little repair job

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Last Tuesday's repair job.   Stick on a Cat hoe, just about cracked in half, and bucket cracked all to h**l. All that rock on these mountains 'round here are hard on a machine.   Ground the paint off, grooved all the cracks. Root pass: 6011 3/32 @ around 100A, some more, some less depending on position. Fill and cap: 7018 1/8 @ 115A more or less depending on position. 1/2" fish plate fillets 7018 5/32 @ 125A more or less depending on position. All DCEP of course.    I don't get a chance to SMAW as much as I'd like so I was very happy with results, especially the overhead, which (I think) went better that the flat and vert up.   Sorry about the crappy cell phone pics.   Man what a great day for outside work,too. Sunny in the 60's. Not a bad place either. I thought I had pulled up to the set for "Little house on the prairie" when I got there. The dirt contractor has been there working building roads and a couple of house sites for over a year now, and has plenty more to go. 90- something acres with privacy and 100 mile views up on top. And no it is NOT going to be a sub-division. Contractor says landowner likes to look at the wildlife so they bait it. Says 4 or 5 black bears come around regularly, over 300 whitetail, and "thousands" of turkey. The last pic is looking down in the hollar at the "front yard" from the front porch of the rustic cabin. The mountain goes up another couple of miles and about 1000' vertical behind the cabin, there'll be another house up top one day. Attached ImagesBrian LeonardAppalachian Ironworks L.L.C.434 Long Branch Rd, Marshall, NC 28753828 649 9966828 702 [email protected]
Reply:Nice Work. app-ironworksllc. How big was the hoe? Looks pretty small. I would like that area. Any size to the bears? TJ
Reply:Originally Posted by CrickertjNice Work. app-ironworksllc. How big was the hoe? Looks pretty small. I would like that area. Any size to the bears? TJ
Reply:The settings on welding machines will always confuse me until the day I die  None of them really seem to relate to the actual amps the machine's really putting out.I'm amazed you could even get the 5/32 to run at 125amps.  I'm usually at 125 with 1/8 rod on my machine.  I think the numbers on the dial face are just to make us feel good"Any day above ground is a good day"http://www.farmersamm.com/
Reply:Just a little info, next time try to run the cap weld w either 11018 or 10018. I run a pretty good size grading company and have had to repair alot of equipment due to using it in  Granite. I have had a lot better results with these compared to 7018. They are a higher tensile strength and do good on this type repair.
Reply:Looks like a nice job.  I run 1/8 7018 around 140 amps give or take.  5/32  around 160 up to 190.Could be the dial, could be you run it cooler than I do, could be I use Lincoln rod and it likes a little more amps......David  Originally Posted by farmersammThe settings on welding machines will always confuse me until the day I die  None of them really seem to relate to the actual amps the machine's really putting out.I'm amazed you could even get the 5/32 to run at 125amps.  I'm usually at 125 with 1/8 rod on my machine.  I think the numbers on the dial face are just to make us feel good
Reply:Originally Posted by Swamp ratJust a little info, next time try to run the cap weld w either 11018 or 10018. I run a pretty good size grading company and have had to repair alot of equipment due to using it in  Granite. I have had a lot better results with these compared to 7018. They are a higher tensile strength and do good on this type repair.
Reply:Originally Posted by David RLooks like a nice job.  I run 1/8 7018 around 140 amps give or take.  5/32  around 160 up to 190.Could be the dial, could be you run it cooler than I do, could be I use Lincoln rod and it likes a little more amps......David
Reply:Something people also forget is the length of cable and gauge.  This can also change the behavior of the arc once you use really long runs.  Just turning your machine up ten amps will take care of a job 100 feet away but the added resistance also fools the machine into thinking you are running a longer arc.  Nice job.  You must have field welding Karma or something .... no rain, cold, snow, heat.
Reply:Hello all, new here and not really sure how I stumbled upon this page but here I am! Pretty well put together welding site/forum!! Anyways, if you do not trust the amps/volt read outs or knobs on your machine you can always go to a local auto store and get a amperage meter and just hang it around your lead near the machine. It will give you an accurate reading of what your machine is putting out. Most "critical" jobs and most welding procedure qualifications require one. 3/32" should be run between 75-1001/8" should be run between 90-145 both at 20-30v
Reply:I have a ranger 250.  The dial is spot on!  I checked it.The chopper stuff is different. It took me a long time to get the hang of it.  About 100 hours of machine use.  For 7018, turn the knob  from zero down to about 3:00  Some where in there should be OK.  It seems the more the amps the lower (smoother) I can run it.  With the amps up and the arc control down, I can carry a short arc and get a nice smooth bead with no spatter.Another thing the ranger 250 does is keep the amps the same regardless of the length of the arc.  Totally different than what I was used to.  I checked that too.  Set the dial on 90 amps, ran a stick changing the arc from as short as I could to as long as I could and looked at the trace on the graph from the meter.  It showed a flat line changing less than one amp either way..... Right at 90 amps too.I called Lincoln and talked to Bob Crow the engine drive guy.  He told me the arc control on that machine has too much.   He said keep it between 10:00 and 2:00 for almost all welding.  I can see his point now that the machine has 450 hours on it.  The only time I turn it all the way down was when I was running flat or fillet 3/16 7018 at 240+ amps.  It laid down a nice bead with no spatter.Thats a Quarter not a stinkin dime!DavidReal world weldin.  When I grow up I want to be a tig weldor.
Reply:Originally Posted by David RI have a ranger 250.  The dial is spot on!  I checked it.The chopper stuff is different. It took me a long time to get the hang of it.  About 100 hours of machine use.  For 7018, turn the knob  from zero down to about 3:00  Some where in there should be OK.  It seems the more the amps the lower (smoother) I can run it.  With the amps up and the arc control down, I can carry a short arc and get a nice smooth bead with no spatter.Another thing the ranger 250 does is keep the amps the same regardless of the length of the arc.  Totally different than what I was used to.  I checked that too.  Set the dial on 90 amps, ran a stick changing the arc from as short as I could to as long as I could and looked at the trace on the graph from the meter.  It showed a flat line changing less than one amp either way..... Right at 90 amps too.I called Lincoln and talked to Bob Crow the engine drive guy.  He told me the arc control on that machine has too much.   He said keep it between 10:00 and 2:00 for almost all welding.  I can see his point now that the machine has 450 hours on it.  The only time I turn it all the way down was when I was running flat or fillet 3/16 7018 at 240+ amps.  It laid down a nice bead with no spatter.Thats a Quarter not a stinkin dime!David
Reply:Have seen/repaired that exact same break on a cat bucket before very common i guess.
Reply:Nice repair, but I think it might let go again. And not because of your repair. I don't have any pictures of this because it was yrs ago, but cats had a problem with the torsion tube welds cracking where they are welded in between the pin bushings where the stick connects to the boom. long sentence, sorry. The bushings are a cast steel and there is a tube welded between them inside the stick. I have seen these weldes crack, which allows the stick to twist to much
Reply:It's hard to know whats exactly right on a repair of this nature.   The diamond reinforcement of the joint is good solid repair technique.     If you happen to go to beefy & localize the flex ahead of the repair joint.   It'll break there next.What you have done here looks to be as good a field repair as one could expect.I usually tear into cracks in heavy material with a gouge & do my best to barely leave enough in the bottom to use small rod to lay in a root pass.  Peen extensively with air hammer if avalible then fill the gouged area with stringer bead multiple passes, peening them for both cleaning for next pass & stress relieving.I usually grind the surface as near to original as practical then apply any diamond reinforcing I feel necessary.    Again it's a judgement call but for instance if the stick was made from 1/2" material  my diamond would be either 1/4 to no more than 3/8 material.   Hoping not to stiffen the area to much.IF IT WORKS, DON'T FIX IT2 Lincoln CV-300 / LN-7 GMALinde-VI 253,400 & 450 w/MIG35 feedersCNC Table with Oxweld O/A & Hypertherm 1250G3Lincoln Ranger GXT 250Hobart-MicroWire 300ESAB Heliarc 161ESAB-Mobilemaster 2 CC/CV Feeders& more