Welders? Any welders on this site?

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What if you welded a plate on the underside of the Cchannel, rear most support of your hitch. I know a boxed section has more resistance to torsional flex than just Cchannel.
 
I would get Lincoln or esab rods, i hadn't even considered the fact that other brands of rod even existed :lol: They showed up with some junk brand 7018 at work once, i tried some messing around welding hangers one day and could barely get it to work at all. You can get by just fine with a buzzbox, but you need good rods no matter what, and getting ac ones probably wouldn't hurt although I'm pretty sure it's not required. I haven't had to since i don't do well heads, but apparently ac is used on magnetized pipe with 7018 from time to time (extreme cases obviously), likewise the magnets won't bother you much with ac, with dc it'll push your arc everywhere but where you want it, called arc blow. Before mig when everything was welded with 7024 in a shop, ac was the preferred polarity exactly because of the arc blow (all square/ straight welds have arc blow a bit), so 7014 or 7024 would be another option as well, and would definitely run good on ac.

With 7018 you simply hold a tight arc and let it fill, with a high enough heat and a bit of a drag angle you can literally drag it slowly on the joint and it does the rest. I run 3/32 at 90 to 95 amps, you set your heat by when you burn an entire rod the stub should be glowing red or even orange, if it's melting so much that it's getting soft and bending before you're at the numbers printed on it it's too hot. Don't try to weave it or anything when welding flat/ horizontal like that (or fillet welds overhead), uphill you can weave. I wish i could simply have you over and show you, you'd have it down before the 2nd beer!
 
Often times on repairs you need to factor in design flaws .I did a repair on my lady's daughters recently on a zero turn mower. It was plain as the azz on a goat it came screwed up from the factory .What were they thinking ?I laid enough enough 7018 to those broken welds to pass pressure hull rating on nuke submarines .it will never fail again .Plus did it with a buzz box using Forney rods made to run AC/DC .Regular Lincoln rods are DC reverse .they won't run on AC .You can up hill with 7014 but it's tricky and get about the same results .Grind it down and run two cover passes,one on each side 6011 down hill,hot so it doesn't look like pigeon chit . I've got DC machines but they are not portable ..
 
My welding project showed up today. I guess there are enough people keeping old Toyotas going to make these worthwhile. $51 to my door is a bargain.
welds on it look really nice too, would never get any reputable fab shop to even think about fixturing that for $51!

I think you got a good deal, I wonder what a welded diff cover for my C7500 would cost, if I recall its around 24" diameter, but I never measured it, big eaton solid axle
 
That Toyota looks really nice, Dave. I think you made a great choice picking that up.
It was really a no-brainer. Worst case scenario, I'll have $2,200 in it, and that's with new diff bearings, ring and pinion, and new bumpers. Included in that is title and registration. I'll make that back just in the days that I won't have to call out due to snow. Looking forward to hitting some rough backroads that the Golf wouldn't like very much.
 
I've just decided on my other welding project a few minutes ago. My original Central 6048 sprung a leak two winters ago. I got another used one last year, but it was leaking a little all last winter. It now has a serious leak, and it looks like the entire bottom of the firebox is very bad. My old boiler is actually in much better shape internally, but suffered severe external damage when I relocated it. I've decided to build a new base for it, and strip all the circuit boards off it and use a simple aquastat to open and close the draft door. I think that will improve the reliability by by least 1,000%. I don't want anything to do with OWBs, but I don't have 6-7 grand for oil.
 
Edit: Dave, this is in reply to your post on the Toyota, not the boiler :).
Sounds better and better.

Just to be the Devil whispering in your ear...instead of a stock bumper replacement, how about an aftermarket kit that accepts a winch? I think you could get a precut, self-weld kit for between $500-$800, and another $500 or so could put an 8k Warn winch in it...less if you go used.

You have so little $ in it to start, you might be able to afford a little bit of extra and still have a relatively small investment all up.

Go on, you should do it...sayeth the Devil :D
 
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Or just build one from pipe or channel, you build stuff more complicated than that Dave, I've seen it! I would consider adding a receiver tube to it, and then have a winch mounted on a hitch so you could pull it when you wanted. Then you can also move trailers around super easy too. Or permanently mount a winch and still add the receiver tube. I've been wanting to build one for my truck, narrowly missed another deer on the interstate going to work this week that would have had me kicking myself for not getting it done yet.
 
Be cautious of the receiver hitch mounts for a winch. I said this here, some long time ago, and still hold by it...

 
@Burnham was it the hitch on the truck that broke or the winch mounting part? I'm not doubting you I'm just trying to understand the failure mode because I've used a hitch mounting for both my chipper crane and log trailer crane, and if it's a crap design i need to fix that. The chipper crane is a slight side pull, and since it's a light pull (approximately 1k) I wasn't too worried, but the log trailer one is going to be 2k and will be at a substantial angle so i may need to rethink it. I was even toying with the idea of trussing the booms, and then adding a winch/ capstan made from a rear differential i have, which i was considering also mounting on a hitch setup if i could get it small enough so i could move it between the 2 setups as well (more to follow as well possibly).

I have an old hand crank worm gear derrick winch i found for $40, and have decided to use that to adjust the boom angle of the sheerlegs. That way i could adjust them under load if need be, and it would give me another wire rope winch which will be handy on occasion for running 2 hoist lines for different applications without needing to use a chain fall. It would be a hand crank winch, but for certain tasks like flipping parts around it would be handy. I welded a receiver tube on and currently have the sailboat winch from the chipper on there, and for the light loads that it can generate it seems to be doing fine, but for the bigger derrick winch i may need to rethink it. I was hoping to have the derrick winch on a hitch mounted setup too so i could use it elsewhere, so input would be greatly appreciated, thx guys. Some pics so my ramblings make sense, i think we can all agree my awesome drawing will be lacking here :lol:


The chipper crane, the load goes from the winch to the block...

Screenshot_20231031-231803_Photos.jpg Screenshot_20231031-231816_Photos.jpg Screenshot_20231031-232008_Photos.jpg




And then the log trailer, dramatically more side pull. It's welded to the c channel frame of the trailer, but this is definitely a side pull. Once again from the sailboat winch the the block. I've got the parts all prepped, I'm picking away at fixing the winch up so it's ready to go, basically adding grease zerts and cleaning it up at this point. Holes drilled on a big chunk of c channel to mount it to, and the hitch part cut ready to torch holes for the pin and weld it up. Thx again sir.

Screenshot_20231031-232102_Photos.jpg Screenshot_20231031-232116_Photos.jpg
 
Kyle @Tree09, it was the mounting of the hitch receiver on the truck that failed. It was not an issue of breakage, but rather that the receiver folded over to the side, rotating a bit and bending the mount points it was welded to.

I've wished more than once that I'd taken pictures. But alas, no. Anyway, the truck/winch/mount belonged to a "forest visitor" as we were told to refer to folks out and about on the National Forest, when I was gainfully employed thereon :).

He was trying to help another "forest visitor" get back on the road after somehow getting in a place that was not on the road :D.

The winch mount, a slide-in unit for a 2 inch receiver, manufactured by Warn, was undamaged. All the bending/folding/twisting was in the receiver mount on the truck.

My memory was that it was a Ford F250, maybe an early to mid 2000's. Looked to me like a factory mount.

Hopefully this can help. Ask away if maybe I can be more specific.
 
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