Or here's an idea. Do any of the local tech colleges run welding and steel fabrication courses? I don't know if the same is true everywhere but round here, they often welcome the opportunity to do a real repair for someone, as it gives the students practical experience. Or can you not just bung the local garage or farrier a tenner or so to fix it properly?
That is exactly what is sort of holding it up at the moment - it won't stand up to any punishment. @clueless - farrier? Around here? I will speak to the engineers at work on Monday and see if one of them can weld it for me. Not sure about the colleges idea either, but if they did I might be tempted to enrol on a course to learn how to weld. Two skills I would love to learn - welding, and spray painting (proper, not from a can)
I did steel fabrication for a year when I was 17. I thoroughly loved it. The course involved 4 and a half days per week in the workshop, with proper hands on practical learning as well as actual commercial work under supervision. And half a day per week in a class room, learning pure theory to back up the practical. Most of the lads found the theory either difficult or boring or both, but I loved it. Back then I could have calculated the weight of steel girder needed to support a particular structure, where the force would be distributed, how many amps a mig welder would need to stick it, wire speed and gas flow etc to achieve a particular tensile strength, and how long it would take for the heat of the welding to propagate to specific points and what might catch fire if not correctly cooled and all that caper. I couldn't tell you any of it now though. All forgotten unfortunately. But alas, when I was a young man trying to force myself foot into the door of working life, nobody wanted a plater or engineer that wasn't time served. With the decline of local heavy industry there was no shortage of people with such skills and vastly more experience all looking for work. So I pursued my other interest and became a button presser.
It's easier to find someone who can ally weld than someone who can braze ally. And a product like this would probably be made of a grade of ally (if it is ally) referred to as monkey (or pig) metal which is pretty impure so won't braze at all well and barely weld either. If it was me I'd get it welded if it is steel - two minute job. Failing that make internal and external plates out of 6mm steel to cover the weld with about 50mm each side of the weld. Drill the outside one so that a M6 or M8 bolt passes through and drill and tap the inner one appropriately. Screw it together using a mushroom head bolt and cut the excess thread off flush.
I won't use the exact terminology that was used (suffice to say it was somewhat uncouth ), but suffice to say that the opinion is that the metal is pretty thin, and most likely is not steel, but some cheaper alloy that would be an utter sod to weld. To further add to the problem, the cover has been punctured as a result of the broken weld, so the best we would ever achieve would be a bodge. Mrs C got her eye on one that has sides (curtain style), that appears to be a more sensible design in as much as it doesn't have the angled corners. It arrives tomorrow. The old one is dismantled, and I have stacked it away, as I have plans........ By using the four uprights that were the legs, and cutting the 8 side bars to lengths, I will then be able to drill through them and using bolts and washers I am going to create two shelving units for the greenhouse - that way, it is only really the cover that is not used. The cover, well I have some waterproofing spray, so I might use it to make a cover tarp to cover the table, chairs and chimnea when we store them in the greenhouse over winter.
Sorry to hear it was impossible to mend but and happy that you can re-purpose so much of it! Good one
Thanks @CanadianLori - If I had more time to play with, I might have tried to make some sort of repair that didn't look like a bodge, but I am working all this week and everyone is descending on us on Saturday around lunchtime. I've got enough to be doing with pressure washing the patio, and sorting out stuff indoors. Mrs C has worked wonders, bless her, whilst I have been at work and she has been on holiday - I arrived home the other day to find the porch all painted, which was a job I had planned for later in the summer.
Agreed. There are very few people around nowadays that have the skill to braze ally. Nowadays, the process used is (preferably) TIG. Here is an example I did for myself a few years ago that shows aluminium welded by this method... All that is needed to check if its steel or aluminium is a magnet. I would go for the @longk solution. Its more likely to succeed.
Now that is some welding skill you have there @Sandy Ground! I would love to be able to learn to weld like that. Looks like a radiator of a vintage/classic vehicle? If your workmanship there is anything to go by, the rest of the vehicle must be stunning!
Gazebo delivered this afternoon, and we have commenced building it up - already is it abundantly clear that it is a different beast entirely. For a start, the spider at the top of the roof is made of metal (not plastic) and the roof supports coming out of it are bolted into it - and there is eight of them as opposed to four. With the other one, the four ends of the roof supports simply shoved into holes that were in the top of the angled corner pieces and tension kept them there - - this one, they bolt on to a fitment at the top of the legs, with their counterparts half way along the sides also bolted on. There is a further smaller spider that sits atop the first one, with four supports, and it's job in life is to support the opening at the top (the one that lets the wind through to stop it blowing away); The legs are bolt through affairs, so no welds to fail there, and the metal is much thicker, heavier and it is definitely steel this time. So, all in all, I am not happy that a gazebo that cost us around £100 last year has failed so quickly, nor am I happy at having to shell out twice as much again - however, you can at least see why this one was double the cost. We will finish putting it up tomorrow, and will take some pictures.
That is one lucky vehicle then - anyone can patch a vehicle up, but it takes a whole lot of love and even more skill to restore them properly. If you get time once in a while, I'd love to see pictures as you progress (and I know for a fact that I won't be alone in being interested either). You have my utmost admiration, not only for taking a job of such magnitude on, but also for such an incredible eye for detail.
