Thanks for the kind words.
Thingy, I will be getting some penetrant. In the past I have uses a sharpie to highlight the cracks. Then wipe off with a rag dampened with acetone. Sort of worked. It will be fun trying it with the real deal. However, I will probably spend some more time frying on Sunday while the family is off at church.
Egon, If I took off all the patches all there would be left is rust and grease! I'll add a few snaps of the swing post. There is a replacement that will be swapped in, once you see the original it's obvious why...
Spyderlk, I have had my eye on a needle de-scaler. Any thoughts on the one from (Ahem) Harbor Freight? It's about $65. Worth anything or save up and get a "real one"? Also, I would LOVE to be able to Vee both sides, flat weld from both sides and grind back down. But, many of the real nasty spots are so deep that it's hard to even see where the sparks are while welding. I haven't posted those yet as the welding is, uh well let's just say, a bit lower in quality. Ha ha! A couple spots I had to weld by feel and hope it was in the right area. (wasn't) Then had to go back and fix it up. Those are still a work in progress...
In June of this year, the swing post was in a bad way. Cracks with daylight went across the top below the top pivot thru nearly the whole post. Only a section about 3" long was solid. That wasn't the only areas that needed some hot love. This was intended as a patch to get thru until winter (now). Interestingly, the patches held up. Even though they were really crappppy welds. Done out of position, while on the hoe. The cracks were spitting fire even though everything was pressure washed, degreased, sprayed with brake cleaner and heated with a rose bud. You can see the porous welds in some of the pictures. Most were welded, ground, cleaned, v-grooved and welded again. Some were on 3 or 4 cycles of that. It was not perfect, but at least there was no slag in the metal!
Original swing post top bushing area in June 06
Same area December 06 - This was not patched by me!
Top down view of same area
Left upper side - I found at least 6 (six) separate cracks under that junk
Still cracked - but the cracks didn't grow over the summer. (lucky)
Bottom left side
After grinding and v-grooving the cracks
After welding - and grinding - it was v-grooved and welded several more times.
Bottom right
Take a close look, the metal to the left of the v-grooves is the only non-cracked metal that was holding the post from falling in two pieces.
Boom cylinder attachment
Bottom view - Now that's some quality welding...NOT!
Original next to replacement. We added a plate on the back as there were serious cracks at each of the 6 corners that you can see on the replacement.
jb