Bad Welds?
- Thread starter Scm
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I had a good career for many years working as a welder and diver on construction sites, fabrication shops, shipyards etc., and passed numerous welding tests that were required during that time. It's easy to criticize welds but we don't always know the challenges that a welder faced whether it was equipment, contamination, time, bad prep or whatever. Without more information I wouldn't say too much about the qualifications or ability of the person who welded the loader, but I certainly wouldn't be pleased with the end results if I had worked on that thing.
North Idaho Wolfman
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Not directly related to the loader but when my neighbor welded hooks on my factory bucket he couldn’t believe some of the welds on the bucket and redid a few of them. Some of the welds before looked like I did them as I have no welding experience. That’s why I’m a bit hesitant to by anything from landpride or kubota that is made in the Kentucky factory or the US. Maybe that fear is overblown but knowing how much equipment is and seeing the poor QC it’s hard to justify the cost.
Chanceywd
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I think the rather sad thing here is we sometimes trust someone to help that isn't really qualified to help us out of the jam we find our selves in.
In your case it was welding but on this site we see it over and over with mechanical, hydraulic. electrical and even just use of tools and the tractors and attachments.
I worked in a 24/7 factory environment in "maintenance" and had to be the Jack of all trades master of non.
Being on call and woke up working a plan in my mind during the 30 minute drive because a monofilament shut down cost 10's of thousands.
I worked with others who over estimated their skills in welding. And as a result my group leader would assign me a task because Bob would run a bead so spotty and I am not kidding, he would smooth it up with silicone caulk and paint it with silver paint as a lot of our work was stainless. One time it was on a hot water bath draw tank and the water was leaking everywhere. I got the job of redoing his work.
I had the pleasure of removing not only a bad weld but silicone and aluminum paint.
I feel for you and what you are going thru, it just sucks to be where you are and unable to have a running machine you paid so much money for.
Bill
I helped a friend pull the stock motor out of a 74 Corvette and
install an LS2 with a 5 speed manual.
After getting the original drive train out it appeared that the frame
cross member under the engine was damaged and repaired by an amateur welder.
After further inspection we found that was not the case as all the welds on the entire frame looked like crap yet we found no cracks.
install an LS2 with a 5 speed manual.
After getting the original drive train out it appeared that the frame
cross member under the engine was damaged and repaired by an amateur welder.
After further inspection we found that was not the case as all the welds on the entire frame looked like crap yet we found no cracks.
There are several problems we’ve seen in this thread.
Yes…poor (almost no) penetration (not enough heat) in those welds. The beads were sitting on TOP of the base metal….Not “welded into” it.
But even poor welds should not be asked to do with what this crossmember is tasked: The Single Hydraulic bucket “tilt” cylinder on this design places the entire bucket-tilt-load onto that tube… basically “twisting” it off the loader arms.
Without extending the tube THrough the arms…. the tube should be given greater surface upon them. One method might be to slit the ends of the tubes and weld extensions up/down the inside-surface of the arms to spread the bucket tilt cylinder forces along the arms.
Otherwise, the bucket should have Paired tilt/dump cyls placed at the ends of the bucket and taken directly to the loader arms. (which is another reason (besides the thru-tube) the LA535 the other responder posted-about, doesn’t have this problem)
REally really poor design. When you get this thing fixed…. be gentle with the loads when tilting/dumping that bucket.
Here’s the two for comparison:
Yes…poor (almost no) penetration (not enough heat) in those welds. The beads were sitting on TOP of the base metal….Not “welded into” it.
But even poor welds should not be asked to do with what this crossmember is tasked: The Single Hydraulic bucket “tilt” cylinder on this design places the entire bucket-tilt-load onto that tube… basically “twisting” it off the loader arms.
Without extending the tube THrough the arms…. the tube should be given greater surface upon them. One method might be to slit the ends of the tubes and weld extensions up/down the inside-surface of the arms to spread the bucket tilt cylinder forces along the arms.
Otherwise, the bucket should have Paired tilt/dump cyls placed at the ends of the bucket and taken directly to the loader arms. (which is another reason (besides the thru-tube) the LA535 the other responder posted-about, doesn’t have this problem)
REally really poor design. When you get this thing fixed…. be gentle with the loads when tilting/dumping that bucket.
Here’s the two for comparison:
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I don’t think either DEI or SDG is the problem here and your derision of those admirable goals are a political distraction to the subject. (Doubtless, you wil now try to hijack this thread to denigrate anyone who believes ethnicity and sustainable-practices have nothing to do with bad welds.)
I never had an issue with the loader on the BX25 that I owned for five years. The design is sufficient for what it is, but bad welds can make even the best design fail. I sold the BX to the local Kubota dealer manager and he's had no issues over the last five years either and he pushes the little tractor pretty hard. He often sends me photos to show me that the BX is still going strong.
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I've never picked up a rock that big with my bucket.
Robots don't make bad welds, "under-qualified" people do.
Nor have I, or at least not with the BX. I've picked up much bigger with the MX and M.
Robots can make a bad weld for sure. But when they're set up right, and the conditions are right, it's hard to compete with a robotic welder.Robots don't make bad welds, "under-qualified" people do.