Thread: Pier Cart Repairs - do it yourself

Going to give it a try..... been wanting to for awhile.... thanks for the tip
I have aluminum welding rods , but have yet tried those(think they would work better on thicker material)
I've been bolting or clamping anything I do to the cart

My old cart was splitting where the handle went in and I just put a heavy Cat hose clamp around it. Haven't got my newer one I bought the week before Sally tore up the Pier used very much but hopefully next year.

Well..., got to use my pier cart a couple weeks ago and thought I would give an update
On the pier it seemed to be repaired just fine though I didn't do any checking of any welds
On my second trip out on the beach the welds that hold the handle bracket "ripped off"
After checking things over it seemed a number of the welds look weekened and did not hold, even the bottom of the pole holder had split again
Maybe I didn't clean the surface well enough, but I thought I did
I know too much heat would melt the cart itself so I heated areas enough to secure things
Wound up at Walmart to pick up the cheap Duck Tape (so cheap that if you pulled hard it ripped) to get me through the trip
Since that was a good solution at home I am re-taping with quarter inch filament strapping tape
Gonna just figure eight around the joints and know it will work

These low temp rods work fairly well on non-anodized aluminum but the aluminum surface around the joint must be totally free of oxidation. Pier cart tubing is probably anodized to inhibit corrosion. You might try grinding away the anodized surface layer of tubing immediately before repair. Don’t pre-grind all of your cracks as the aluminum will oxidize quickly.

Low temp aluminum repair rods work relatively well on non-anodized aluminum, not so well on anodized. Pier cart tubing is probably anodized to inhibit corrosion. You might try grinding away the anodized surface layer of the tubing around the break immediately before using the rods. The ground aluminum will oxidize quickly which will prevent good adhesion.

Originally Posted by 1000 Miles Away

...Wound up at Walmart to pick up the cheap Duck Tape (so cheap that if you pulled hard it ripped) to get me through the trip...

T.C. and John Ed (on Birmingham radio) used to do a skit called "Billy Wiggins Fix-it Shop" in which something or somebody would be damaged/injured (e.g. being run over by a bus) and the "fix-it" was always duct tape. At the risk of coming off like Billy Wiggins, I recommend Gorilla Tape next time.

A strip (or two) of metal for a splint and some JB Weld can be a lot stronger than one might think..

Prior to TC and John Ed there was TC and Doug Layton. They had a skit known as the episodes of Clara and Judsey. In one episode Clara had bought a couple of yard chickens. But then one of the chickens got sick. To “fix” this problem Judsey killed the healthy chicken to make chicken soup for the sick one. It died despite Judsey’s efforts. Clara and Judsey’s descendants are now policy makers in our federal government.