Bucket repair

I haven't posted in a while.... haven't been doing anything really worth posting. I have a few buckets at the shop that have showed up over the last couple of days so I figured I'd share some pics.

This one is a little guy.... as you can see the bottom is caved in so we'll be replacing the bottom and the wear bars.


First step is to remove the floor..... just cut it out in one piece.. this is after I removed all the hardened asphalt.:realmad:


Throw it up on the bench to clean up all the joint areas...


After cleaning it up I make the template and it off to cut the floor material...


Notice I started the cut just inside the edge of the plate, cutting across and then down.... leaving that little tab attached keeps the piece from peeling from the plate, which could alter the dimensions of the cut piece.


Here is the new floor piece with the template... the floor is marked out to be bump rolled. The lines on the plate and the template are used to reference where to bump the plate.


Here is the plate after the rolling is completed.... This is where (I feel) it is important to be able to use a plasma cutter or a torch without the aide of a fence or straight edge. The line running length wise to the left of the plate represents the iside of the bucket. I already trimmed the right side. As you can see it would be difficult to place some type of a guide considering the curve of the plate and the slight arc of the line itself...


Here is the new floor in place.... pretty nice fit.... I just have to dawg down the roll a little bit..



I'll continue with some weld pis in the next post...

Thanks for looking...

Start welding .......











I'll post more when I'm done the job...

ordered a couple of rolls of the hobart excel duelshild off my dealer yesterday, next decent job il give them a go and post the results up. how much Co2 you running in the mix chris?

Thanks for posting this Lorenzo, very interesting, could you tell us the thickness
of the steel used it looks about 1" also do you use a certain type of steel for this kind of work. That welding looks amazing, how far do you aim to penetrate into the steel, and finally what welder do you use and how much power do you need to get the job done. Sorry so many question but I find this type of heavy fabrication fascinating.

Cheers,

W.

Top bit of work Chris, and I like yer tip on starting the flame cut just in from the edge to stop the free end curling with the heat!
Been having a look at your posts on WW. Great to see the free welding day you set up. I would have been over myself only it's a bit of a way for me!!!! - Did many turn up?

With a small dent like that why did they send it in for fixing?

Justme

Justme said:

With a small dent like that why did they send it in for fixing?

Justme

Click to expand...

Ha! Can tell you're a farmer justme!

That's pragmatic thinking. The dent isn't going to affect the amount of stuff you can get in there by much so why repair it? Maybe the dent causes problems with dragging against the ground? Or perhaps the teeth needed doing anyway? Would be interesting to know.

Fantastic welding as always there. Do you ever do any really thin stuff Lorenzo? Maybe 1mm or less. Would be interesting to see that sort of thickness so I can see how far I could improve my own work as I never get to do digger buckets.

The bottom of the bucket is typically used for smoothing off the soil. It's like using the back of a spade. Buckets are not just for moving material but for shaping too, so the physical condition of the tool can be important. Not such a big deal for a farmer shifting manure around the farmyard!

Also, the dent will only get worse if the bucket is smacked into the ground/rocks etc. The ideal and strongest profile is convex. When the profile becomes concave... it's time to replace...

Also worth giving the rest of the machine a once over, as the bashed bucket indicates the operator should be wearing a butchers apron! (no offense to any butchers reading this!)

Our farmer went over the track (driveway) with his bucket this week. He's a pain - we spend ages filling in the potholes and getting the track smooth, then he goes and scrapes all the top off leaving ridges at the sides. Next time it rains we'll be having potholes again.

I presume he's using the teeth to 'grade' the road. As you have observed - it doesn't work. Your version - doing it by hand, is far more effective with light traffic. And you have to stop the plonkers in their 4x4's from driving at max speed, cos they can. It's them that cause the problems!

Actualy not a farmer but a smallholder so even more skint / tight. I looked at it & thought reverse the bucket & find some thing big / hard / heavy to pop the dent out on. If the digger is powerfull enough to put the dent in then should pop it out too.

Justme
PS yeh moving dirt dont take much effort unless you are doing it by hand.

Looks like he's been knocking fence posts in with it. Do you fabricate buckets from new Chris? We did a nice line a while ago of specialist buckets for quarries with a runway sort of thing in the bottom cos they have a huge steel ball weighing a couple of ton which they pick up in the bucket and drop on large lumps of rock to break up, rather than keep swapping from bucket to hammer. The runway was to stop the ball banging about in the bucket and knackering up the important bits on the machine. Nice little job that.....

snowcat said:

ordered a couple of rolls of the hobart excel duelshild off my dealer yesterday, next decent job il give them a go and post the results up. how much Co2 you running in the mix chris?

Click to expand...

You'll like it... it runs awesome in the verticle. What size wire did you go with? I'm running a 75/ 25 arg/ co2 mix approx 35 cfh (cubid feet per hour) sorry I'm not sure how you measure gas flow in the UK

Welderpaul said:

Top bit of work Chris, and I like yer tip on starting the flame cut just in from the edge to stop the free end curling with the heat!
Been having a look at your posts on WW. Great to see the free welding day you set up. I would have been over myself only it's a bit of a way for me!!!! - Did many turn up?

Click to expand...

Thanks Paul..... yeah most of what I have posted here are just transplanted from there but I'm glad you have been to our forum.

As far as the free welding day.... the turn out was low only 2 people besides myself and Zap. It baffles me as to why no one took advantage of the offer. If I was a beginner and I lived within a few hours drive I would have went. Actually I did... although I'm not a beginner.....that's how I met Zap, outside of the forum... he's an awesome Tig welder, he offered a class and I went down. I didn't have to go... I'm confident in my TIG abilities, I went to get another approach to it. When he mentioned doing another clinic he asked if I would be interested in doing some demonstrations of my own I said no problem.

Where else can you get the opportunity to get instruction on using and try MIG, TIG, stick, arc gouging, plasma cutting as well as welding aluminum, stainless and steel... discussions on brazing all under one roof for free. Plus we provided the burgers. One of the guys that attended, designs high speed circuits for a living... very nice guy. Well he brought a geiger meter so that we could see for ourselves the level of exposure to radiation from grinding tungsten..... guess what? It barely registered.... there was more of a hit when the meter was passed over the little difusser bag you place in a gas lantern.

You know what..... and I'll offer this to you and anyone on this forum... if you ever find yourself taking a trip to the Boston, Ma. area and would be interested in doing something like this contact me..... if possoble I will arrange a class that works with you schedule.

WOOF said:

Thanks for posting this Lorenzo, very interesting, could you tell us the thickness
of the steel used it looks about 1" also do you use a certain type of steel for this kind of work. That welding looks amazing, how far do you aim to penetrate into the steel, and finally what welder do you use and how much power do you need to get the job done. Sorry so many question but I find this type of heavy fabrication fascinating.

Cheers,

W.

Click to expand...

Hello Woof.... the material I used for the floor is 3/8" mild steel... the wear bars will be 1/2" AR400F (abrasion plate).

Penetration.... as deep as I can Off hand I'm not sure how deep it is, I'll see if I can do some sample and cut them to see how deep it is at the settings I'm running.

My power source is a Lincoln DC600....... with an LN-7 Feeder.....

I think it is about 375 amps in the end..

Thanks for asking....

malcolm said:

Do you ever do any really thin stuff Lorenzo? Maybe 1mm or less. Would be interesting to see that sort of thickness so I can see how far I could improve my own work as I never get to do digger buckets.

Click to expand...

I do weld thin materials... but typically this is done with TIG.... for me at least. That's thin stuff... I'm going to try welding some .009 inch stainless steel.... I'll let you know how it works...

Justme said:

I looked at it & thought reverse the bucket & find some thing big / hard / heavy to pop the dent out on. If the digger is powerfull enough to put the dent in then should pop it out

Click to expand...

If it was that easy I may not have a job...

Hi chris gone for the 1/16 we mesure in lpm here but no problem to do the converstion. I scratch built a loading shovel buket last summer but because of cheep imports couldnt really get my money back on the job! i am guessing there is not the same problem in the states hence the fact its economic to do a major repair like that. I do toes (wear strips) regualy as I can knock them out in an afternoon, anything more now renders the bucket scrap. I had a mate who could buy a toothed bucket for his 3ton for about $150 you cant compeate with that!!!!!!

I hear what you're saying about compeating with some of these low cost bucket companies. Even the one I posteded here..... by the time I'm done it would have been better to have bought a new one. Would have cost a bit more but this unit is thin in the sides. I'm just glad that my customers see the fact that saving money doesn't always save money in the end, they like the quality of the work.

I run my machine at
flat
32 OCV (open circuit voltage) incase you don't know what this means it's the volatge that will register when you pull the trigger without striking an arc.
IPM (inches per minute) approx 250- 300.

vert up
approx 27 OCV
about 175 on the feed rate, same gas flow

the technique for vert up is pretty much the same as 7018 stick.

Can you send a few of the your customers over here!!! they like the quality of the work just not the paying for it . looks like you can drop the ocv a bit with the excel. Iv got a couple of 5th wheal couplings to make in the next couple of weeks theres a good few feet of verticals to do with them il avoid the temptation of running a 6013 and give the excel a go, let you know how i get on.

Matt

Matt,

Monday I'll set up and do some vertical beads..... I'll check My settings to be sure and post the info with some pics as well.

Nice one chris, Il run up and show you what i can get with stick, i still feel my uphand vert with a 60 or 70 serries is better than my uphill mig work il post you some pics back. I guess your always stronger on one process.