So I have had this mower deck in my garage all winter that I have been rebuilding, rather lazily, through out this period of time. Today I decided that it really needed to be done. With weather changing for the better, I am sure that Mark was going to be needing it sometime soon.
A few months ago I had gotten it all cleaned up and fixed some of the damage that was present. I had removed a prior patch job that was sloppily done and repaired some thin, cracked sections of the deck which needed to be strong to support the pieces that bolted on in those locations. To strengthen the rusted and cracked metal, I backed these areas with some 14 gauge sheet metal. Areas which were to be completely replaced, were replaced with 1/8” metal.
The pictures below show the progress from a few months ago:
Tonight I was able to get the non-discharge side completely fabricated and welded back together. It is amazing how fast it actually goes back together. My little Millermatic 140 welder still continues to amaze me. For the old to new metal welds, I had to dial it back so as not to blow through, but with the new metal welds I had it turned all the way up and it burned in very well. There were some spots which ended up with some porosity for some reason, but they were old to new metal welds so I do not know if it was just something in the old metal.
Anyway, pictures… Mark, these are for you:
There still are a few other areas which need attention before I can call this one done. I just wanted to show the progress that was being made so Mark would not think I was putting it off.
Hopefully I can get it finished up over this long weekend. I want to discuss some other areas with Mark first to see if he would like me to just replace them or leave them as is.