Vermeer SC372 Design problems??

alrighty so this is new to me nice little vermeer stump grinder sc372 actually never worked on one  of these before and hadn't hardly ever even seen   one before of course you see them you know as  you're driving by yards and things and people   working on them but it's actually bigger machine  than i thought and uh and looked that one up close   and so i've never worked on one either but i don't  know if you caught the problem which is right here this has some cracks that have been developing most likely underneath a welder  tried you know welding the outside   which is fine because they try to make it last  which is good but sometimes the underlying problem   is actually underneath this so  no matter how much you try and   weld these outsides if the inside part like the  square tube attachment to the framework back here   is cracked and you're almost just doing a band-aid  fix and that's i mean it is what it is right uh so   my thought process is to erase all of this  i'm gonna actually cut this section of   doubler plate out to do a bit of an inspection to  see if if there's actually a problem where this   tube connects to this framework and so hopefully  there will be a problem in that it'll be cracked   that way i can weld it up then we'll put another  piece on top of it uh very similar to this but   most likely i will put a little bit thicker piece  this looks like quarter inch or 5 16. and i put a   piece of 3 8 or so same back here right in this  area so now it's time to get the magic eraser   out and erase all this out and hopefully  hopefully it comes off i mean sometimes if   the welder used a gouger then he may have gotten  to the parent metal which is the tube so to make   it a little bit more challenging but i mean it's  no big deal not not not any trouble for uh our   gouger that that just erases metal like crazy  so this is definitely a learning lesson for me   and uh so i'm pretty excited i guess i can't  i can't really see the cracks i know there's   cracks i said it was cracking here some but  either way it'll be fixed ready here we go okay so just scratching the surface  i already can see some issues if you do the imaginary line of your square  tube continuing this way all the way down   this way the heel of this bracket is  what the tube is resting on to create   i guess stability and i'm not a big fan of this  design already because as you look under here you can stick your hand under here and  there's nothing touching or supporting   the tube you can stick your hand way in here  and you basically stop right in this area here   because of the wedge and so i don't  know how they planned on supporting that   from underneath there i can't really see  i haven't looked yet but for me to be able   to stick my hand up in there that far it  looks like that's the area where it rests   now that would make perfect sense why  it's it's starting to crack because   as this wheel is spinning just wanting to  jolt away like that from this whole area   another thing that i'm not a big fan of  unfortunately is that this wheel is on one side   of this gearbox which is that's just the way  they designed it it is what it is right and   so not only that but you have a twisting  motion a jerking twisting motion this way   as it's hitting so it's creating a lot of a lot  of stress so i'm going to go ahead and continue   to actually erase this whole i'm sorry not erase  i'm going to take this plate off take that plate   off there and there and i may actually have to  come down to here and take this off down here and see what's behind all of this they put  this plate as a doubler then they put an extra   support plate on top of it there's a small  doubler but obviously it's cracking through   and this little formed i-beam box section this piece here this bottom flange of the i-beam  ended right here so it'll be interesting to see   if there's a big gap in there after i get all that  out i don't know but we shall see you soon enough   and hopefully we can make some  improvements to that okay let's keep going oh boy like you see this so i knew it look at that there's nothing  really that supports the bottom end of   that tube other than that so no wonder  because there's not even a weld in here see if i can get one of my carbon rods i can't stick it all the way in there i was trying to see if i could stick it in there yeah that's why they're struggling because  that's just shaking too much this is not a good   not a good deal so basically all the  stress is around the outer perimeter   of these patch plates because there's  nothing holding this solidly in there   but what i think i'm going to do is i'm going to  try and weld put some weld in there to help hold   that to that before i put those plates on because  that's just not right let me see the flashlight oh yeah i don't see why they couldn't put  a weld in here to begin with put something something to help hold that that  would have made a huge difference okay yeah so i think i'll go ahead and cut down  this way a little bit more to create a big elbow   of sorts for strength now we at least come down  to the end of where this original one is and then   just cut across this way that may help plus that  weld in there i want to put you know put several   passes you know maybe i can reach a stick welder  in there or something put a couple passes maybe or   maybe just one pass 532 just nice and hot we'll  have to see i don't want to get too hot because   i don't know if this is shaft driven or  i don't know shaft with the gear probably but that is the problem all right i gotta keep  cutting i'm gonna cut a little bit further down   see see what else shows up down here maybe i  can put some weld in there who knows all right okay so even more proof that they didn't  uh weren't able to weld up in there   that's too bad i know that's  a tough spot to design   but surely you could have thought  of something slightly different okay well now i'll be able to fill that in   let me see if i can put some weld in here  as well just anything to help support it yeah i can even weld up in here so anything in  this area something is better than nothing and   then the outside plates will do their job  better okay i'm going to do the other side okay here we are back at it got both sides  taken care of just need to clean it up as   i mentioned i think i'm going to try  and add some weld in that area there below the surface of this area  here just something to put in there   and of course you can't really get in there too  well i mean you can try with the die grinder and   all kinds of stuff but i think i'm just going to  hit it with my needle scaler kind of clean off the   excess rust and dirt and you know if  something sticks it's better than nothing so   we'll try that clean this up with a grinder that area also make some patterns start gluing it all back together all right  so now the boring stuff high speed grinding alrighty well that was the fastest grinding  i've ever done so um now we're at this point   here cleaned it up about as good as i could  like i said i'm going to try and clean that   up with a needle scaler just so i can add some  weld to it i'm not sure if i'm going to try and   stick weld it or use a wire machine now the wire  machine is may have a lot of porosity and stuff   while i'm trying to add some tacks so we'll  just have to see and again as i mentioned   something is better than nothing so if i can  even use the mig to fill in this gap here maybe   about half an inch or an inch or three quarters  of an inch just to help attach this piece to   this piece a little bit better and we're just in  better shape overall so let's see what i can do   from here forward of course this is all  new to me too right so all right next so so so much paint okay so i'm slowly trying to bridge  the gap to get a little closer so um so good yeah okay we're at the next step um let me see i was  able to put some weld in there that was below   flush so that when i put that plate across it  doesn't interfere and i actually was able to put   some weld in there which i can't see it so well  it only goes in about an inch inch and a quarter   but again i put three passes so again that's  better than nothing and so i feel that'll help   tremendously compared to what it was so now  the next step is to create a paper pattern to   fill that in oh sorry to put the plate back over  and i think we'll be in good shape so here we go okay so now i made this pattern  almost looks like a pistol   kind of crazy but anyway it goes right in there   render like that i lift it just a little bit short  on the ends there so that you can have some weld   penetration in there i'm going to be using some  3 8 plate instead of this it looks like quarter and i may as well try and  add a little piece in here   just to help solidify that a little  bit better make it a little stronger we'll see no way they don't have that  problem again but everything's looking good now it's next step i'm cutting this guy out   both one on each side and we're  good all right there we go nice so for added measure i went ahead and  added a little gusset in there just to make   sure that i didn't go past this surface and  that should even that should help it even more   so now i'll put the outer gusset on and i don't  think we'll have problem with this again ever so   things are looking really good now i have to cut  the plate the bigger plate the 3 8. there you go we got one more to cut people ask how i uh how i stay so steady   like i don't shake and i do shake but  what i tell them is if you're gonna shake   shaking the direction of the cut that way  it looks like you're cutting straight so no it just takes a lot of  practice all right almost done all right next up all right so now i got this piece cut up this  should be good looks like a pistol but oops right in there like that left a little bit  of a gap down here so you could weld to the   parent metal and just so that these two  aren't welded to themselves just to kind   of get some good penetration in there so  that looks good there a little tight tech all right quick little overview looks good now i shouldn't have any problems  all right now it's time to weld it up   time for fast forward okay so we got that guy welded up looks  all right that's about even over the head i don't know if you noticed that i was doing more  of a pulse on and off and some people don't like   that and i get it but what i was doing is  i was initiating the ark before the puddle   became cold so while it was still orange i  initiated the arc on my next step forward   and that kind of keeps all the metal nice  and hot so that way it's not just a series of   tacks but it's actually a continuing world now  it's probably not the proper way to do it and   people will argue that i'm doing it wrong which  is fine but it works right so if it works it works   and so now i got this side done and pretty  much the same thing on the other side   but it's looking really good i don't think  they'll have any more problems so let me see yeah clean that guy up a little bit more and  we'll be in good shape so last step here we go all right well i finished it up looks  pretty good this side done as well overall not bad nice little  challenge you mentioned uh   i haven't done one of these before so  it was nice nice little learning for me   and hopefully for you and so you know i'm  glad we were able to take these pieces off   because no matter how many times any welder  would have tried to repair the outside cracks   they would have never got to the source of the  problem which was this inner tube not welded to   the main structure and that's partially why i  don't like patch plates on any material or any   excavators booms of any sort that i do because  what ends up happening is that it will just   spread the load to somewhere else and you end up  having cracks either around the perimeters of your   patch plates while hiding the true problem  inside so that's my theory on it at least   so in this case you know you need them because the  design is made that way but when you're repairing   an excavator or backhoe if it came from the  factory without them i leave them without   them that way they can flex and move and bend  this however however they need so i think that   will do it customer should be very happy this  thing is solid as a rock now so if any of you   have one of these models don't forget what model  this is i'll connect the battery back on there and premiere all the way  around sc372 stump grinder   then most likely you're going  to have this problem eventually   so it's unfortunate that you know it happens  sometimes designs get overlooked or the procedure   and the way that they put it together doesn't  allow for them to weld in there maybe they should   put this outer plate on last weld the tube onto  the framework and weld it on last who knows but   that's for for vermeer to figure out but as for me  i did what i could to improve it and i think we're   we're in the i think we're doing it all right  it seems to be like we won't have that problem   again so this thing will live to fight another  day and it's learning so i'll probably put the   description of this thing in the title because  most likely people have problems with it all right   well thanks for watching and i hope you enjoy  it and we'll catch you guys on that next one you

Channel: I C Weld

Views: 151,529

Keywords: Drillrig, heavy equipment, onsite repair, kellybar, auger, dozer, excavator, welding, stickwelding, mig welding, torch, torch cutting, gas axe, backhoe, torching, weld, repair, weld repair, fix it, how to, caterpillar, bull dozer, broken, cracked, torn, busted, track hoe, welded, fluxcore

Id: Wc3FreHjpuo

Length: 28min 34sec (1714 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 10 2022