In the Workshop, Ep. 7: Repairing a straight edger

In this episode of In the Workshop, I share a quick and dirty approach to repairing and welding a fatigued metal section on a commercial Trail Mate straight edger owned by my father-in-law.

With all the pieces in hand, it still took me a bit to figure out what how it was supposed to go together. Once I got the witness marks lined-up, it was clear was needed to be cleaned up: cracks, old welds, and just a lot of fatigued metal.

Metal has a duty cycle and the metal on this edger has reached its limit in many spots. So I created a crude template out of cardboard and lined-up the section that needed to be replaced. Luckily I have a lot of scrap metal around my shop and found the perfect piece to use. So I got to work cutting out the shape with a plasma cutter and used the Miller Multimatic 220 because I could TIG and MIG.

Watch the video above to see the whole project fold out.

Stay tuned for more In the Workshop videos from Josh in his Detroit welding shop, as he offers up all kinds of helpful advice for welders. Whether it’s leading one-on-one workshops, helping college classes, or having a family member throw on a helmet and lay some beads, he loves teaching and seeing the light bulbs go on.