Thread: Welding Assistance in Adelaide - Please - Engine Crane

Hi All,

I have been using my cheep Chinese engine crane for tasks that it perhaps was not initially intended to be used for - removal of trees!
One of the welds (pictured) has started to show the signs of stress and could possibly do with a little touching up. The way I see it I have two options:

1. Find some more red paint, slosh it around the general area and wait for it to be dry. This will bring it back to the original condition as I don't think it was actually welded before.

2. Throw myself to the mercy of a handy welding forum member in the Adelaide area who may be able to make it better than new (no red paint needed).

So if anybody in Adelaide may be able to help out (or you know of somebody in Adelaide) please let me know. Happy to pay for your time, just let me know how much and where I need to go. Hoping to get it done sooner than later as there is still a lot of trees to remove!

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Thanks for looking.

Stinky.

Hi Stinky, if you are able to bring it to Murray Bridge, can do the job for you, if no one else offers. $10.00 to do, is that OK.
Kryn

I'm closer (Beulah Park) but unlike Kryn I'm not formally trained.
Your choice...

Michael

3rd option, Aberfoyle Park. Happy to help as well.
Cost would be $0.00 (+ GST)

Two things come to mind looking at your photo, firstly. Isn't it amazing just how much a crappy weld will hold. Secondly, there's every reason you ever needed to not place any part of your body under a suspended load.
I wonder how many of these cranes are in circulation displaying such high class welding?

Wow, I've got a glue gun that probably would do a better job than that - scary.

Name and shame I reckon - doesn't matter if you're pulling out trees or not, that sort of thing just isn't acceptable.

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

Hi All,
I have been using my cheep Chinese engine crane for tasks that it perhaps was not initially intended to be used for - removal of trees!.

Reminds me a bit of a neighbour who tried to remove a small tree stump by chaining it to his car bumper and reversing away at speed, as well as tearing the bumper off it twisted the chassis and it was deemed a write off.

Because of the thinness of the upright, I'd run a couple of plates 150 long (50 up on the support, 100 down the side) to help support the rest of the frame. It would help to sand off the top 120 mm of the main upright and 75 mm off the side plates and around the corners a bit, to help with who ever welds it up for you.
Kryn

Hi Stinky, if you have a day off during the week you could call in to my workplace at Lonsdale and I can MIG it better than new. would help if you could dismantle and bring in the upright only. Gratis mate!

Because of the thinness of the upright, I'd run a couple of plates 150 long (50 up on the support, 100 down the side) to help support the rest of the frame. It would help to sand off the top 120 mm of the main upright and 75 mm off the side plates and around the corners a bit, to help with who ever welds it up for you.
Kryn

Thank you all for the replies. To be honest I wasn't expecting much of a response so it is a testimony to these forums that I have had no less than 4 members willing to offer help within hours of the initial post.

No real need to name and shame the manufacturer. It is the typical off the shelf $300 2T engine crane that can be purchased from any of the car spare parts places or Ebay. I purchased it for a one off job, moving and old jointer and it did this well (actually on a number of occasions now). As I have been clearing the garden it has been useful for pulling roses and small shrubs without the need for digging as it is possible to pull up the smaller plants, roots and all. It certainly isn't as effective on the larger trees but does ok if you just attack one of the larger roots at a time.

The reason for the failure is that the tree roots are not typically directly under the lifting point (like a stationary engine would be) so there is quite a lot of sidewards strain on the lifter as it starts to pull them away. It did made a large bang when the weld started to let go and then from that point on has begun to open up like a can - it has now started to loose strength which is why the need to get it fixed.

Certainly the welding isn't the best and I would guess it is only held in a few small places. It has done its job however. I would suspect that any fix would be much better than the original.

Obviously with a number of members offering help it has been hard to select. I have made contact with Gavin however and will head down tomorrow to get it done. I would have been happy to go with anybody however I have a site down Gavins way that I am looking at for a client and I can drop past for a look on the way home killing two birds with one stone as they say.

Thanks again everybody for the interest and offers of assistance.

Cheers

Michael

Michael, you're more than welcome and glad you are able to get it done, nice to know there were plenty of offers to help.
Kryn

I just wanted to publicly express my thanks to Gavin Newman for taking some time out of his Sunday morning to assist me (actually do it for me) with this little job.
All up it was done in about half an hour and involved obviously some cutting, grinding and welding

It was also interesting to see a well equipped metalwork shop as compared to the woodworking shop. Plenty of parallels with having the right machines for the job and the layout of the shop for maximum workability. I also got a good run down on the different types of welders as I often read about the use of the different types and was helpful to go through the basics.

I took a few photos of Gavin's work just before the indignity of covering it all up with some black kill rust as I didn't have any red handy. Certainly a much better job than the original and should hold up to the task. We did discuss the other strengthening options as suggested by Kryn however at the end of the day this new weld is going to be much stronger than the original and it is likely something else will give way before this weld.

The last photo is not of me but my little man (helper). This was last week before the weld started to let go. He certainly gives it a work out and now its back up and running I will have to get him back out again.

Thanks again Gavin and also everybody else who offered assistance.

Cheers

Michael



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Your story reminds me of my brother, that spent about 4 hours trying to get a root ball onto a tandem trailer, he tried pulling it on with his 4WD, rolling it up some ramps, dragging it up again with the 4WD, all to no avail, so he went to a local spare parts outlet and $350 later, came back and loaded up the stump in 10 mins. It's never been used since for anything.
Kryn

Originally Posted by Sir Stinkalot

I just wanted to publicly express my thanks to Gavin

Now all you have to do is cut it all up into bits, section and etch the welds and see how good the welds are