Price check on small weld job

My log splitter needs welded where the motor support plate mounts to the frame. Engine is removed. Stress crack on both sides. 
Someone passed the name of a fabricator to me and I'm taking it to him in the am. After committing to a meet up, I remembered a guy that runs a independent muffler shop that would probably do the job for a reasonable price. Thought I'd give the fabricator  a chance since the appoint is set up already.
What should I expect to pay for this job?

Start at $75

If it was near me it would be free, donations welcome.

I am not a professional fabricator, but I weld stuff up occasionally. I have made some stuff and sold dozens of exhaust system components. My first thought is that most of of a welding job, like most of a paint job, is in the prep.

Muffler shop guys might be prone to treat this like an exhaust system; fire up the MIG, pour the heat to it until it melts and sticks together, and not get lost in the details.

To weld this up where it won't fail in the same way again would require stripping back the paint on both sides, digging a groove to allow the weld to penetrate, drilling a hole at the end of the crack, and probably overthink it and charge more than you're expecting.

It looks like half an hour of work. If you were my neighbor, I would take payment in beer. As a raw guess, a pro fabricator might want $50.

EDIT: Purple Frog is probably closer to reality. I have not yet learned to think in terms of the current economy. 

For anyone I know, it would be a 12 pack of cold ones and I would expect you to stay for a few.

Drill a hole at the end of the crack. Bevel the hole and V the crack as best possible. Zap a bead in there and call it done, maybe half an hour max. 

That said, I do not know the load vectors that made it crack in the first place, so not going to give any warranty on the fix. Possible that the crack is just going to re-appear on either side of the welded repair.

It looks like you need an end plate on that tube and welded to the horizontal tube on the left.

Bad design, so unless there's some gusset or plate to change that stress point, it's going to break again.

Streetwiseguy said:

Bad design, so unless there's some gusset or plate to change that stress point, it's going to break again.

Agreed. A good weld job would get it working again, but it makes sense to brace it while the tools are out. A triangular buttress at each vertical wall, like the blue crayon in the image below, would help. If you really want to make it bombproof you could also add a plate like the yellow piece to tie the whole thing together. Might be overkill. I like overkill.

EDIT: phone-edited pic has been replaced for clarity.  White markups represent the welded-up crack and stress relief hole, plus a vertical weld to tie the motor mount plate as securely to the frame as possible.  

I'd do it for a beer if I was in OH.

$150- 200 was his quote. I declined. I might have an ex coworker that would be able to help. 

This is frustrating. I do just about everything else myself. I should have learned how to weld years ago. 

Dark Monohue is spot on. Could also fix the crack and plate over it in that area to reinforce. Any friend or casual acquaintance should do that for free and I would be giving them a gift card to a nice local restaurant. I would just do it if someone I vaguely knew asked (no promise of it not cracking again). I don't really drink anymore so when people bring me beer for work like that it goes unused (but appreciated). 

rustybugkiller said:

$150- 200 was his quote. I declined. I might have an ex coworker that would be able to help. 

This is frustrating. I do just about everything else myself. I should have learned how to weld years ago. 

The frustration is understandable, but there's good news (everyone): you now have an excuse to learn to weld!

You could easily do that job with a cheap 120V wirefeed welder and flux-core wire. That is the route many people take for their first job, but it has its limits, and is not very versatile. For not much more money, you could pick up a quality 120V MIG welder (by which I mean one equipped to connect a gas bottle) and use plain wire. That combination is a lot more capable and makes much neater, cleaner welds.

Either one of those setups would have you welding in minutes. After a few hours of practice, you'd be entirely capable of welding up the crack and any gussets or braces you want to add.

Assuming it works, this cheap little Century 125gs would do the job:

https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/tls/d/alliance-mig-welder/7614051407.html

Add a few buck for consumables (gas, flap discs, carbide burrs, etc.) and you're still within budget of what the pro fabricator wanted to charge. At that point you have a welder you can use any time you want. If you decide you want to upgrade to a better machine, you can probably sell the Century for what you paid for it.

Those are not pro-grade machines. They have their limitations and can fail. Apparently they are ubiquitous enough that fixes are well documented on welding forums, etc.

Or, if you have 240V available, you could pick up an old Lincoln tombstone stick welder, which would chew through that repair in no time flat.

You have options!

I can't give away a $12,000 boat.  That's the retail book value  of the Sea Ray.  
  I've had it listed here for a while now and thought someone was going to take it for free.  
    When they failed to contact me I went to the local marina.  They offered me $4000 sight unseen.  
      

frenchyd said:

I can't give away a $12,000 boat.  That's the retail book value  of the Sea Ray.  
  I've had it listed here for a while now and thought someone was going to take it for free.  
    When they failed to contact me I went to the local marina.  They offered me $4000 sight unseen.  
      

Sir, either that's the world's worst haiku, or you've posted in the wrong thread.

It is a log splitter. I would drill it and mig it. Then add a plate of 1/8 or 3/16 and drill 3/8 inch holes in it and weld it over it and fill the holes. Call it good. If it was for a friend I would grind it down and prime and paint it. For me just wire brush and paint.  

In reply to DarkMonohue :

metal crack to fix
hive says "buy MIG or wire feed"
now you learn welding!

$150 can get you a 110/220V inverter MIG+wire+stick welder off amazon.  Add $30 for an autodarkening helmet and splurge another $20 for good quality flux core wire.  GRM might have some articles or forum threads on welding...

 Okay, I have replaced the admittedly horrible finger-painting pic in my earlier post with something a little closer to legible.  Hopefully that adds some clarity.

Oapfu said:

In reply to DarkMonohue :

metal crack to fix
hive says "buy MIG or wire feed"
now you learn welding!

$150 can get you a 110/220V inverter MIG+wire+stick welder off amazon.  Add $30 for an autodarkening helmet and splurge another $20 for good quality flux core wire.  GRM might have some articles or forum threads on welding...

Yeah...fair point.  I am old school and default to used brand name equipment (a decision I sometimes regret) from yard sales and Craigslist and whatever on the assumption that it's better built and more likely to be repairable.  There is some stuff available brand new that is apparently better than it should be at the price point.  A YouTube channel I like has some good input on cheap welders.  It's worth a watch.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

He sure makes it look easy. Too bad they don't put a filter on the camera so that we can see what he's doing. It's just like caulking, right?

In reply to VolvoHeretic :

More like a hot glue gun, but yeah, just point and squirt, can't go wrong...

I posted the video because it was one I remembered watching and came from a channel that is generally more watchable and informative than most YouTubers.  In fairness, it's meant to be an overview of low-priced machines that encourages people to get into welding.  It's not meant to be a tutorial.  There are plenty of those out there as well.  Welding Tips and Tricks is a good resource.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

Thanks for the youtube link.

Thanks for everyone's comments.
Since I don't need the splitter until the fall, I'm thinking this might be a good time to consider a welder. 

DarkMonohue: Thanks for the link. After watching the video, I like the Hynade. I might not need to use 220v but if I did, I could change my compressor from hardwire to a plug-in 220. Any thoughts?

These welders appear to be good way to learn. No need to hold the wire separately as in stick welding. Am I missing something? I know there would be considerable scrap metal training required. I could afford to spend  maybe up to $300 - $400 if need be or I'm I better off spending the extra money on accessories ?? As in I don't want burn my shop down!
I don't really see myself doing any big project other than exhaust work or lawn and garden equipment repairs. 
I looked for a similar video from " Project Farm"  but no luck.
 

It always starts with scraps and pretty soon you move on to yard art. 

Seriously, no nearby friends that can tack that back together for you?

I'm not an advocate of buying equipment that you rarely use, but in this case I think a welder is a good investment. I also don't think you need to spend huge money to get something that will do more than you realize right now, but I would def get one that is capable of doing 220V work, and one that uses gas. A good auto darken helmet will save your eyes and is worth spending a little extra for rather than the cheapest thing on Amazon.

That looks like 1/4" plate to me and a 120V welder might get it done, but a 220 will give you better penetration and it will probably never break again, especially if you do it like it's been suggested, drill the hole in the end, V out the crack, clean all the paint off and practice a bunch on the same thickness of plate till you get an acceptable result before you go after it.

Or..............just pay the guy and be done with it.

rustybugkiller said:

Thanks for everyone's comments.
Since I don't need the splitter until the fall, I'm thinking this might be a good time to consider a welder. 

DarkMonohue: Thanks for the link. After watching the video, I like the Hynade. I might not need to use 220v but if I did, I could change my compressor from hardwire to a plug-in 220. Any thoughts?

These welders appear to be good way to learn. No need to hold the wire separately as in stick welding. Am I missing something? I know there would be considerable scrap metal training required. I could afford to spend  maybe up to $300 - $400 if need be or I'm I better off spending the extra money on accessories ?? As in I don't want burn my shop down!
I don't really see myself doing any big project other than exhaust work or lawn and garden equipment repairs. 
I looked for a similar video from " Project Farm"  but no luck.

I have a little Millermatic 211 that runs on either 120 or 240.  It's fine for light stuff on 120, but happier on 240 for heavier stuff. I suspect your motor plate is no more than 1/8" thick. A good 120V MIG will zip that up without drama, especially if you weld the crack from both sides. But higher voltage will give you more headroom for gussettng it back to the frame (which is probably made of thicker stock) if you elect to. If you have the capacity to easily add 240V power, it will give you more options in the future.

How big a breaker is serving your compressor? Rather than changing your compressor to cord and plug and then swapping back and forth, you might be able to tap into the junction box serving the compressor and run a few feet of wiring to a new j-box with a NEMA 6-50R receptacle for the welder. That's assuming you can switch the compressor off at the unit so it doesn't fire up in the middle of a weld...

I wouldn't bother with a welder in the $300-400 range; you can't get much brand-name (Miller or Lincoln) stuff for that, and you don't have to spend that much if you're shopping the Chinese stuff. Shop carefully. It looks like some of the lower end welders may be gasless (flux core) only. That's probably fine for the log splitter, but it will really limit you if you want to any exhaust or sheetmetal work in the future.

As others have said, an auto-darkening helmet is a smart purchase. Doesn't have to be top of the line.

Bed frames are cheap or free and are good for practicing on. Clean off the epoxy paint first...

Since you have a little time yet, you might start cruising yard sales and estate sales. Sometimes you can find stuff with little or no use on it for pennies on the dollar.

If you do shop used, be aware that the big box stores sometimes carry name brand stuff that is not really the same as that sold under the same brand at welding supply shops. For example, Home Depot has some Lincoln welders under the Weld-Pak line that are not as nice as the ones Lincoln sells elsewhere. My old Lincoln SP-125+ has infinitely variable wire speed and voltage, whereas the big box Lincolns have a limited number of settings that don't give you the same control. Again, not a deal breaker for the log splitter repair, but something to be aware of.

MiniDave said:

Seriously, no nearby friends that can tack that back together for you?

I'm not an advocate of buying equipment that you rarely use, but in this case I think a welder is a good investment. I also don't think you need to spend huge money to get something that will do more than you realize right now, but I would def get one that is capable of doing 220V work, and one that uses gas. A good auto darken helmet will save your eyes and is worth spending a little extra for rather than the cheapest thing on Amazon.

That looks like 1/4" plate to me and a 120V welder might get it done, but a 220 will give you better penetration and it will probably never break again, especially if you do it like it's been suggested, drill the hole in the end, V out the crack, clean all the paint off and practice a bunch on the same thickness of plate till you get an acceptable result before you go after it.

Or..............just pay the guy and be done with it.

I do have a former coworker who offered to do the repair. However, I'm not one to ask for help unless I'm in dire need. Ask me how I removed my water heater from my basement myself. Learning to weld has always been on my bucket list. I can't count how many times I've tried to bolt something together only to have it fail again and again knowing that if it was welded, the job would be done.

In reply to DarkMonohue :

30amp for the compressor. It has a off  switch and only powered up when needed. Separate 30 for the lift. Would I need to run a new 50 amp line from the panel?