Old Howse refurb

Fixing my old 5' Howse cutter up, figured I could throw up some pics while I'm at it. Step 1: cut the bolts and get the blades off since my impact wouldn't budge one, and the other it broke loose and just made the whole bolt free spin.
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Here's some pictures of what I'm starting with:
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Hitch is pretty messed up, think I'll make a new one. (Don't know how prev owner managed that.) It's getting a new tail wheel. Going to straighten out the tear and weld it back up as well. Skid plates are broken at the front and bent up inside the deck. There's other places that are dented and such that I'll straighten out a little. Can see the angle iron that the hitch is bolted to is torn up from the deck on the front edge, that will be fixed.
 
Got the bolts cut out yesterday. Got a little torch happy one one of them, but it's only the pan, didn't touch the bar so no problem to patch it up. Cut off the bent up skid plates, they were worn through at the front corner and thin up to about here. Will scab in new pieces and probably double plate the front corner. Another view of the tear from the bottom.

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Think I'll make a clevis hitch sorta like this. The slots on the Howse always seemed sorta janky to me.

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I like the cradle for the driveshaft too.
 
Put in a little time this morning. 3lb hammer with a 4lb hammer for an anvil got the tear pushed back in. Got it welded up. Ignore my doodoo welds, please. Been a while since I played with the squirt gun, usually use stick. The real bad spot inside the tear was with the old Lincoln flux core wire. It wasn't burning just right, at least for my adjustments. Swapped to Harbor Freight and surprisingly it burnt much better, got much deeper and hotter. Still needs some bending and straightening on the back, but it's close. It'll never be pretty. Got the blowthrough in the pan welded up and ground off too.

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Those are some pretty decent welds for a flux core welder my
little flux core was doing a fairly decent job until I changed
brands of wire and now it won?t do anything but bubble gum
and gobs of splatter . Is your welder a larger one ?
 
Not really. It's a Lincoln Pro-Core 125. It does OK for stuff that's too thin for 1/8" 7018. That's the only arc welding rods I keep on hand. :lol:
 
Did a little more welding, a little more beating, a little more grinding. Close. I think the left side is ready to put the skid plate back on. Right side needs a bit more beating.

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