You never want to remove a safety shield from a piece of equipment. But since these covers keep you and your clothes out of moving machinery, they take quite a beating.
The problem addressed with this welding project was a bracket connecting a safety shield to a piece of equipment. With vibration and stress, the bracket in the photo at left broke. That caused the shield to pull away from the machinery.
Our welding expert Joel Ort shows how to fix this problem. It costs nothing but welding time, and the repair can be completed in about an hour.
One thing Joel did surprised us: He didn't push the halves of the bracket back together. Since stress caused the break, he didn't want to recreate the stress by pushing them back in place and then laying in a weld. Instead, he placed his weld into the open space between the two bracket pieces. Joel believes that should reduce the amount of stress that lead to the break in the first place.
1. With time and vibration a bracket holding a safety shield to a mower broke in two. The break caused this separation and created a loose shield.
2. Before removing the broken bracket, our welder spot-welded the halves in place. The idea was not to force the two halves back together, recreating the same stress.
3. As always, grind away old paint and rust to create a good ground. Joel also ground smooth the tack weld he made in step No. 2.
4. Here are the reconnected halves. By essentially lengthening the bracket with the weld, it should not break again. Bolt it in place and you're back in business.