Old timer told me to weld a rusty bolt on, I laughed, he was right

Had a cracked bracket on a feed chute at the plant in Gary last month. My plan was to grind it clean and run a proper bead, but this retired guy, Pete, who just hangs around the site coffee cart, said to just tack a rusty 3/8 bolt across the crack and let it burn in. I thought he was messing with me. Seemed like the laziest fix ever, no prep, no cleaning, just pure hackery. But I tried it on a scrap piece first, and that rust actually acted like a flux, held tight and pulled the gap shut. Ended up saving me a 45 minute grind session on a job that was already running late. Has anyone else found a weird old-school trick that sounds dumb but saves your butt in a pinch?

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shanec611mo ago

Funny how bad methods beat perfect ones, @abby_morgan18. Lazy wins.

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abby_morgan181mo ago

Tried something similar once with a seized caliper bleeder screw on my old F150, figured I'd just heat it and pray. Instead I packed the threads with a little rust dust I scraped off the frame and it broke loose after five minutes of PB Blaster. My buddy called me a wizard, but really I was just too lazy to drill it out and the dirt did the work for me. Now I keep a jar of the stuff in my toolbox like it's some kind of magic seasoning, but it's really just my excuse for never cleaning anything properly.

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