Well, at least it happened at a good place...

[orezok]

I ran the perimeter trail with my land plane yesterday and then brought it to the shop. I had planned to add some hard face on the runners as they were wearing after building it about 8 years ago. I backed into the shop next to the welder and just as I went to drop the plane, the right side suddenly dropped to the ground. My first fear was that the rock shaft broke. I got off and noted that the tilt cylinder weld at the bottom had broken. Fortunately, it was in the shop, not a quarter mile away on the far side of my property.

It looks like a failure of the weld itself and not poor penetration. The clevis was welded at a small angle to the cylinder rod and I wonder of the offset put additional force on one side.




I plan to extend the cylinder and then remove it from the tractor to weld. That way I can do it horizontally and keep the rod cool near the seals. I plan to remove all the old weld and look at possibly squaring it up to the rod. The issue may be interference with the link when at full extension.

Gonna fire up the HTP mig and run it at 240 amps with .035. That should burn it in solid. I have some .045, but I'm not sure that that would be better. I have a DC stick welder, but I rarely use it and am not comfortable with it.

Any other suggestions?

 

[George2615]

Is the bolt / nut going through the clevis too tight or does the clevis move freely on the lifting arm as it should. If too tight it could stress the weld when lifting.
I'd stick weld it but only because I'm not comfortable mig welding thicker metal. 45 years of stick welding vs less than 8 with my mig. Whatever works best for you.

 

[orezok]

Is the bolt / nut going through the clevis too tight or does the clevis move freely on the lifting arm as it should. If too tight it could stress the weld when lifting.
I'd stick weld it but only because I'm not comfortable mig welding thicker metal. 45 years of stick welding vs less than 8 with my mig. Whatever works best for you.

Bolt is loose as a goose!

 

[Shaneard]

Turn the mig up and weld it. It'll be good to go.

 

[Rustyiron]

Your thread title really say's it all!
Pretty crazy it happened that way, at this point it's almost just maintenance rather than a repair.:thumbsup:

 

[Gary Fowler]

It looks like a failure of the weld itself and not poor penetration. The clevis was welded at a small angle to the cylinder rod and I wonder of the offset put additional force on one side. Any other suggestions?

The weld may have had good penetration (not way to tell from the photo), but the geometry of the weld is all wrong. The fillet weld doesn't have enough throat dimensions ( it is thin in the middle of the weld) and the weld is not uniform all the way around. Your choice of repair procedure sounds great. The choice of welding process is yours and MIG or Stick will work just as good when properly applied. I personally like stick since I can control the penetration better. A 7018 would be my choice unless I had some of higher strength but since it is welding to a mild steel bracket, the weld with 70xx series rod will be stronger than the steel U bracket. Just make sure you apply sufficient weld so it has a good profile with equal legs and not concaved in the middle.