Whats the most usual thing that you have fixed?

[acwd1950]

A keyless drill chuck. The ring that moves the jaws in and out had cracked. So I tigged it up.

Steve

I meant unusual cant even work the spell check right

[m.k.swelding]

I burnt a hole on a brake line and decited to fix it with the tig. Holds good

[FusionKing]

So you want to know what is it we most often fix??
Well for me it would be busted skegs and leaking pontoon logs.

[Vicegrip]

A stainless medical device used by a OBGYN.

[vin-man welding]

A stainless medical device used by a OBGYN.

the break line might keep you guys up at night but this one keep's me up.LOL

[Jake SS]

Parking and speeding tickets, well not me exactly but a friend, does a great job for me!!!!!

Cheers

[acwd1950]

So you want to know what is it we most often fix??
Well for me it would be busted skegs and leaking pontoon logs.

I meant unusual and for some reason I clicked on the wrong word using spell check. I mean whats the most unusual thing that you have welded or fixed? Sorry for the confusion

Steve

[monte55]

Probably the strangest thing I have welded and it held was .........two of the four spider gears in the rear end of a 87 Dodge had some broken teeth. I built them up with mig and shaped with a grinder and reassembled. Worked fine. After I located new gears I replaced with new.

[Paul Seaman]

I fixed a tool that a rancher friend of mine uses. It is made to put rubber bands on Bulls for castration. Yes, I did wash it before, I touched it.

Wierd enough?

Peace,
Paul

[Burnt hands]

An art teacher at the gallery where I show my titanium sculptures called me and asked if I could possibly fix her camera tripod which had a broken leg.

I said of course figuring it would be a simple fix and would be good PR for me.

Well to my surprise, it was a professional model with a fluid head and very well built (and very expensive). She is a sculpture instructor and professional photographer and her photos are worthy of National Geographic.

So I looked at the broken part and did a few quick tests with a magnet to see if it was aluminum or possibly magnesium.

Carved off a few shavings to see if it would burn like magnesium

Didn't burn like magnesium so I figured it was aluminum - (mistake 1)

So with this in mind, I set up to tig the crack. ( mistake 2)

The top of the leg melted and I was stuck with a pile of bird droppings on the top of the leg. It wasn't aluminum!.

Possibly a zinc alloy but after this I was not going to experiment to see.

So after I finished cussing my stupidity, I went online to see what a replacement leg would cost for this tripod.

Cost was $140 as it is made in Germany.

The tripod itself was over $850 - ouch.

Decided to take a break before I messed things up even more.

Options:

1 - Tell the teacher I messed up and give her back the pieces - bad for the ego and truly not a solution

2 - Buy a new leg and install it. Worse for the ego (coward's way out I thought)

Luckily she told me that there was no hurry to fix it.

So I stewed, simmered and kicked myself over the weekend wondering what I could do. Had some friends over for dinner and told them about my dilemma.

They looked at my mess and one said it looked like the 6 million dollar man tv show in the 70's.

WOW - thanks guys - I can rebuild it better!.

Silly me, I didn't even think of using a different metal to fix the part.

So I rebuilt the leg top and pivot using stainless steel pieces I had around.
No problem tigging this time and no surprises.

While the original leg was threaded to connect to the top plate, I made a stainless cap and pinned it to the leg.

Took off the "kick me" sign I had put on my back.

The rebuilt leg works well and both the teacher and I were very happy.

She wanted to pay me but I said it was a simple fix so no charge.

What I learned by thinking outside the box was well worth it.