Welding Tips and Tricks

I enjoy Destins series. Makes you realise that there is science all around.

That is funny:) Made me laugh for a while:)

Pretty funny....I'd like to give that a try.

We have a sign in our shop that says "Welders. Because even engineers need heroes."

Yup, I agree!

Thing is, I'm an engineer as a day job.
I work for an aero engine company on the electronics systems.
So I go to work in shirtsleeves and fly a desk.
My hobbies, however, are old cars and bikes, and I've got to be fairly proficient at the Mig welder.

I live in rural Gloucestershire, and many neighbours are farmers or smallholders, and I frequently get called on to revive machinery when it's died - I'm pretty good at that kind of thing.

My good neighbour broke his topper deck - the cutter mount cracked up the base plate beautifully - made a right mess.
I'd looked at it before, and wasn't impressed - the base plate was made innaccurately , so one set of belts were too tight, while the others were loose - the adjusters were at their maximum - and it's the tight hub that cracked.

He was in dire straits - needed it fixing ASAP, so I took the job on as a favour to a good neighbour.

So I popped up to his place after work, and brought the tractor and deck back to my garage to have a look at it.

Stripped it down, cleaned it up, chased out the cracks, flattened it all down, welded it all up, ground it back, made up strengthening plates and welded them on, correcting for the out of dimension base plate at the same time. I reassembled it all, sharpening the horribly blunt blades before I put them back - I even had some closely matching blue paint to put on it once I had done it.

I dropped it off the next morning, handing over the tractor and picking my beaten up old Range Rover to go to work.
All the farm hands were there, and saw me arrive in the tractor, wearing my usual business suit - quite incongruous in his tatty old tractor.

I had to press on, so didn't say much, hopped in my car and drove off, while they were all gathered around the topper deck, looking at the repair.

A few weeks later, i got some feedback.
"He's a softie engineer, but by eck he can weld nicely!"
I was pleased as punch...