Old Val is coming along. I didn't expect so much work to get her serviceable! I still think I got a good deal though. What do you think? At least this repair didn't cost me money except for welding supplies. Have an awesome weekend everybody!

That model New Holland was notorious for cracking out at the drive axles. The later machines that used heavier gauge steel which solved the problem. I fixed hundreds of them weld shop years ago when they were new to the market. We used 1/4" steal plate over top, which would move your wheels out a 1/2 inch. But it solved the problem.

Forgetting to put the O ring on and having to take it back off is the "story of my life" Good on you for showing it :)

Stick welding is your out door friend! You’re doing a wonderful job getting this skid back on the farm.

Pragmatic repairs… The best part of this channel is that you’re not just a parts changer … You actually fix stuff… building your own shim washers etc. wow!!! Love this guy… support this mission … don’t change !!!!! as you grow and money up from social media sites…

This channel deserves more love.

What a brilliant day, Cutting Edge Engineering in the morning, come home to FarmCraft101, Best start to a long weekend,

Hi John. Probably you need a small air-arc gounging kit for future repairs to make your life easier, instead of grinding old cracked weld that much. Take care! See you next week!

Damn JOHN, I could watch your channel all day. You tackle anything, and aren’t afraid to get your hands dirty. Your technical and mechanical skills are first rate! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Each time I watch these, I am always amazed at John's skills. Mercy me, you are MUCH MORE than a farmer!

Another quick tip that can really help in situations like this, use an angle grinder with a cut off disc to score the cracks then grind them out with your burr, it's creates a pilot channel to guide your burr along, and if you do it before you clean up the face then it's a lot easier to keep track of where the crack is without it being a requirement to use crack detector. For bigger straighter fractures, using the cutoff wheel to just basically cut a v as if you were cutting a notch in a tree saves you a lot of time with the burr.

As a mechanical engineer that has designed off road equipment for almost 20 years I was going to type a summary about stress risers that would do crack exactly as try did caused by extended used on hard surfaces with ridgid tires. Remember you could have paid 12 to 15k then found these same cracks.

I need to thank you for these videos. I always said I would retire when I fall from a high ladder and break my neck. Well, that did not happen, and my wrenching days are long past. And most of what you do is beyond the basic mechanics I did on printing presses. The problem is, I am 70 years old, and I still wake up at 1 AM just as I have always done. And without problems I need to solve later in the day, well it's like revving the engine without tires on the machine. All noise and no work. But watching your videos at 1 AM, gives me an opportunity to observe, learn, think, and maintain my sanity! At least I feel like I am doing something! Words fall far short of the gratitude brother! I asked my wife to play several of your videos on a flat screen at my funeral. She thinks I am nuts! When I insisted that is what I wanted, she ran away screaming! Nice peaceful afternoon! (Not really, she knew I was a nut'zoid when she married me!) LOL!

Never let perfection be the enemy of good.

Love how you never cuss or get angry despite something like forgetting the o-ring haha - that would send me up a wall at myself. You always take it in stride and with humor! A great trait. Been watching you since the beginning days and I look forward to it every Friday now. Thank you sir!

There are two types of people: Those who HAVE forgotten the O-ring, and those who WILL forget the O-ring. I feel your pain.

I think the hardest thing for people to understand is the thought process behind a good repair. In my opinion you do a great job showing how you go about it. Keep up the great work!

I enjoy the farm breaks in between repair sessions. Really makes watching a one hour plus video easier. Thanks for all the effort.

Val is an example of why I love your channel. Excellent work.

The cracks are the bonus content that you didn't know that you bought. I bet your repairs will serve you well if you treat it with care. If they don't last, still more content with the later repair video with the added plates. With nearly 47k views after 7 hours, I am not the only one who appreciates your machining skills and well thought out repairs.

Farmer fix is what gives world the food. That is good enough, you already spend some time on it. John, you do things by the book.

It is so much fun to watch you struggle with your prizes to make them work. You do such a great job repairing them.

No one likes to do more work than they should, but making the time to do a proper job/fix is something to be proud of. Yes it is good content for a city boy like me that sees the value in buying second hand and learning through repair/cleaning/ disassembly. Value for money? Experience, satisfaction and confidence = priceless.

I think your farmer fix on the L/F was a good idea. You can always come back with 1/4” plate if you need to.

Retired Boilermaker here (welder/plater) from over the pond. As a farmer, you make a pretty good fabber. Nothing wrong with your logic, equipment or skill set. Nice work, also entertaining! 👍 37:00 The phrase you might be looking for is one I use all the time. "Fit for purpose". 🤠 39:30 Vertical up is the way to go (as you know) for good penetration. Down is sometimes called "washing", & doesn't give you good penetration. At all. It IS a skill, though, good for thin plate, but not good for thick. Drop your current, so you can weave a little bit, from side to side to put the heat into the parent metal. You'll still get excellent pen. It's all about YOU controlling the weld, not the other way around! 😂👍

It looks like it lost a fight with a D6 and just barely survived. I really admire your determination. You never seem to get too discouraged.

5:30 Love the use of the hard drive magnets. They are very strong.

*gets home for lunch during work and sees a new Farm Craft video only 18 minutes old* Now that is good timing

Hey Jon, just a suggestion...for backing behind holes/cracks when you are welding them up, you can wedge a piece of flat copper behind those holes with a jack or jack bolt, and weld without the issue of bulging weld beads inside. Then, mag-drill them...could maybe fix those loose studs? Nice work BTW, should last a lifetime.🐮

I think it was just wear and tear from use. I don't think it fell off a trailer. I'm a pretty experienced mechanic but I always learn something from your videos. You do a thorough job with every repair. 👍

Your tenacity is amazing. It keeps me coming back for more machine rehab. Thanks So much for all you do.

Wind is the reason flux-core wire and stick are still essential for farm welders... I haven't used gas in my wire-feed welder since I bought it, just to check that it worked as a MIG. It's been flux-core ever since. I might have used gas more if I lived somewhere it was easier to acquire, or had a shop big enough to get larger machinery inside of 😅 but still... Wind? Flux-core wire. 🎉

Always a treat to spend an hour with you John

This is seriously one of the best channels on YT. Funny, informative, interesting. Watched both these videos in the entirety, you did a great job.

This is like hanging with the gang. One or a few doing a repair/renovation while the rest look on. Don't know why but I love watching your cows and Dozer!

Always a highlight of my week when there's a new video to watch! 😅

Every time I think you should do this, a few seconds later you do it. Drill the ends of the cracks, back the welds in the cracks etc. John, you are an amazing craftsman.

After all these years and videos I know I shouldn't be but I am still constantly amazed in you ability to fix anything!

always enjoy your content, your humor, and your ability to bring us along. awesome.

I'm an old guy, was trained as a Mechanical Engineer. Your cracks are simply metal fatigue. Best repair is a plate. Likely newer units are thicker plate. Catastrophic singular evens would break or bend the metal. If you could see the inside of the crack you'd likely see classic clamshell failure markers. Your deal is par for an old machine (not counting travel time/expense). Locally, a john deere 318 (double capacity yours?) Sold at farm auction for $7500 out the door.

Just wanted to say this is one of my favorite channels and if possible would love more content. In a stressful world these videos are an excellent distraction and decompression tool, keep up the awesome videos

Thanks for another Learning video. Keep up the good work. Look forward to them every week!

Hello John, usually when I weld on something that has held any type of flammable liquid , I first fill it with inert gas from a an exhaust pipe from a vehicle or a small Gas engine. An old garden hose will work.

Val, huh? Good name! Val is going to be another fun project. I can't wait to see what happens in the video. Have a good weekend, John From Farmcraft!

Jon....All looks "PERFECT!" to me. Your patience always astounds me, you just laugh it off. What great attitude to have. Love your content. Thanks for sharing! ♥

Wow great work! Very thorough job!

A job like that would be perfect for stick-welding. You'd only have to stop welding when the wind starts to tear down the roof.

John, I love that you let us see the mistakes. We all make them and it is nice to see you just deal with it as they come along. As far as the cause of the cracks I think a thing to consider is that they felt the need to put the extra rear weights on it so you know they were loading the bucket heavy on a regular basis. Combine that with tight turns on concrete and you know that the 0.200" frame is going to flex.

Reminds me why I don't want to do this kind of stuff anymore. But fun to watch someone else.

Great series so far! Thanks for sharing this John.

Use some Blue RTV to seal that plate. Good Job John !

My guess for what caused the damage to the wheel hub mounts is that it was being lifted on a crane and the rigging failed and dropped it back to the ground. Makes much more sense to be a vertical impact than any horizontal impact with the location and orientation of the cracking.

It's your machine, to heck with anyone's adverse opinion. You have a great story teller voice, keep up the outstanding vid's.

Love your work and your sense of humor

Good recovery there. Happy Easter thank you for some excellent posts. Best from the UK.

You are a very intelligent man. Excellent video.

When I weld close to threads, I use tip cleaner and cote the treads that way I do not have to chase the threads with a chaser. Have A Great Day.

Excellent content and really enjoyable to see the quality work.

Your content is priceless. Thanks for the time you give us .

Those stress crack were from many hours of herky jerky operation on hard surface such as asphalt,with 'no give' that created stresses needed to produce the cracks you have ,they would not have been created by an impact such as falling off a trailer or being hit . that type of cracking is caused by many hours of repeat impacting stresses

Woo hoo, new vid. Love watching someone else do work, good work.

Such a great channel and video, thank you for sharing.

Hi John, I’m glad you read most of the comments even if you can’t answer them all. A couple of positive things I wanted to point out. It was good the steel was only 5mm, can you imagine trying to straighten that flange if it was 1/2” plate. You were lucky enough to be able to get it up on the hoist, it would have been so much harder if it was just on stands. You were able to do the work yourself because that sort of repair gets expensive really quickly if you have to pay someone else to do it. As you pointed out this repair was almost free, just a lot of your time but no money spent on expensive parts. As for the “farmer repair”, it’s exactly how I would have done it, the machine has effectively retired as a serious work horse and what you will be doing with it will be very easy compared to its previous work. Why spend time and money on repairs it won’t need? I still think you got a fantastic deal and once you have it sorted it’ll see you out. Cheers mate, Stuart 🇦🇺

Always a joy and highlight of my viewing week to see a new FC101. Thank you John for some of the best content on YT.

Looks great, Jon. Your videos help me think about problem solving in new ways. Really appreciate it.

Good video, I learn a few things every time I watch, thanks

you do good work john! thanks for sharing your process

Your channel has quickly become my favorite. Damn you're a cool dude.

John, got a tip for your vertical up welding. Draw a triangle with your bead as you move upwards, hirizontal across the joint, up at an angle to the center of the joint, down at an angle toward the edge of the start of the horizontal. Rinse and repeat, slowly climbing as you go, keeping a steady bead as you go without stopping. Give it some practice runs on some scrap. A good friend of mine that worked for Manitowoc cranes taught that move years ago,hopefully, it can be a tip for you to use also. Thank you for all the good videos/movies. I look forward to them all.

I love your videos, and it's a perfect transition into the weekend from office work to projects!

Great content you always get through the situations thank you

This video saved my day! Thanks!

Throw a couple of chunks of dry ice in each side oil chamber to ensure no fire, and to cool off your iced tea (unsweetened).

Nice work - well done. Thanks for taking the time and effort to film,edit and share.

I'm always impressed at how knowledgeable you are about how to find issues and repair them. You should be proud of how self-sufficient you are! It's definitely inspirational to the rest of us.

Your idea of what a "farm fix" constitutes is far better than what I saw at my family's JD dealership when the "fix" failed and they finally brought it to us to make something happen. So, well done sir! What you are doing is what my dad would have done for the farmers who did not have the skill and knowledge to fix something that way without throwing money at it, which the farmers in upstate NY did not have. Bought some T-shirts today too! Excited to wear them.

Seems Old Val likes her air time... but, you're winning! Happy Jon is a grand fella!!

I love how you have a solution to every problem that comes up!!!Good work

Excellent content as always. I really enjoy all projects you do. A+

I think that it was dropped at some point. All of the damage seems to be related to it landing on the wheels. Great repairs as always man.

My guess is diving it off of a trailer without ramps. Probably some yard contractor yahoo.

I love the honesty in your videos. You show us the mistakes as well as the light bulb moments and for me that makes it all very relatable..

This is becoming my fave all around channel to watch. Learned so much.

Good stuff, as always.

Install the reinforcing plate --- don't wait !!!- The time savings will be massive and you won't have to deal with it again.

Fantastic work. Really love your channel and has really helped me in the troubleshooting on my own equipment. Good job!

When using Dye penetrant inspection let the dye dry for 10 minutes or so on steel longer on stainless then after wiping as much as you can with a rag apply the cleaner to the RAG not the part being tested. Now you can use the developer which will bring out the crack. In the Aviation community we use a product made by PRC it looks to be very much like your sealant . It seals hydraulic and fuel tanks . It is spread over the head of the fasteners it mostly lasts forever.

I really enjoy your persistence.

I was just noticing to on the spindles where they bolt on around the holes is a raised area like a built in washer. I believe that would have also contributed to the cracking. If it was flat right across that area it would have supported the frame better...I love how you dive into your projects and fix things right, this is my favorite channel.

Hi was watching your video love the content … next time you have any cracks like that you should try to open them all the way up and you can use the back side of ceramic tile and tape it to the back side of the crack and weld it solid works every time

Absolutely well-done job Mr John

Just another superb vid John. Your channel is so entertaining. Thanks very much!

Hochachtung vor dieser Arbeit. Das hätte nicht jeder geschafft. Gute Arbeit.

Val is a good name that machine rolled off a trailer while being towed in the highway seen this before great video thanks John do what you think is right and what the wallet will afore

Man just love watching how you fixing things so I can sneak out some ideas. Thanks you the man

You and James Condon are the only video I love to watch. I love the way you both talk to “us”. Love your delivery. Bravo 👏🏻

"The Vadez" is perfect - go with that.

jAs a former ASNT certified Level II dye penetrant inspector, Just a couple of comments about the crack-check. To remove the dye, you are supposed to moisten a lint free rag with the cleaner and wipe, do not spray it on. Also I would have done a second check after welding to make sure I didnt have any thru the plate porosity or developed more cracks that would leak oil .

love the magnet in a bag idea, cool!

Excellent video as always. Watching you find and properly repair your equipment is an education. Thanks