On Sat, 24 Apr 2021 22:46:40 +0100, newshound
wrote:

snip

On strut thickness, steel is expensive in the UK these days, have you
bought any lately? And they are mostly made in Britain.

This is something I've often come across when trying to replace
something old / good with something new / good, they really are made
down to a price these days (even if the price we might be wiling to
pay isn't an issue).

When I took the (fairly old, conventional flue) tumble dryer to bits
the other day, everything undid ok, there wasn't a spec of rust on any
of the (substantial) steelwork, no stripped threads, wonkey screws,
corroded wires / connectors and even the plastic didn't snap, all well
designed etc.

Depending on how bad the overall structural condition of this barrow
is (albeit rusting away in places) and given what you might have to
spend, *if* you could find something anywhere near equivalent, in the
spirit of DIY I might be interested to see if it could be recovered
using fiberglass bandage?

eg. I would remove the bucket, wheel, grips and any unboltable
bracketry and give the whole thing a good going over with a wire brush
(in an angle grinder / drill where suitable). Sand blasting would be
lovely of course. ;-)

Get some 2" wide 'woven roving' and tightly wrap in a spiral fashion
from one handle, round the frame and back to the other then wet out
with resin. Or, better, first give the known weak / stress points a
local layer first, then go over the whole thing as above, possibly a
couple of times.

Paint (if you want), re-assemble and use. You could even fill the
inside of the tubes with expanding foam (first) to ensure any holes
don't allow too much resin in and stop water getting in afterwards
(drilling extra holes in the top of the tubes (low stress area) where
necessary to be able to inject the foam).

Probably much easier than mucking about trying to weld rusty steel and
at least you know what you have once finished.

I've repaired a couple of motorcycle steel front mudguards that way
where they had rusted where the were joined to the inner fork brace /
bracket. Get it de rusted and clean and tape up the outside. Flood the
inner gaps with resin and loose fibreglass then glass over the bracket
and inside the mudguard. Fill the outside (now down onto sound
material underneath) sand and paint. Been on there 10 years now and
not a sign of rust or any fatigue or de lamination. ;-)

Cheers, T i m