Top photo is the front fender for the Rapido. When I cut the bolts off, I nicked the fender braces a wee bit so I welded them up and filed them flat again. Also, one of the factory washers on the outside of the brace had come loose. It was originally resistance welded. I TIG welded a couple of spots along the sides of the washer. Once I got that squared away, sprayed some paint on it and it's ready for the grandson to re-install.
Bottom photo is Surly's hatchet. He said it was pretty soft, so it wouldn't hold an edge. I dressed it down some prior to hardfacing it and a mill smooth file didn't have any trouble removing metal. However, when I went to weld up the crack where the nail hook used to be, the first carbon steel rod I used cracked right away. I ground out the weld and tried some 309 and it cracked also. It became pretty obvious at that point that this thing had some carbon in it. They recommended a minimum 400 degrees preheat for the hardfacing rod, so I preheated the cutting edge and the area where the crack was and tried it again. The preheat did the trick for both the crack and the hardfacing. I'm thinking the problem with holding an edge was more a heat treating issue as opposed to crappy material. I'll be interested to see how it comes out after Surly grinds the welds down and sharpens it up.
Did some more welding at work yesterday. I put up 24' of trolley rail to hang some tool boards. Looked good when I got it finished. Boss is pretty happy with the quality of my welding work - as well he should be - especially with what he's paying me. I'm definitely a bargain but I'm enjoying the welding/fabricating work.
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