jon f mn
Well-known Member
Ok so the weather was just ok today so I did the repair. I still don't have electricity in my shed so I had to go to my friend Jeff's house and use his machine shed. You will see that the conditions are far from perfect and I did have some trouble with wind while working on the side repair.
I started by sawzalling the crack out a bit then pulling it with a come-a-long.
If you want to work iron you really need to get a few "Dead Blow" hammers. This is the one I used here, but I have 2 ball peens as well. If you don't know what a dead blow is it has a hollow center in the head that has lead shot in it. This type of hammer won't bounce and delivers a more powerfull blow. they work great.
Only took a couple of blows on the bottom to take the crease out down there. Took a little more to get the dents out where the forks hit. Had to use hard hammers there. I did get it nice and straight tho.
I cut a piece of angle to fit under the side lip. I used 3/16" but that was thicker than necessary since the side is only .100 thickness plate.
I put it under the lip and welded only the lower edge and the inside corner. In a situation like this you don't want to weld across the lip because tha will create a weak spot that could break again. You can weld as much as you want lenghth wise as log as you don't cross the flange. I forgot to take pics during the welding here but here is the finnished repair.
I started by sawzalling the crack out a bit then pulling it with a come-a-long.
If you want to work iron you really need to get a few "Dead Blow" hammers. This is the one I used here, but I have 2 ball peens as well. If you don't know what a dead blow is it has a hollow center in the head that has lead shot in it. This type of hammer won't bounce and delivers a more powerfull blow. they work great.
Only took a couple of blows on the bottom to take the crease out down there. Took a little more to get the dents out where the forks hit. Had to use hard hammers there. I did get it nice and straight tho.
I cut a piece of angle to fit under the side lip. I used 3/16" but that was thicker than necessary since the side is only .100 thickness plate.
I put it under the lip and welded only the lower edge and the inside corner. In a situation like this you don't want to weld across the lip because tha will create a weak spot that could break again. You can weld as much as you want lenghth wise as log as you don't cross the flange. I forgot to take pics during the welding here but here is the finnished repair.
