Close call and Help /Suggestions on CAT 235 Boom repair Hi Everyone, New to the forum but have read numerous posts over the last couple months and have been impressed with the advice and humor in most. I had a good scare the other day. I had been running a 1980 Cat 235 excavator on my site which is extremely steep and rocky. I had just returned to one of my intermittent landings and was move some loose material when all of a sudden the cab side window blew out and the casing of the boom lift cylinder was protruding into the cab window and the cab was creaking. The lift cylinder was caught in the window opening and the chrome rod of the piston was leaning on the cab. After a couple deep breaths while staring at the unwanted visitor in my cab, I exited and walked around the cab on the catwalk only to discover that one of the 2 pivot points where the base of the boom is pinned to the frame beside and below the cab had broken loose which resulted in the cab leaning on the cab which sent the piston cylinder into the cab. I now had to move the machine back to our main lower level landing with no boom and with the came creaking the whole way as the rest of the side broke and filled the cab. At one point there was so much pressure on the cab that the front windows actually were bowing in and cracking. After finally getting out of the machine and thankful to be alive it appears that the pin, both ears and the sleeve were intact but what gave way was the steel eyelet or bushing or hinge barrel on the boom itself that the pin slides through broken and bent which allowed the boom to come off the pin. I took the backhoe and was able to push the boom back onto the pin and wedge some logs beside the piston and base of the cab to get the pressure off the top of the cab. Has anyone had this happen and my thought or question is that since I have the boom back in place off the cab, if I use some steel wedges and the power of the lift pistons I think I could probably bend the break backed to a closer closed position. Assuming if that went successfully could I have a U-shaped saddle made that would reinforce the bent portion and that could be welded to the underside and top of boom. There is plenty of clearance around the pin so as not to cause any binding issues. If the consensus is that this may work I would do both sides. If this is plausible then I would then be left with straighten the cab to accept a new window and attempting to regain a level of trust in the old girl. Any thought or ideas are welcome. Many Thanks
Yair . . . btflaw. Almost anything is fixable . . .from your description it sounds like your problem may have been lurking for a while. There are folks on here who could give advise on a repair procedure if you could post some pictures showing the extent of the problem. Cheers.
That's an old machine, lots of them in breakers yards. If it was me I would probably look for a good takeoff boom and swap it in. After crack checking the welds in the same area, heh.
I will try to get some pictures later today and I will be trying to re-bend the metal around the pin and sleeve with the wedges and raising the boom. thanks
Hard to say without seeing pictures, but, the thing that concerns me with your plan is how close to it you will be while pulling the handles.
Hi Mitch, I agree as it concerns me as well.
I strongly suggest posting some photos here before you make any attempt to move the boom or anything else on the machine for that matter. Also maybe post a general photo showing the terrain where the machine is located to give us an idea of what you're up against.
Most that I've seen strip the boom off the base machine and then do some serious checking of the boss on the house. There are plenty of 235 loggers where the house bores have been bent and cracked by the boom pins breaking or the boom boss snapping off. I like the idea of finding another boom but 36 or so years of operation does put a lot of stress in things.
Hi Everyone, Here are some pictures of the break. Thanks Brian
boom break Here are what I propose as a repair- comments welcome. Thanks
It's only one side that let go, correct..? If so like John C has already said the chances are that the undamaged side of the machine upper frame is now bent out of true due to the forces that were put on it. If the ground that the machine is on is relatively flat then I would try to pull the boom back into position using come-alongs or similiar between one of the lifting eyes on the upper side of the boom and somewhere suitable on the upper frame of the machine. Then using some other type of lifting equipment carefully get the bucket off followed by the stick. Once you are down to the boom it can also be lifted off. With the boom off the first thing to do is to check the bores of the two boom foot pins for correct alignment using a piano wire or similar, even a good steel straight edge will give you an idea. Because despite the obvious damage to the boom the ears on the upper frame are the first thing you want to be repairing, if they are bent that is. My only other comment right now is that boom has been cracked for a looooong time. It was only holding on by a thread and whatever you were doing when it finally let go was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Hi Nige, Thanks for the input. I was able to push the boom back down on the pin by using the backhoe extend high up on the boom and off the upper portion of the cab. Today I will try to slowly rebend the break into its original position. I agree the other side may have been tweaked but there is no evidence of a crack but it could be lurking out there like the other on was. Do you think that the pictures of the proposed repair ie. bending the metal strips and welding them has a chance to work as I may be able to do this without having to remove the boom. Thanks
Due to the confined space available to weld IMHO you would be wasting your time trying to weld that boom without taking it off. Also once the weld repair is done the inner diameter of the boom foot pin bore will most probably need to be built up by welding and machined back to size - line bored in other words. Probably a new bush would be called for at that time also. Unless the bushing for the boom foot pin is given adequate support there is a strong possibility that you could suffer a pin failure further down the road. Doing the repair the way you propose gives no guarantee that the bore will even be circular, in fact from my experience there is a 99% chance it won't be. Form the photos you have posted I think this particular repair job is a whole lot bigger than you are currently imagining, provided you want to do it right that is. What you posted about reinforcing is probably fine and pretty much how I would go about doing the repair, but getting to weld the parent metal around the boom foot pin bore won't be possible with the pin and bushing still in place. FWIW do the repair once, and do it right. Pulling the boom off is the only way that I can see to do that. As lantraxco says - YMMV ........
Hi Nige, Where this is a 1980 machine I am not sure of the investment of the repair is worth it. Can the bucket and stick be removed and with the boom close to the ground and supported by another machine to support pin removal, can the boom be rotated forward using the lift pistons to expose the bottom end of the boom to check the alignment and roundness etc. Thanks
I realise that the age of the machine means you have to be careful how much you spend on it but you're not going to be happy if you make a weld repair in-situ and then after a couple of weeks the boom lets go again are you..? It might have more disastrous consequences for the operator if it failed a second time. What you have going for you is that only one side of the boom foot has let go, so you still have the other side holding. To disassemble the front end of the machine under those circumstances needs care but it shouldn't be impossible. What you're really trying to do is to get as much of the weight of the front end off, leaving just the weight of the boom. So long as you are careful I don't see a problem to removing first the bucket and then the stick. Once they are both off if you have something to lift with, boom truck, forklift, etc, you could support the nose end of the boom on cribbing (or on the ground if suitable) then pull the boom foot pins leaving the boom lift cylinders connected and gently walk the machine backward using the tracks. That would effectively move the boom forward from the machine so long as you use the boom cylinder hydraulics at the same time. With the nose end of the boom supported somehow it would just leave the weight of the boom foot to be carried by your lifting appliance while you are separating the boom from the upper frame. It would give you enough room to properly work on welding the boom foot instead of struggling for space and also allow machining work to be carried out if that was necessary. Reassembly would be the reverse of removal. A lot depends on what other machinery you have kicking about, or can get hold of, to help with the lifting.
Hi Nige, I have the backhoe and a 6 wheeled crane truck to work with. Thanks Brian
With those two pieces of equipment I can't see any major issues to getting the bucket & the stick off the machine. Obviously you'll need a number of people to operate them plus others on the ground, etc. I'd use the crane truck to support the stick while you get the bucket off using the backhoe, then use the crane truck to support the boom while you get the stick off using the backhoe, and finally use the crane truck to support the foot end of the boom while you reverse the excavator backwards away from it. You will need to plan for a good pile of hardwood cribbing. I can't see empty 50-gallon drums being enough to support the weight of a 235 boom.
Sure they will Nige, but really I don't think a couple inches will be enough height to be of much help :tong
While we are making smart *** remarks... 55 gallon drums would work just fine as long as you fill them with water and wait till December to do the job! At least here in the northeast that would work
I've seen this type of thing before maybe once or twice? You already considered yourself lucky to have lived through the experience of the thing breaking and hitting the cab and now you are talking of bubble gumming the thing back together to go try and do it all over again? The boom foot is cast, the house bosses are cast. They need special weld procedures to have something safe when you are done. From your posts I can see you got no money and little to work with. Operating and maintaining a piece of machinery that size costs a minimum amount of money no matter what and apparently you aren't making that. Maybe you should find another way to make a living rather than risking yours or someone else's life trying to repair something you do not have the knowledge or the money to accomplish.
Yeah , Borrowed this picture from a 1979 235 for sale of what it's supposed to look like . http://www.machinerytrader.com/listings/construction-equipment/for-sale/10758757/1979-cat-235 Anything can be repaired , just got to have the mindset & motivation . It's not like we are trying for a moon launch , LOL ! I might do a temp weld job on the 235 just to get it up on the lowboy & back to the shop . As everyone has mentioned would also pull the boom & set it on the ground / cribbing to work on after we got it home. ( Hey , I aint as tough as I used to be ) Figure on rebuilding both sides . I might just go with thick wall stock for the new boom boss ends . I like the idea of wrapping the bosses with a welded strap around them to complete the job . Good luck with it btflaw .
That's a very **** attitude you have there. He came here asking for advice on a repair, which others are giving him, but all you can do is kick ppl in the balls? Nice...
If he were looking for advice he would have asked how someone in the know would fix it. Instead he asked for support on the way he wanted to fix it. I mentioned it above. I've been there, seen it done and watched people get hurt. It it gives pause to think a little harder about the responsibility one is taking on then I've succeeded. I don't take these kinds of statements lightly.
If a good kick is what it takes to have someone be safe then thats what they need, thats a 85k lb machine, that boom alone is a lot of weight, to fix it wrong could have very bad consequences.
Sometimes a kick in the balls will wake a feller up . That's what I like about Heavy Equipment Forums . Just folks giving opinions off of past experience in life on the topic . May not agree with it all the time but still respect there opinion & story on the subject . :thumbsup
I think that John C and myself were both thinking the same thing. I just said it a bit more diplomatically in my posts quoted above from Page 1. Initially I was extremely worried that the OP did not have any idea of the complexity (note I say "complexity" not necessarily cost) of the type of repair necessary to fix the boom right, instead of simply "bubble gumming it together" as John puts it. For those people who took offence at John's choice of words I would ask them - how many excavator booms have you nailed back together in your career, eh...? I think both John, myself, and a few others here on HEF fall into the "been there, done that, & got the t-shirt" category...
And that's why ppl come here for advice, not for internet hero condescension... I agree that this repair is especially critical, and if not done right could be dangerous. But at the same time don't see how telling someone they are ignorant/stupid/too poor to be in this line of work they should give up, that's crap. But I guess that's the internet at times... I guess f it were me in this scenario, I'd look for another boom first just to see what the availability is.
And on listed Page 1 that's pretty much the first thing the OP was recommended to do ........
The visit to this forum was to see how to repair and if anyone had ever come across this specific type of failure this in the past and further perhaps find the actual cause as to why this result came about so that even after a future repair it would not happen again. John G, while a reply in and of itself is welcome you have no idea how deep anyone pockets maybe. Every repair on piece of equipment is requires both a safety and financial analysis. Sure anyone can lowbed a machine to Cat and come out upside down. As an update- searching for a new used boom during the past 2 days yielded no fruit even though one place had 6 cat 235 booms they were different and not compatible for mounting with my machine. The machine needs to run the summer ideally to finish what it started. By the way to everyone who thought a kick in the balls was funny or needed I will warn you that I am 6"7 so you better kick high and make it count because if you don't, you likely will be on the losing end of second chances.- ------thought this post could use some lightening up. Repair solutions or perhaps creative thoughts was the goal of the initial post and I value my safety as well as everyone else's equally and want everyone to go home at the end of the day. The reason about leaving the lift cylinders attached was not for cost but more for safety and stability in getting the boom to a place where it could be adequately worked on not to save a buck or step as some have assumed. The machine has limited monetary value and if the cost of the repair does not make financial sense then a different path must be chosen ie.. a different machine etc. Otherwise you can find yourself as the old adage goes "When you find yourself up to your *** in alligators it is had to remember that the objective was to drain the swamp." Thanks
Unfortunately there weren't that many 235s manufactured compared to say the 245 or 225, so it doesn't surprise me that finding a boom in an equipment breaker's yard would be that easy. As I said before, the process to repair that boom is likely to be complex but not necessarily expensive - although TBH "expensive" is a word that can mean different things to different people. However it would get the machine working again and that had to be better than the state it's in right now.
I saw that yes, and I agree. It would be my first choice. However, owning a 225 I know how hard it can be to locate these types of used parts, and when you do, shipping is usually the deal breaker. I just took mad exception to the "go home little boy, you can't afford this machine" attitude is all. I've been subjected to that myself in the past owning a 225. Some ppl expect a hobby machine to be repaired like a production machine owned by a big corporation and not an individual putting dozens, not 1000's of hours on the machine. Now that my bitching is over, I look forward to seeing how the OP resolves this issue.
That's interesting, around here it seemed that 225's and 235's were popular, (construction).
Hi Norite, If you have any leads on parts please share them as they are scarce in tis neck of the woods. Thanks
How about posting your serial number and and we will see what we can find. For example, I looked at a 64R 235 with a boom part number of 8V5546 and can find 3 of them for sale second-hand in the USA and 2 in Canada. *Edited for more accuracy*
Hi Cmark, It is a CAT 235 serial number 32k02664- some of the other cat 235 have different pin sizes or dimensions. Thanks Brian
Are your boom foot pins 4.5" or 5" diameter?
This is an example of the thick wall round stock . Local machine shop keeps it in various sizes . Hack off couple pieces & have them machined out for the press fit bushing . Makes a pretty tough boom joint with plenty of meat to weld to .
Yair . . . I am surprised this thread has drawn such a variety of responses . . . as I mentioned up thread this failure has probably has been brewing for some time. I know nothing of the machine but its a bloody excavator for goodness sake with a simple five or six inch pin through a boom that goes up and down. It's not hi-tech or complicated and it would have been a routine fix if it had been dropped off at our shop . . . and I can't see that it would be particularly expensive. If cast lugs on the house are damaged that may be the biggest issue. Safely removing the components and recovering the machine may be a bigger problem and cost than the actual repair. Cheers.
You better believe it brother ! We run in to this with my equipment and wrench & welding jobs for customers on their equipment . Generally pays to do the work or as much as you can yourself . My Wabco scraper tried to kick me in the nuts on this job . HeavyEquipmentForums Just got a good start moving dirt at a lake job and the Detroit 8V-71 locked up tight as a jug . Luckily the crankshaft was ok and just sustained a little block damage . We rebuilt the engine & patched the block at the jobsite in the dirt . My cost on that engine rebuild was around $ 2,500.00 Could have picked up the phone and called a local dealer who would send a trailer out to pick up the machine and repair it . My projected cost on that deal was around $ 35,000.00 I like easy decisions , we fixed it . Your repair job will be similar in respect that you will have some time repairing the 235 but not that much money out of the check book . Keep us posted on it btflaw .
Hey Cmark, TD and Scrub, the input is welcome, same as the wisdom that comes from Nige and others that I can't quickly recall by name. The pins are 4.5 inch diameter. Conceptually the boom goes up and down and not sideways as in this case. I agree the pictures reveal the failure has been there a while, as the break shows a lot of grease which typically supports some semblance of maintenance as opposed to blatant neglect. I have been still on the hunt for a boom and have made arrangements for new boom bosses . Heyif the boss doesn't work then neither do we when the machine is down--- [ some pun intended Thanks
Hey TD, impressive repair in outdoor conditions, I agree the table was a nice touch in the pictures. Your in field repair is second to none.
OK. So with a 4.5" pin I make your boom part number to be 8K3394. A search shows the following. (The listings under "alternate part matches" are part numbers that the vendors think will also do the job. If you decide to look at one of those it would be wise to check the pin dimensions first.) All Listings Worldwide 8K3394 QTY: 2 CATERPILLAR NC, US Updated: 6/06/2016 IRONPEDDLERS PARTS DIVISION Phone: +1 800-438-1933 Send A Message 8K3394 QTY: 1 Caterpillar ON, CA Updated: 3/06/2016 TOROMONT USED & RESTORED Phone: +1 705-530-1257 Send A Message Alternate Part Matches All Listings Worldwide 6K6971 QTY: 3 Caterpillar TN, US Updated: 8/06/2016 REGAL CORPORATION Phone: +1 800-824-2164 Send A Message 8V2329 QTY: 1 BOOM SK, CA Updated: 27/05/2016 IPE - Industrial Parts & Equipment Ltd. Phone: +1 306-522-5332 Send A Message 8K2670 QTY: 1 AL, US Updated: 25/05/2016 TRAXX USED PARTS & EQUIP INC Phone: +1 205-295-0108 Send A Message
Above all, SAFETY is paramount! No dollar saved or earned is worth risking SATEFY! I am sure that this machine is repairable. After all, guys make a good living fixing problems like these almost everyday. It is a shame that it got this bad. It is a shame that it was not greased more often. It is a shame that it will be a pain is the @$$ to get it loaded 7 transported to a repair shop. It is all in a days work when it is all said & done with though.
If any parts are cast they would be cast steel which isn't difficult to weld. I think the bigger concern is the quality of the repair and skill of the person welding it. Yeah lots of guys with equipment do their own welding but a 235 could have 50 tons of force applied to those welds so this isn't a repair for someone who can run a bead or fixed their bucket in the past. It's a repair for a highly experienced welder. I ripped the top swing mount off the backhoe on my 931B and bent the 1 1/2" plate on the bottom pivot. The 1 1/2" plate was way too thick to try and straighten so the only way to repair it I could think of was to grind a groove in it and weld it back up. This isn't as simple as it seems. You can't just line it up brace it and weld it. You have to allow for the weld to shrink and move when cooling or it will build up stress. I went to the tech school here to get some advice and they were leery to give me any(liability) but did agree that I should have the piece bent done to allow it to pull straight upon cooling. How much to bend it down was basically a guess. I welded it up but had had a piece of bar the right length to put in between in case it started to bend too much. The pivots had less than 1/4" allowance for the boom to fit on. I got a piece of 3 1/2" heavy wall tubing turned down .005" under to use as an alignment pin to line the pin holes up with the bushings removed. Still had to use a rosebud and come-a-long to tweak it the last little bit to line up. I think heating it up helped remove any residual stress left from the welding. It went back together and the boom fit on. Thank god! I bought a welder for the job and figured it probably would have cost 3-$4000 to have a shop repair it. Had I not been an experienced welder, there's no way I would have attempted this repair. I don't try to abuse my machines but I don't want to have to baby them either. When I get stuck and have to use the hoe to pull myself out, the last thing I want is for the boom to fail. My hoe only has about 5 tons of bucket force. Anything less than a 100% repair on a 235 is just asking for trouble.
I suppose there's no way to know if the later booms with larger pins are the same in all other respects? Wouldn't take me two minutes to order up some 1/4" wall bushings to fit the bushings if you know what I mean, probably be a stronger setup considering they decided to add a 1/2" of material to the pins for SOME unknown reason, yeah? Just thinking out loud....
Yair . . . . Good post Welder Dave . . . the points you raised about distortion control are par for the course in maintenance welding . . . jigs and clamps and fixtures are part of the art of keeping things in line. If something broke due to lack of maintenance, adequate inspection or whatever the assumption must be made that it can happen again. I always set out to make repairs stronger than original by way of better steel, more steel or redesign of the component. I have only been inside one Cat excavator boom and was not that impressed with the internal welding which was the root cause of a recurrent problem of cracking around a ram attachment boss. Cheers.
Hi Cmark, I will try a couple of the leads. Thanks
Hi Welder Dave, Good post and glad the repair held. I agree this is not a repair for someone who simply has a welder laying around- we have access to some highly regarded welders whom work on big iron routinely, with line boring equipment and that is who we would bring to the site to assist with the repair if that is the ultimate decision. Thanks
Right there is your answer Quit worrying about buying junk booms Dig a hole burry the bucket Raise the boom out of the saddle Call a competent welder with line bore capability.
I've likely been involved in dozens of similar failures like that. Simple to repair for experianced trademen with the right equipment. Get rid of the broken metal. Weld in new steel with undersized bores. Line bore to correct dimensions. Check the mounts for size and alignment and line bore if needed. I've seen a 150 k repair job on a boom fail in a few hours because the client was to tight to line bore the matching pivots.
Hi Everyone, Here is the latest, I came across a welder today that has made several of these type of repairs on this very model machine, with the line boring capabilities. Right now we are looking possibly starting next week and he figures that to break the boom apart, repair and reassemble about 5 or 6 days which seems right to me for everything that needs to be done. We are doing it onsite and with some of our machines and manpower. His thought is that the lift cylinder on the opposite side might have some slight play that would have stress the opposite side boss resulting in the initial failure. I will keep everyone posted.
Sounds good. There's no substitute for experience, especially on a job like this.
Many failures that I have seen like that start at the grease hole in the bore. If the 235 has one make sure after machining it it radiused and polished.
Interesting you mention that. That's where the crack started on my boom pivot. The top plate is only 1" thick and Cat thought it a good idea to put the grease fitting right on the side where the least meat goes around the bushing. To top it off they used a 1/8" NPT zerk which is close to a 3/8" hole effectively losing a 1/3rd of the thickness. The crack went right down the middle of the grease fitting and then followed all around the weld on the bushing. The weld had to be suspect too to crack like that. When I welded it back up I beveled the plate on both sides to get better penetration and after a 6010 root pass put 3 passes of 7018 around the bushing. The bottom side was too difficult to get a good weld overhead so I laid it on it's side and ran a vertical up 7018 from the bottom to the top and then flipped it on the other side and ran that side vertical up. Where the crack at the grease fitting was, I cut the entire section out like a big bevel and welded it vertical up with 3/32" 7018. I actually surprised myself because I got it ground so nice you can't tell it was ever welded. I drilled and tapped a hole for a smaller grease fitting (1/4") but put it on an angle so it wasn't in the thinnest section around the bushing. Not that I wanted to but the repair has been tested pretty good when I got stuck and hasn't showed any signs of failing. I just recently had to weld the stabilizer pivot that had ripped off on one side. It looks like the weld around the tube had been cracked for a long time. There was only about 3/8-1/2" of meat around where the cross tube is welded in and the weld was fairly small. As much as Cat generally builds a good machine, they have had some less than stellar ideas and welding procedures.
Agreed, this break is about 3/4 of an inch to 1 Inch below the grease fitting originally fabricated by Cat
The good thing is at least the work table & chair cant talk about it . Handy items when working in field . The rest is history ...... Disaster scene is covered in water now after we got the Wabco back in working order . Never give up !
"Hi Norite, If you have any leads on parts please share them as they are scarce in this neck of the woods. Thanks" I'll keep my eyes open for you but haven't seen one for a while. Pretty much everybody has some kind of japanese excavator today including me (cat 320). I am sure there must be lots of 235's either idle or sitting in scrap yards. Another possibility is some were converted for forestry and the digging booms may be laying in a yard some where.
Or they were turned into Chinese steel
Agreed, lots of valuable parts were lost in the scrap metal peak.
Boom break/repair Pictures Updated Hey, Everyone, We have begun the repair process finally yesterday after not much luck in procuring a boom. I figured now that we have the pins out of the boom and the base of the boom elevated I could offer some better pictures showing the break. We are having 2 new bosses made and the plan is to cut off both old ones and replace. The other side was not cracked but was out of round so we are going to do that one as well. The welder is having the bosses machined over the next couple days and his plan is to weld the new ones in place as the boom sits. Also while we awaiting the bosses we will work Monday on repair the cab and window. I will try to post pictures as repair progresses. Thanks Brian
Personally if it has been worked to the breaking point I would clean every joint on the boom/stick of grease and start looking for more cracks. It makes no sense to put coins into something that might have more cracks someplace else.
Close call cat boom repair photos Hi everyone, Just following up it has been a long 4 weeks of down time but we got the 2 new bosses welded on this week and the boom pinned back on the machine late Friday, all that is left is to install the replacement window on Tuesday after the long weekend. I included some photos during the repair and after. Have a great 4th of July everyone, be safe and thank you for your thoughts and comments as to how to best get the old Cat 235 up and running again. Many Thanks Brian
Boom break repair photos Sorry, guys for some reason some of the repair pictures would not go with the previous post so here they are. We were able to do the repair with leaving the stick and bucket on with the lift cylinders attached. Thanks again
looks as all went well for your 235 boom surgery. For my money,I'd had the cribbing Nige mentioned piled inbetween the tracks and bucket to safety support the boom..lotta weight sitting there balanced or not.Glad to see it turned out for you.
Hi Bunkclimber, Thanks and I glad its done too, Today we put the new side window in and re-tweaked the cab into place for the door to close properly, looking forward to working again. I agree the cribbing would have been needed if this guy was not willing to work on it in place up on the machine. Thanks Brian
I'm very glad everything went successfullly and look forward to seeing some photos soon of the machine digging. However to echo bunkclimber's comments, and not with the intention of criticizing how the job was done, the problem with supporting the weight of the rear end of an excavator boom on just the two cylinders is that it just doesn't give any room for error if a hydraulic hose feeding those boom cylinders fails. When gas cutting or welding this is always possible if a hot lump of metal falls on a hose and burns through it before someone spots it. The consequences could have been anything from someone getting trapped and injured when the boom came down, to a fire that could have burnt the whole machine to the ground.
Close call boom break Pictures update up and running Hi Everyone , In response to Nige's request to see pictures of the old girl back up and running. I had her out today on the side of a steep 60' ledge slope working away. The machine seemed to perform well. I eased her back into the job checking bolts, welds, and lines etc. Thanks again for everyones' valued input. Many Thanks Brian