trailertrash
Bronze Member
there are at least two ways to weld hyd lines, #1 is most certainly the wrong way and #2 at least works.Background:had to do a bunch of welding on fel bucket due to hyd. cyl. being a lot stronger than surrounding metal,no problem,home grown eq. you have these things happen,anybody wear bi-focal glasses? notice how you can't see up close unless you tilt your head like an english butler,not good for welding(never knew about helmet script lenses untill I read a post of wr-harvs about cheaters in hood).So I've got a pair of reading glasses from dollar gen. same strength whole lense. Well I'm welding my little heart out and I know I'm close to the steel hyd. line so I'm very careful not to hit it. I'm all done and I walk around checking and I see I've got about 6" of rod left so I grab my trusty hood and proceed to put what's left on the end of my new brace. Sure wish I would have switched glasses back to my welding ones then I might have seen that the gap between the steel line and the frame was not the one to strike an arc of 135 amps on. Picture this in your mind,hyd fluid is under some pressure from welding around it -hyd fluid burns(quite well),arc will light fluid ,helmet with attached face inside real close could'nt see (figured out later why).After I out the fire out the only real damage was some of the paint on the grill will need touching up ,new clean underwear, my hair and beard will grow back, But , I betcha I put something between my stinger and the flammable line I'm welding close to next time (Mig-welded the pin hole in the line the next day).Another lesson learned the hard way.