My forge welder cracked about 2 weeks into a big commission job

I was working on a set of custom gate hinges for a client in Austin when my old rivet forge welder gave out right in the middle of a critical weld. The frame just split along a hairline crack I'd never noticed before, and I had to scramble to finish the job with my backup propane setup. Anyone else had a forge or welder fail at the worst possible time, and what did you do to patch things up in a hurry?

2 comments

2 Comments

sandra7151d ago

Borrowed a friend's forge after mine cracked, same as @david821 said about finding weak points.

david8211d ago

Did the frame crack through an old repair or was it just a straight up fatigue crack that had been hiding for years? I've had the same thing happen with a MIG gun cable that finally shorted out halfway through a fence job, and I ended up just stripping the jacket and wrapping the bare wires in electrical tape to get through the day. Sometimes you can get away with brazing a cracked forge frame if the area isn't under too much pressure, but that only works if you have a torch and the right rod handy. It's always the big jobs that find your weak points right when you can't afford downtime.

-1