Yesterday I had the mower on the tractor in the raised position when I left the shop for the night.
This morning I went into the garage and saw that the lift arm had broken loose from the tool bar brackets.

I've never had any schooling or proper training in welding so I don't know all the fancy formulas for how much heat to use and how fast to set the wire speed.
But I have been welding for a very long time and I have never had anything like this happen before.
The weld itself has separated from the square tube brackets.
You can see that the weld is consistent and doesn't have any air pockets in it.

Here you can see that the weld etched down into the surface of the square tubes and when the lift bar broke away it took that part of the square tube metal with it.
These square tubes are not cast iron but they are some sort of cast steel or something ?

Anyhow .. I clamped the lift bar brackets back on the square tubes and re-welded them.
I really burned the weld down into the metal this time.
Then I drilled holes thru the brackets and the square tube and tapped them out for 3/8-16 threads.
The brackets are counter bored with 3/8 diameter clearance holes.

The brackets are then bolted down with bolts and lock washers to make sure they stay in place this time.

Just to play it safe, I put flathead counter sunk screws in the foot pads also.
These are now ready to paint and re-mount on the tractor.
