John Deere mower deck repair and reinforcement

This customer had hit a very hard obstacle, causing extensive damage to his mower deck, essentially making it unusable.
We were able to correct all the damaged sections and weld in reinforcement rings to prevent further damage.

[@johnw.peterson4311]

Great work sir. Very professionally done.

[@daveyboyr7580]

Never will I buy another Green and yellow lawn mower. Yellow as in Lemon, Green to hide in the tall grass. Thanks for your terrific video!

[@CliffordGowens-lw6om]

Where can I get some of those rings?

[@michaelmichelli3170]

I welded in some cracks in my dad’s deck and every time I grind it flush so the spindle can fit back in, the cracks are still there. Thoughts?

[@allenmccoy7760]

What are those rings called?

[@philliphall5198]

They need the rings installed when it’s new to prevent this problem 😊

[@bobbowman8896]

Thanks for the video! Facing the same issues. Would you share how much you charged for the job? Thanks !

[@PrepSetGo]

Thank you for viewing and commenting! It really does help! I try to steer away from talking prices as they can vary widely from one region to another. Also, this was done in our machine shop / fabrication shop (kzbin.info) so our labor rates differ from a pure welding shop. I can say it was between 2 and 3 hours total and the customer provided the reinforcement rings and the deck was already dismantled (original spindles were already removed), so there was no material cost, only labor. So if you are looking for a price, I'd quote between 2 and 3 hours labor depending on the damage.

[@matrogers6850]

This is exactly what happened to mine.

[@rickstan6595]

My problem is worse the bolt holes are ok intact but beyond that I have a circular crack beyond about 8 inches in diameter .It looks like blade hit something and riped it from the blade area to an area 4-6inches outside of where that aftermarket metal flange would go. Pls. advise.

[@PrepSetGo]

Without images of how bad it is, that's a tough call. I can only assume it will require significant reforming of the steel to get it back in place. Having it ripped out that far is complicated in two significant ways, first you need to get the metal back in it's normal position, that's hard enough. However, when you begin to re-weld it, you need to be sure the spindle is perpendicular to the deck and parallel to all the other spindles and pulleys. If not, the belts will wear extremely fast and if bad enough may even jump off the crooked spindle. If you want to make a video and post it, I'd be happy to help. Also, our other channel kzbin.info may have more user input as well.

[@philliphall5198]

I just brazed up the crack and installed 3/16 home made rings