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Before you scrap anything, why not take the frame to a welding shop and see what they can do? I have a local guy who i have seen do wondrous things with metal for little money. David > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:07:04 -0400 > From: Chris Zach <cz alembic crystel com> > To: elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu > Subject: (ET) Darn, the E15 is too far gone.... > Message-ID: <4CA7BB18 1050409 alembic crystel com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed > > Ah well, drat... > > Was working on the E15 frame today; rolled out the E20 and hooked up the > stick welder. Which actually is a very good welder, not going to work on > sheet metal but will penetrate deck steel properly. And being stick it > doesn't seem to mind welding to solid rusted metal as long as you wire > brush it a good bit. > > Used some clamps to hook up the new angle iron, fired up the welder, and > went to town. It's possible to balance an E15 on it's nose with the > motor out and the transmission off, so welding was not too bad. > > And when I was done sure enough the rear deck was solid. I was able to > stand on the rear corner, jump on it, and hit it with a 3 pound setting > maul with no problems. > > Then I took a look at the transmission bracket. There was still one bolt > fused into it; I tried everything to get it loose noticing that the > bracket's hold on the rusted side steel was very weak. Weak enough that > a single hit with the maul broke it off the frame. > > Not good. Welding that back on would pretty much require building a > whole new back end for this thing. That's not easy, requires a tight > alignment, and is a structural member that I can't trust my welds on. > > Oh well. I think this little E15 is shot. I spent about an hour removing > two of the rusted remains of the rear rivets. For some reason those are > an insanely hard carbon steel that requires about 20 minutes with the > saber saw and oil to cut. > > Any thoughts on what parts I should keep? The brake kit looks to be the > upgraded later model; I'll hang onto that. The peerless has pits in it's > shaft housing to the left wheel; I think what happened is that leaves > and crud were stuck there for years and they held water against the > metal like a sponge. Oh, wash your tractor at least once a year. > > Anything else? > > C > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Elec-trak mailing list > Elec-trak cosmos phy tufts edu > https://cosmos.phy.tufts.edu/mailman/listinfo/elec-trak > > > End of Elec-trak Digest, Vol 8, Issue 156 > ***************************************** |