Repairing Thin-Wall Square Tubing

[Beltzington]

The wood chipper I am rebuilding has a badly bent feeder control arm made from thin wall 1" square tubing. Originally I was going to try and reheat and straighten but in addition to being bent and twisted the mounting bolt holes are badly wallowed. The simplest solution will be to remove the damaged section and replace with new tubing, however I have not had much like finding a square tubing coupler that will fit tightly over the existing tubing and I am not sure I have the skills to stick weld the repair without burning through the metal.

I undertook this project as a learning experience, anyone have a solution that would fit in my skill-set? I am not against paying a fabricator for this repair but still would have the issue of acquiring the correct size tubing.

 

[flyerdan]

1" square should be available at any steel supplier in at least three thicknesses, you can always go up a size if the current one appears to be too light for the task. I've done lots of welding on thinwall (.0625" 16ga.) tubing with a wirefeed and .035" wire. Ideally you'd use smaller wire, but I had to go from .0625 to .250 regularly and couldn't be switching wire rolls all the time.
Are the mounting holes that are wallowed out on a flange, or in the tubing itself; either way the easiest would be to replace with new and duplicate the layout. This is one of those rare cases where a 110 welder would be fine.

 

[mcfarmall]

I would cut out the damaged section, replace it with new and TIG weld the new to the old but it sounds like this path might be outside your skill-set.

 

[Stimw]

When welding thinner metal to thicker metal you concentrate you heat on the thicker metal.
That is when proper heat setting is important.
You also have some control of the heat stick welding by increasing or decreasing the rod/arc distance.
It all takes practice.

 

[Beltzington]

I do not have a wire or TIQ welder only an 230v stick welder, but, it just occurred to me if I can find tubing that will either fit over or into the original tubing I can just overlap the two pieces and secure them together with two bolts. Hopefully I can find someone who has the right size, most of the metal fabricators in the area I have dealt with have all been polite but it was clear I wasn't making them any money with these small requests.

Stimw, thanks for the advice you posted as I was updating.

 

[MossRoad]

I've purchased from these folks on-line several times. They may have something that fits. If not, keep them in mind for other uses. Surprisingly reasonable prices and shipping.

Online Metal Store | Small Quantity Metal Orders | Metal Cutting, Sales & Shipping | Buy Steel, Aluminum, Copper, Brass, Stainless | Metal Product Guides at OnlineMetals.com

 

[Jeepnford]

If they're not critical welds you might try welding without laying a continuous bead. I guess like a series of tacks and not letting it over heat. You might be able to find some small tubing at a farm or hardware store. The TSC store here has an assortment of small tube.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

Some pictures and actual dimensions of the tube may help us determine possible solutions. I am not a TIG or MIG guy but on thin wall stuff I often use an O/A torch. Also brazing can be done with an acetylene or propane/air torch (the propane ones are cheap). Us still living in the past have to resort to past practices. Sounds like you may desire to increase the strength of the replacement part.

Ron

 

[rankrank1]

At a minimum find you some 1/16" diameter 7014 stick rods. (while a 1/16" diameter rod is not the easiest rods to stick weld with the ease of 7014 makes it borderline tolerable anyway. I personally hate all other kinds of 1/16" diameter rods but the 7014 ones are usuably decent).

Even better yet is 5/64" 6013. These are shorter and the extra diameter of this 5/64 are just enough to keep the rod flexing all over the place as compared to a flimsy 1/16". My favorite stick rod to weld thin metal with when forced to use stick mode. Only downside to them is they hard to find and when you do find them they will cost more on a price per pound basis than say a common 3/32" or 1/8" diameter rod as they mostly sold in 1 lb job packs. Regardless they are worth having around for anyone who lacks a wire feeder or tig unit - when the only tool available is a stick welder.

 

[rhunt]

You can go to either Lowes or Home Depot and find the steel you need there. A steel yard would be the cheapest but either of the box stores I mentioned would do. They sell in 3 and 6 foot lengths. Also Tractor Supply sells steel. Bob