Spitter repair....

We have some hard wood out here in the West. Was splitting some oak the other day and heard a weird pop. Looked down and seen this...





Since I only have a small 120v wire feed welder, I called a buddy that has some better equipment. Since he just retired, and Is always up for some welding or just about anything else, I gave him a call. He tends to go a bit overboard, but mostly because he doesn't want to have things fail (crane operator for 40 years). The resulting repair should work...

 

Wow... that’s a lot of material. What kind of welding did he do? Did a great job!!

 

Just the simple fact that he ground everything clean says a lot

 

Nice looking work.


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220v wire feed

 

Yeah, just the start. actually cut off the vertical steel part, ground it back to a "V", and then started with beads. He said it should hold, but if not, bring it back and his some has some other welder type that I had never heard of. I think he said 78-110? I think it will be fine...

 

Frank, the only oak I've encountered that was that tough was dried about 6 years. Was that Valley or Live Oak?

 

He said it was white oak. Not sure how long this stood dead. It came from Palo Cedro. He was doing storm cleanup on the property and the owner asked if he could take those trees down. He did and hauled them home. It is really hard stuff. Harder than the fresh Euch and Almond I have been cutting.

I bet your getting some more snow today...

 

I thought you had a broken cuspidor

 

I wish! I'm down in Modesto freezing my a$$ off, wishing I was home where it's warm.
Doesn't look like much yet.

 

Let me ask a question to you Certified welding experts out there. I've just learned from experience and when I do deep heavy welds I normally grind down like this:



Each of those 3 flats are 1 1/2 inches thick. I will run a bead, then another bridging(moving side to side) and then a 3rd pass bridging even more.



End result looks like this and the bead is just over 1/2" wide.

My question is this. Is it stronger to make smaller beads like the OP shows above or bridge across and increasing the amps like I've done here. I'm using a Miller 250X wirefeed. Haven't had failures doing this but was wondering what the "correct" way is. Thanks.

 

One day I'll learn to spell (or at least spell check!)

 

We will have to meetup one day. talk chainsaws and such.

 

Yeah, should be fine...but if it pops again I'd weld a gusset on the front or rear (both?)

 

That looked like Mig welding to me. With all that layering of the weld I do not think you will have another problem with it.

 

Nice looking welds, plenty hot. I think it kind of depends on the amperage available. It's hard to get a puddle like yours with a 180 amp machine, so you make multiple passes. I'm betting the repair was done with flux core wire.

 

Regarding the failure, it was probably coming for a while. Blame it on that 35 ton splitter. Do much sideways splitting Frank?

 

Yep, sniff tailpipes etc.

 

Is that the Brave Wood General? First failure I’ve seen there from Brave/Iron and Oak products. Usually it’s a wedge/ram area problem.

 

One thing about it, he's not afraid to use enough rod!! Good for him, It would be nice to have a welder that would burn rod and lay it in like that, but, i don't, yet. lol