Find someone to tig weld it cheaper.

LTG : )™

You can wire feed weld stainless, but the spot weld can rust. When you are done welding, buff the weld so its shines and spray with some clear just on the weld.

http://www.harborfreight.com/welding/spot-welders.html

For $140 after coupon, you could just own a spot welder.

If it's a game that Kerry makes a replacement scoop for, I typically go that route.

I bought a new scoop for my RBION that was fully welded. A better idea, I think. So far, so good.

Find a different welding shop. The one I go to charges me $20 for pretty much anything ramp or scoop related. Occasionally if I bring in 3 or more things it might be $25-30.

I wonder if JB weld would work, pretty strong stuff. And very cheap.

http://www.jbweld.com/product/j-b-weld/

Vid do you have any experience pls with this variation spot welder for connection to arc welder:

http://www.harborfreight.com/welding/spot-welders/spot-weld-gun-98759.html

If you send it in a self address box with return postage I will weld it for you.

An incredibly helpful gesture Grumpy.

Its no big, ten minutes to weld and drop in mail box.

Welders in Houston area are in HUGE demand so I'll back this statement up. If you are a welder, pipefitter, or crane operator, we have jobs for you in Texas.

Hope you find a local hobbyist. Have you tried the Houston area Facebook page?

I'd take grumpy up on the offer and drop a PBL gift card in the box for him too.

I had the same experience as you looking for a local welder. They all want $100+ just to spend 5 minutes welding.

100 dollars?!? Man found an old retired ex-airforce mechanic in a seedy part of town who has never charged more than 20. First time he did it for free just because it was such an oddball request. (Brazing gear back on for DW minipf gearbox)

About 14 years ago (shortly after I started collecting) I decided I wanted to learn to weld. I didn't even know there were so many different weld types (arc, spot, MIG, TIG, etc.) but it seemed MIG was probably more useful.

Bought a cheapy 120V Lincoln wire feed MIG welder, goggles and gloves. I signed up and took a welding class at the local Vo-tech school.

I'll tell you it has proven very useful in pinball ramp, wireform and general metal repairs (even our mailbox). Probably in retrospect TIG would have been the better route for pinball repairs, the MIG when dialed down, does a great job for the repairs.

I look at getting a welder like buying a tap and die set. Something that you'll rarely use, but when you do need it, invaluable.

This pretty much mirrors my welding experience. I needed to weld for a big project I was working on in 2003, so I went and bought a flux core MIG and took some classes. My welds still look like a 3 year old got loose with the glue, but they hold.

I've never tried TIG, but I'd love to learn to be able to do stainless steel spot repairs.

Same experience here. I used to be a welder so I knew exactly what it'd take to properly fix the scoops I had so I took it to a custom exhaust shop since I knew they dealt with stainless and probably TIG welded 99% of their stuff. I showed it to the guy and explained what the material was and what needed to be done(TIG'd or spot). He didn't really know what to charge so the first one was free. When I brought in the second one, I told him to charge me $20 and he was happy to take it. He probably spent a total of 15 minutes working on my scoops.

One thing I did to ensure things were welded in the right places with the pieces properly aligned was to get it together in the right spots(tab A into slot B kind of stuff) and then I zip-tied it together as tight as possible. I also took the time to explain how those areas went together originally. I'm sure it helped him understand what he needed to do.

I also told him not to worry about cleaning them up afterwards since I would be regraining them anyway. He went ahead and polished up the outsides anyway. I just had to regrain the areas where the ball goes and reinstall them.

I use TIG as MIG would burn holes.

Using clamps for perfect alignment and adding either bracing or longer beads to reinforce the areas.

On many assemblies or brackets cracks are formed starting at the sharpened edges (Sides) of the assemblies at the bends. If the edges at the bends are filed smooth you reduce the cracks which form first as tears at the sharpened edges.

When using flux core wire it always looks like that, if you get a argon/co2 bottle and ditch the flux core you will be amazed at the welds you can do, I have been welding for 20 yrs as a hobby and always had a mig welder with gas, and recently tried welding at a friends house where he had flux core and it came out looking horrible but it did hold.

if theres room to drill through the original spotwelds you could maybe pop rivet or bolt, or use self tapping screws, trimming away what may protrude too far.

It just so happens that I had a weld job come up as can be seen in my todays post of (What failed at Modern) the TZ bracket that has common break issues. I just finished welding it up and you can see where I increased the weld bead for strength. I also added a metal stop to keep the flow of the weld from seeping to deep into the ball channel while doing the weld process.

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If you guys ever want to learn to weld, the cheapest and easiest thing is to just find an old, White Face Millermatic MIG.

They are super cheap ($400?) and can get you welding in 10 minutes, first time.

And while other welding rigs require $500 circuit boards swaps to repair them, the WF Millermatics are circuit board free. When a diode dies, you find it with your meter, swap it out and start welding again in 10 minutes.

They can weld thin sheet metal up to 1/2" material, so unless you guys start welding I-beams or something crazy, it will probably handle any job you ever have.

If you have the occasional need for fancy TIG "stack o'dimes" welds, best to take those to your local backyard welder - easy to find on the bulletin board at any auto parts shop.

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