper or some times it would have been cheaper to give them $20.00 and tell them sorry. I did jobs that for a friend that took 20 minutes and destroyed $100 in tools trying to fix it.

The guy didn't even know I was going to fix it. I took it upon myself and would have replaced it if I damaged it. I had a pretty good idea of how it would go and all went to plan. The job took about an hour total. I learned the preheat trick from http://www.weldingtipsandtricks.com/