Welders? Any welders on this site?

[Marc-Antoine]

Adding a removal skidplate (for servicing the hydro motors) between the stock one and under the motor mount will prevent any rock to catch the vertical plates. Looking theirs beated and rolled over edges, that's the main point to generate the torsion and fatigue's mount.

Edit: It comes from the pics in the "how it go today" forum. At second view, it isn't a stock skidplate but looks more like the central beam of the frame, maybe used as an hydro oil tank.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Yes. Center front. Hydro oil tank.
We have a skid plate Rob made for the bottom that bolts on. Debris catcher as well. But. We were having issues with long sticks coming up underneath and spearing the cooling fan and sump hose that runs under that motor mount between the mount and the wheel motor shroud that double as a central frame brace. The front center has a bit more clearance. As does the rear center. So where the wheel motors are takes the brunt of high centering.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Central tank just past the pony motor mount. That gap is where the sump runs to the tank.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Looks good!
I would add another cross brace under the mount. I don’t know if it will work but I can see a lot of torsion on the center box section, and the off center placement of the mount adding to it.

The mount has bracing to the wheel motor housing/center frame brace. Adds to the torsion IMO. As it levers down the front portion. I doubt I have room to add more behind as the battery plate resides there. I would probably need to brace more foreward near the front corners. I DO NOT want to weld anything to the tank. I am not good enough at this crap to trust my welds to something that holds liquid. So I am not sure where I would brace it at. Looks roomy with out all the motor and other plates, but I assure you, there are not very many options in there by my reckoning. I need to redo how the battery plate mounts now since I added more metal where it mounts to. And they used bolts into the frame I just welded to secure one side. They just threaded the holes in the plating and its not even 1/4".
You can guess what happened over time. The 5/16ths bolts were more like pins.. lol
So I am welding a couple bolts over those holes threads up. You cant get a socket betweek the wheel motors and the sides to use bolts and nuts there. So we'll make studs.

 

[Tree09]

Another good trick where you need threads but threading isn't ideal is to weld a nut on the back of the plate. Good call not wanting to weld on the oil tank, simply having hydrocarbons in it can lead to a fire or explosion just like an oil drum, it's obviously done but it requires tools and experience far beyond normal welding.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I would have to remove the drive motors, hydraulics and invert the frame to weld a nut under the frame. So studs made more sense to me. Then just hold the plate with the nuts. Made serviceable sense to me as well.

 

[cory]

Our recent tax cuts and stimulus shocked the system with a cash surplus which happened so fast it caused inflation, but that will also mix up wages which have been declining for decades, forcing employers to charge more and pay more and buy more, spreading money through the system. White collar workers are now seeing the possibility that they're likely to be replaced by automation quicker than the blue collar workers are, and with the coming chip revolution and ai becoming a reality we're up for some major changes ahead. The bottleneck to future growth will be energy, but if we finally crack the fusion problems it'll be growth like never seen, especially in construction. Construction is the first physical step in making more money in the cycle, and in my experience when it's banging the rest of the economy will be shortly if they aren't already, it seriously works like a leading indicator.

Dang I gotta stay caught-up to this serious thread, lotta knowledge being laid down on all sides.

But yeah, if this whole welding thing doesn't work out for 09, and the whole tree thing doesn't bear fruit ( ), it's nice to have that Harvard professor thing in your back pocket

 

[Tree09]

If you can cut a bigger hole you can weld the nut to a washer or piece of plate, hold or bolt it in place, and then weld flat looking down around the inside of the hole. The size of the hole depends on how you're gonna weld it and how thick it is. Use a torch to blacken the threads if you are using stick or mig so a weld berry won't stick, or better yet never sieze, aluminum foil is good to catch the drips if you have to. Leaving a bolt in can also help, but they can also sieze in there if you're not careful, so only go in a couple of turns, and don't go crazy welding because you can warp it with a ton of heat input. You can also tig weld them, or it's a good spot to torch weld so you don't spatter and have more control. Stick use 7018 since there's less spatter if you can.

 

[cory]

Weld berry- I like it! Is that an individual piece of splatter?

 

[Tree09]

Yup, they love to find ears too, hence the goofy hats, which are also used for dust and rust

 

[CurSedVoyce]

I cant make too much heat over the drive motors either. Trying not to remove those.... PITA. Adds another day to the project as well.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

4 o rings per drive motor, two hard pipe hydro lines. Double those o rings (I cant get local) if you loosen the other side of the hard lines. Need to pull and beat off drive wheels using a long bar from across machine. Sometimes heat as well that could possibly fry the outer seal. Unbolt motors and slide out.
I prefer to remove the motors when rebuilding or replacing. If you fug it up. No worries. Spending the 1200.00 anyway

 

[Tree09]

Good trick there is shove some stuff in there too act as a heat shield. Piece of plywood, maybe even some sheet metal and you'll be amazed at how close you can weld to stuff. Good way to protect hoses, wires, and stuff you don't want to get hot. Weld blankets or old weld jackets work great too. IF YOU HAVE A DC WELDER (ac can kill you like a toaster in a bathtub) you can even dump water on plywood and the blankets, i often do that all over the floor in mechanical rooms so you don't accidently start a fire, the sparks fall in the water and that's it. Worse than that you can even use ice to pack around what you're protecting, annoying but effective on terribly placed repairs. We have to weld over and next to cable trays all the time, with inches to spare, so this is my everyday struggle

 

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[Tree09]

Don't do the water part then!

 

[flushcut]

Yup, they love to find ears too, hence the goofy hats, which are also used for dust and rust

The sizzle in your ear canal is awesome. Lol

 

[CurSedVoyce]

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Motor time....

 

[flushcut]

Damn fine repair!

 

[Marc-Antoine]

Indeed, not much free room in the engine bay when all the stuff is back in place.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

All that muscle in a tiny itty bitty package.. that you can barely get a wrench in
Once the fuel tank and shrouds are in place, lucky to squeeze a hand in there

 

[CurSedVoyce]

In fact, we fixed an irritating little issue after all these years. The wire to the starter solenoid is a blade connector that slides onto the blade fixed onthe solenoid. Over time, heat and vibration make that connection loose and eventually it can even fall off. You talk about a sumbiatch out in the field. Have to do it by feel. Almost two tight for a couple fingers. So we secured the blade connector through a hole in the blade and through the connector with stainless wire. Then added a bullet connector further out like everything else on the motor. That way, if we need to service, you can disconnect everything before you move the motor. Just moving the motor into position or out of it can unplug. Not anymore. Dumb set up. But its fixed .
Even the hydraulic control block. You have to remove connectors from outside towards the other end to replace o rings. Or service hoses. Like 6 there...
I think that one small return line from one of the pumps to the tank will eventually become a hose. About bang the crap out of fingers and the line placing the motor.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

You can also tig weld them, or it's a good spot to torch weld so you don't spatter and have more control. Stick use 7018 since there's less spatter if you can.

I have never had much fun with 7018. I had such a hard time starting the rod I had left, I think I need more new next time. Probably got damp in the enclosed shop. Noticed the back door open right next to it and our humidity has been high.
Never had good luck with it. Ran some 3/32 at105Amp and got what I needed done. But thanks for the tip.

 

[Tree09]

Yeah 7018 is a bit different, it has a heavy slag. When you first strike up you really need to warm the rod up a bit before you start welding, otherwise you'll get porosity on your starts, so strike up ahead of where you need to go then go back to the start. When you break arc the slag will usually ball up on the end, and if you then hammer that on the steel trying to start it the flux will flake off ruining the rod (or at least far enough up that you have to long arc it until it burns back to good rod again). The way to prevent that is to simply pinch off the end with your gloves, then it'll light up easier.

Another cool trick with 7018 is that when it burns the rod melts back more than the flux does (once it's up to welding heat). This allows you to drag the rod directly on the material once your arc has stabilized, and by using rod angle you can weld by simply letting it flow where you want it to go, lightly resting the rod on the plate the entire time. This removes the touch required to maintain a steady arc length since you're just dragging it on the metal, and while you can only run stringers that way it's the best way for doing most stuff. We usually weave uphill because it's faster, but stringers are technically more correct and I've been on jobs where that's all they allow. Here's a video where the guy's doing this technique, it becomes so comfortable that he actually goes 1 handed for a bit.

 

[cory]

Dude.

How on earth is treework an attraction for you when high level welding makes most of treework look like playing in a sand box at least in terms of technical depth and breadth of knowledge needed