St Croix Shaft / Cage Weldment - Cage Weld let go!

Hello
After opening up the right side of the St. Croix Hastings, I found the cage lying on the floor and of course the versa shaker grate was not moving back and forth during stove normal operation. The burn pot Weldment was really stuck with black carbon and hard to remove due to excessive build up!
After carefully examining the old part and the new part, it looks like the failure was due to insufficient welds joining the shaft’s rod to the cage!!
Has anyone else seen this issue??
Pic 1-5 is the new part
Pic 6-7 is the old failed part

 

No problem here, but that looks like a very poor weld! Whoever did it should be embarrassed!

 

just curious...did the stove burn worse without the versa shaker working?

 

No as long as the Burn pot is clean
If burning a 50/50 corn mix, the shaker grate breaks up the biscuit formed by corn ash.