Tractors, Mowers, Chippers, Trailers, Chainsaws, Generators, Boat Engines, Flood Control, & Census.

The hooks will be redone before it goes on the bucket. They’re probably okay, the first pass looked better, but I buggered the next one pretty good. Unless you are referring to a different weld you think is suspect? I am admittedly an amateur with a welder.

 

That's great that you are learning a new skill.

Almost all the welds on both the receiver and hooks look a little "ropey".

My opinion is a touch too much wire speed and moving the whip too fast and/or too little heat.

I like a flatter weld, but that's my style. Extra wire deposited doesn't always equal more strength.

I don't feel the receiver will ever be an issue. That has lots of perpendicular welds that will help with any poor welds. As long as the hitch is not for pulling a trailer down the xway, you will be fine.

The hooks bother me the most. As they are always used with chain, which has no stretch. Doing a jerk pull, puts all the stress on your welds. If they fail, they are going pop off and be a projectile.

Don't get me wrong, I love people taking on projects for themselves. After all, that's why we are all in this thread.

My apologies if I seem too " preachy".

I'd love you to post these pics in the anything welding thread. Other opinions than mine could be valuable. We all were new at welding at one time.

 

"My apologies if I seem too " preachy"."

You aren't preaching at all Kirk, you are sharing your knowledge, experience and skills so others can learn and improve their skills.
Things like this are what make this and the shop thread awesome.


BTW: Truly preachy people tend to say "I'm right & smart and you are wrong & dumb".

Unfortunately I have met many over the years. I hope they are happy with their legacy of "being the best" -- maintained by a hostile refusal to make any attempt to improve the junior people under them. They had conveniently forgotten we were all new at one time, just like you said.

 

I welcome the criticism. When I get home next week I’ll grind the hook welds down and reapply. That’s why it’s still sitting on my bench. I generally don’t play with the settings much, I set according to the thickness and let the machine figure out what speed/voltage should be. I didn’t know we have a welding thread, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

 

I found the welding thread. What is the “shop” thread called?

 

Here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...hat-wasn’t-fun.669927/page-3536#post-28268860

 

Years ago working weekend night shift a boss came to me, someone had told him I could weld -- yeah, right...

I taught myself with a 120 volt stick job that looked like (and worked as well as) a battery charger.

Naturally (being young, dumb and wanting to impress the boss) I said "sure!" BTW: I was just a worker, there was a shift "Mechanic" but he couldn't weld. (...and really neither could I...)

Down in the Utilities shop I am faced with giant ESAB industrial MIG welder. There was no youtube back then and I had only read about MIG welders, never actually seen one. I turned the gas on (knew that much) and went to it - the machine was set on medium 5.
I welded the bracket and took it to the boss, he was pleased and I became his welding guy.

Since I only had a hazy understanding of how the machine worked, every time I set it to medium 5 (didn't claim to be swift).
Eventually I graduated to a Mechanic position and did more welding, one day someone ( ) had left a birds nest of wire in the feed, I open the cover to investigate:
there is a chart with the settings under the cover ...

 

Those charts aren’t right, you have to go by sound

 

Popcorn popping=bad

Gently frying eggs= good

 

Thank you! I love shop talk. I sometimes struggle with motivation to do things, but I really like to do things myself whenever possible.

LOL
I’m somewhat luckier, YT does exist now and I have watched many hours of how to welding videos. I bought a used Miller 211 for a good price. It really seams to be setup to be a beginner’s machine, with a lot of automatic features.

 

At least I was closer. I didn't learn the egg frying thing until later.
It beat the heck out of welding everything at medium 5...

 

So I scored what I feel as a pretty sweet deal today.

Found a Haban 63" pull behind on FBM and a donor riding mower with a 16.5 B&S I/C. Motor runs good and is complete electrically. Riding mower actually runs and drives. Haban needs a couple of idler pulleys and a motor pulley, belts, and blades. It is also missing 2 belt guards and the bumper. It has new tires even...Spindles are good. It even came with the owners and service manuals.

I plan on sanding/grinding the surface rust/paint off and then reassembling it. At $275 I didn't even haggle the guy. The motor put on the Haban and the minor issues addressed is an easy $800+ mower around here.

Plan is to keep it though and take my 44" Haban and make a rough cut mower out of it by grabbing the parts from Swisher. The 63" should make my mowing at my cabin much quicker.

 

I hope that motor pulley is already removed. Those are horrible to remove.

 

What I am really hoping for is the one from the riding mower is the same or close enough size to the stock Haban pulley.... Cause that would be, something lol.

 

Had some 3” pipe at work but it wasn’t long enough, turned one down, bored the other out and glued it together. I got 2 caps so it will slide all the way in and hopefully it’ll stay dry.

Where I got the idea.



Mine will be going here.







This is a 16’ 3/8” chain, have about 5” of pipe left.

 

Put a hook on the internal side of the plug and hook the chain up to it so it comes out when you uncap it. Although it looks like the pipe is wide enough to fit your hand inside.

 

Just stumbled on this thread after all these years.
Saws are my hobby. I used to help my friend with his tree biz, and now that I am older
I do the firewood cutting for the both of us.

Some of the equipment I've owned over the years:




Husky 385 & 395, both woods ported (pop-up piston, squish reduction, high speed coil, intake/exhaust ports widened ,
muffler opened, timing advance). Woods ported saws normally are tuned to 800-1200 rpm + over stock.

I had a ported Husky 372 OE that was tuned to 15,700 rpm, roughly 2,700 rpm over stock. It was a screamer.




Stihl 064, woods ported


Over the years I've had many Stihl's, Husky's & Jonsered's

Mostly run stock saws now as starting a 210 psi 395 is too hard on my shoulders.
The only ported saw I have left is a Husky 350 with a ported 346 top end on.

 

Top pic is stock Husky 395

Bottom pic is stock Stihl 661R

Splitter is Brute Force box wedge. It can handle wood up to 40" across , high deck plate so hardly any bending over. It does produce a good amount of trash though.

 

One of those pictures you can smell

 

A few more
Brute Force w/ conveyor



^ Last March this is what awaited after a 23 tree takedown job by my friend