[john hall]

I'm not saying you shouldn't, however, aren't those plates hardened to begin with? Welding on them may serve to anneal them or cause the area right where it is welded to become so hard it is brittle. The reason I believe they are through hardened (as opposed to case-hardened) is that I broke one on my 2072, it was bent(we think from the factory to be honest). We tried to straighten it---didn't take much effort and it broke. Looking at the pics, I think I'm talking about the same plates. If I did weld them, I'd keep them as cool as possible, use no more heat than needed, weld one up and then weld the other after the first cools.