OK; I just came into possession of a 8,000 lb rated shop floor lift, came out of an auto repair teaching shop, and it has a couple of spots in the outside jacket that are rusted pretty deep and may be about to fail. I have already taken a twisted cup brush and cleaned up half of the cylinder (approx. 14" diam. by 7' long) and am planning on just taking my wire feed machine and doing a couple of passes over the excessively deep pits and then pressurize the cylinder to about 50-75 lbs and spray it down with a soap solution to see if it leaks. If the welding doesn't work then I will weld on a patch. Anybody have any other suggestions? I will install it in my yard next to my shop (which only has 8' ceilings).
Mike