Push Frame for Snow Plow Repaired.

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My friend John has been plowing snow this winter for the company that his son works for.  On the last snow storm, he hit a curb and broke the push frame of the vee type Boss Snow Plow. This caused the plow to tip, which in turn caused it to leave about 2 inches of snow on one side of the plow. John’s son Ryan removed the push frame in the shop and gave it to John and I to repair.  The following documents the process that we used to straight in out and weld it back together.  We completed it yesterday to give Ryan some time to reinstall the plow today, because 2-4” of snow is forecast for this evening.1. Push frame exploded

2. Push frame part

3. Bent push frame 1

4. Bent push frame 2

5. Broken push frame

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:6. Broken push frame 2

7. Broken push frame 3

To make it easier to straighten and replace damaged metal, I cut the push frame in half.8. Cutting apart push frame

The rusted on the crack indicates that the crack existed for enough time for it to rust, which means that it wasn’t caused by the recent event, where John hit the curb.9. Rusted crack

10. Stressed metal

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:11. Half of push frame

The angle iron on the rear of the push frame was bent.  I used an oxyacetylene torch to heat it up, so that John could beat it flat.  If you look at the at the upper left-hand side of picture #2, you can see the bent black angle iron before it was straightened.12. Heating bent metal

The stays were bent so that they were no longer 90° to the angle iron.  We heated the tension side of the stay and straightened it out using a come along and a hammer. I apologize for the busy picture, but the red arrow points to the come along.13. Using come along to straighten stay

14. Heating and beating metal

We again used the oxyacetylene torch to heat the metal and then used a hammer to beat it back straight.15. Straightening metal

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:16. Clamped and aligned for welding

17. Making cardboard patterns

18. First piece fit

19. More pieces fit

This entire job had less than 2’ of weld, so I just TIG welded it. The way that I had it fixtured forced me to do mostly vertical and horizontal welds with only a few inches of flat welding. 20. Welding pieces in place

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:I handed John the wrong pattern piece, so he cut the piece too small. I added a small piece of scrap as a backing plate to fill the wide gap in the groove weld.  Notice that I used a small piece of scrap welding rod to hold backing plate it in place.21. Backing piece added

22. Another piece welded in place

23. Welding 1

24. Welding 2

This joint was ½” deep, so I used some 7018 stick rods for the first pass. 25. Deep weld 3

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:26. Welding 4

27. Done and painted

28. Repaired push frame installed

29. Side view showing light frame

30. Top view showing push frame

Smith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:31. Plow mounted to truck

John is planning on going to work at 2:00 AM (early tomorrow morning) to start snow plowing using the Boss plow with the repaired push frame.  He does a bunch of CVS pharmacies plus a few parking lots for strip malls.  -DonSmith Oxyacetylene TorchMiller Dynasty 200DXLincoln SP-250 MIG WelderClausing/Coldchester 15" Lathe16" DuAll Saw15" Drill Press7" x 9" Swivel Head Horizontal Band Saw20 Ton Arbor Press BridgeportLincoln LE  31 MP & Lincoln 210 MP
Reply:I'm not alone... that's somewhat comforting in a strange way. Nice job on the repair.The harder you fall, the higher you bounce...250 amp Miller DialArc AC/DC StickF-225 amp Forney AC Stick230 amp Sears AC StickLincoln 180C MIGVictor Medalist 350 O/ACut 50 PlasmaLes