Advice wanted: welder settings for brush hog deck repair.

[coss]

I have a King Kutter 6 foot rotary cutter. A portion of the deck has come detached from the frame. I am a novice welder. I have a Powr Kraft 230/140 AC/DC stick welder. I was planning on welding angle steel from an old bed frame onto the deck to span the gap between the deck and the frame, and to reinforce the area.

1. What welding rod would you recommend? (Both number and diameter).
2. AC or DC?
3. What amperage would you start with? My welder will go down pretty low, to the 20-30 amp range.

Thanks.

 

[LD1]

How thick is the angle iron?

The KK deck is likely 12ga. I'd go with 6013 or 7014 rod, 1/8" @ 75ish amps on DC is where I would start. Might have to adjust amps up or down. Up if you have issues with rod sticking, down if it seems like its running too hot and will burn through

 

[CCWKen]

Bed frames aren't a particularly good steel to be welding. It's normally a high strength steel. It will probably crack at the welds if stressed.

 

[Trials]

As a rule when you are attempting to weld thin metal you want to use a thin rod. Thin rods will need a lower power setting. Welding thicker metal (angle iron) to sheet metal means you will be going for penetration of the thicker metal and hopefully tacking that to the sheet metal. The whole thing is going to need to be cleaned of paint to weld, so after you're all done the bare metal surfaces that are inaccessible to paint and that have been exposed to heat are going to rapidly rust.

Nuts and bolts combined with fender washers would be a far better solution to welding given the circumstances you described.

 

[LD1]

For an old bushhog, and a stick welder, it don't need to be free of paint and rust unless you plan on using mig or tig.

Forget bolts and fender washers on a bushhog. Weld it and be done. There is a reason they aren't all bolted together from the factory. If it truly was better, that's how they would have been built

 

[dickfoster]

For an old bushhog, and a stick welder, it don't need to be free of paint and rust unless you plan on using mig or tig.

Forget bolts and fender washers on a bushhog. Weld it and be done. There is a reason they aren't all bolted together from the factory. If it truly was better, that's how they would have been built

You should clean all metal before welding it but only if you want it to stay welded.

 

[Shield Arc]

Whenever I have to weld a thick section to a thin one. I use a J motion. The long part of the J I keep on the thicker metal, the curl of the J just touches the thin metal.

 

[LD1]

You should clean all metal before welding it but only if you want it to stay welded.

Welded on lots of rusted or painted metal with the stick.

When you say "stay welded"....for how long. Because it's all STILL welded. Some of the stuff going on 15-20 years now. Should I be expecting a failure at the 25yr mark or 30 yr mark because the metal was surface rusted or painted?

 

[Underdog57]

Whenever I have to weld a thick section to a thin one. I use a J motion. The long part of the J I keep on the thicker metal, the curl of the J just touches the thin metal.

Thanks for another great tip SA!!

 

[Turbys_1700]

We never ground off rust when welding here on the farm...
No failures yet but that is the correct procedure...
We used 1/8 and 3/16 rod here on implements and set the welder at 75 to 85...
Our old AO Smith welder did a good job but it sent out sparks that would put 4th of July fireworks to shame...
Think is was a 20-18...
It was a horse...