Craftsman Trail Rig

Well thats interesting because I used to run it around 3 for any thick stuff but my welds were always pretty cold and did not melt the base metal well.(This may be caused by poor prep work. Sometimes I get lazy about that.) I posted some pics on Instagram when I reinforced my spindles and a few people mentioned that I should turn my wire speed down and slow down. I've actually had alot of success welding like that. I need to experiment some more with it though. I feel like the low quality of the welder affects how much heat it can put down. I have seen way better come from a Lincoln 110. But I know a mower modder on Instagram who runs his Chicago 125 at one as well.

Also it never sputters it is pretty consistent as well. FearlessFront has a Lincoln 110 and he mentioned that he never turns his up over 2. But I'll experiment with some well prepared metal at speed 1, 2, 3, and 4 and see what my best result is. I weld with a Millermatic 252 at school and thats alot more straight forward because you can actually but it at what is says for the thickness and it welds great.

Sounds like a plan. You mentioned cold welds. To see if you are getting the right heat into the part, after welding turn the part over to see back side. The heat zone should be light blue. The color is a sign of how hot it gets. Light blue is the color you are after. One more thing, a clean tip goes a long way. Cut off a piece of welding wire. The end cut will have a bur on it. Remove the torch tip and use the bur to clean out  the hole where the welding wire goes through. This cleans the electrical connection from the power of the welder to the welding wire, which is the job of the tip. Carbon buildup inside the hole gives a bad connection to the wire sometimes. Or if you got a new tip you can put that in instead. You mentioned a cold weld and this would cause that by not all the power getting to the welding wire.

Well as some of you know I picked up a Sears suburban 12 on Wednesday.



The Sears will be taking the place of this build and the Bearclaws I have for this build will be put on the Sears. This mower will be returned to stock for the most part there will be a thread about that at some point as well as a thread for the Sears and my transaxle debacle. Sad to see it go but a Sears is just a better GT to build since I was gonna horizontal swap this thing anyway and Suburbans got way more class.

That's a nice looking unit, still has the removable grille piece intact too!

nice old school tractor ! what i started on mudding and trail riding about 35 to 40 years ago !!! wow that makes me feel old. But i'm still young at Heart and always will be

NEAT MOWER

AllisKidD21 wrote:

That's a nice looking unit, still has the removable grille piece intact too!

ya was very happy the nose was in good shape. Go check out the thread for it. More pics there.

diddie wrote:

nice old school tractor ! what i started on mudding and trail riding about 35 to 40 years ago !!! wow that makes me feel old. But i'm still young at Heart and always will be

I'm so glad I snagged it!! More pics on the thread for it.