Machine Builders Network+ Forums Thread Like Summary - Fork repair

A while back I finally broke off the tabs that lock the forks to my skidloader plate. NH has a simple way to do it with 4 tabs welded to the bottom back of the attachments and an angle top bar that hooks over the top plate.
I had converted some forks from a bobcat that had a whole bunch of junk welded on the back,---VERY complicated set-up, so I cut 50 pounds of junk off and welded the tabs on to match my NH along with a top angle and did it all with the torch in a hurry. This was 25 or 30 years ago and it all held til I got the brainy idea to subsoil with the forks! ---NOT their intended use I know but going slow all was fine til I hit an old concrete foundation at the edge of the garden and broke my tabs off.
anyway I got fancy and cut some new ones out with the metal cutting band saw and am about ready to weld them on.
I cut them out rough then ground them down to close shape of original NH tabs. Copied a tracing of the original tabs on my bucket and went from there.
Raining here today so cant weld them on,---gotta work in the wood shed instead!
some pix of the new tabs. I also used thicker metal this time too! LOL!

hope you're gonna use some decent 1/4" 7018 and multi-pass weld that on at 200amps Sonny..and not use those old 1962 rod laying around in your old toolbox..oh,wait, mine are from 1982..I think I need a new box too

I usually use my Syncrowave tig machine for stick,more often than not I just MIG everything with ER70S6 and 80/20 gas. I did score a ton of old stick electrodes years ago at an auction,(refrigerator full)-a lot of them are super high nickel content 100K psi rod from the 70's and the clay flux is crumbling and coming off, so I just scrape it all off and use it for TIG filler rod for stainless and oddball stuff..for stick I caved in from my strict USA made welding machine rule and bought a orange chinese "Hitbox" 200A stick welder,just add a 'S' to the start of the brand name,its the size of a tissue box, 120 or 240V and will burn a 1/4"rod pretty well..not as smooth as the Miller but its great for a quickie job,throw it in the back of a golf cart and plug into a small generator like Jims 3500W and go anywhere..run what ya got but watch your tensile strength of the flux MIG wire Sonny when doing work like the fork brackets that are stressed to the max..use 70,000psi wire at least..i'd be using the 100k psi rod..i dont know what tensile the flux core is

The little welder setup I was talking about

I find if you turn the heat up a little bit more than you'd need for clean steel the rusty shit welds okay. All depends upon what I'm working on and how much I depend on that weld.