Welding advice

[skipjack]

Looking for advice on repairing the tube that the loader bucket hydraulic ram attaches to. Left side is sold but right side has torn 70%. Neighbour tried welding with 7018 but it has reopened. One of the bucket pins was broken by the previous owner which was the original stresser. So I was thinking of cleaning things up and redoing the weld and then on top running the full width welding good quality angle iron with the two edges on the tube, so two weld lines for additional strength. Or is it better to fabricate a new tube and re-weld everything to the new tube? Anyone had the same misfortune? Any help would be appreciated, thanks Kubota BX25 with LA240 loader

 

[Shield Arc]

I would grind out all the bad weld. Run a torch over the weld area to make sure no oil or water is in the weld zone! And use 7018 right out of a new can, or rod oven. Hard to tell, but it looks like your neighbor ran that weld down hill. Never do that with 7018 on something structural! :thumbdown:

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Shield Arc is right on. Existing weld is obviously just more metal placed on top of an earlier failed weld. Original is probably one of those factory MIG jobs that was too cold and had no penetration. You need to get all that extra metal ground off, V out the original weld and start new with good penetration. What you go back with depends on what you have and/or your experience level. Your BX with the single curl cylinder can develop a lot of structural stress on that joint, especially if using bucket forks with a unbalanced load or catching one corner under a big rock. I have had 3 Kubota BX 25 welds fail like that and all were factory faults of non-penetrating MIG work. Adding additional angle iron like you mentioned is a waste of time and effort with no value added. My faied welds were not at that point. In 1500 hrs I have probably abused my FEL as much as or more than anyone and no welds have failed on the loader.

Ron

 

[yomax4]

Sound advice above. I had the same type issue from bouncing along with a full bucket and or ramming stumps etc. I didn't have 7018 to do the repair but i did have a part spool of Lincoln LA90 .045 that I got from a plant that builds Humvee's. High tensile with very good ductility.

 

[bigdeano]

I think the OP said the tube is torn, not just a bad weld that broke. The best way would be to replace the tube with a thicker one, but that's a lot of work. It's probably worth a try to grind off the old weld and vee out the crack in the tube and reweld as others have said. If you can reinforce the tube and bracket with big angle it's bound to help.

 

[BeezFun]

I agree with bigdeano, the underlying failure is the torn tube. You might try not only grinding the weld away, but also bevel the edge of that tube in a way that allows you to lay in a couple passes to restore the thickness of the original tube. Then weld that repaired area of the tube back to the bracket. Your idea of using angle to help restore the original strength of the tube is sound, you might also see if you could find some tubing whose inside diameter matched the outside diameter of the tube you have. You could lay a strip of that tubing along the existing tubing and weld it all the way around to add some extra strength. It would probably look a bit nicer than an angle. I also don't think you need to run the angle the whole length of the tube, 12" or so on either side of the bracket is probably all you need. I prefer 6010 for the root pass on something like this, then use 7018 for the rest.

 

[Shield Arc]

I prefer 6010 for the root pass

7018 works good for open root too.

 

[jimmysisson]

Weld it right and skip the strengthening add-ons if you ever want to sell it. My two cents. Jim

 

[skipjack]

Thanks Bigdeano I will run that past my neighbour as I am not yet a welder, it sounds like good advice. The neighbour thought the angle iron right out to the arms would transfer some of the torque. He was going to have the angle iron facing down and notch it around the hydraulic mount so we could weld there as well. The weld failed in two areas, one tearing down the centre of the weld and the other on the edge of the weld so in my limited experience I was thinking the 7018 failed from hydrogen embrittlement maybe for the weld that broke in the middle? He did the initial weld without grinding so we might have more success with better prep. I was wondering is 7014 might be a better choice as there is no embrittlement issue but again I am not a welder hence my reaching out. At this point I am a Google welder

 

[skipjack]

Hi Shield Arc, Loader was still on the tractor and it was a awkward repair. We are smarter now, will take the loader off for next time