Backhoe Backhoe broke my thumb!(pic)

[gordon]

Kubmech, Ditto to the have someone else weld it.

Gordon

[Rowski]

Treeboone

Could you post a close up (detail) where the weld broke way from both the crowd arm and thumb bracket. I'm really curious as to the reason of failure. I agree with the bad weld (lack of penetration on the thumb bracket) idea. But I have seem cases where the steel is of such low quality that it tears (breaks) away right next to the weld even with proper penetration. Thanx

Derek

[treeboone]

here is a pic of the weld on the hoe, it stayed pretty much intact. I had to grind off the last 6 inches or so, where the reinforced bracket did not flex.

[treeboone]

Here is a closer pic of the remains of the thumb weld, from what I can see, the welder did OK, but the steel appears to be low grade. As I mentioned before, this whole thumb looks like a shop class project. I got attachment sales phone #, and will get a quote Monday. Fortunately I have a good dealership (so far anyway) and I don't think this will be a big deal.

[Rowski]

Treeboone

I thought that came to mind after looking at your pictures. On your crowd arm there is a vertical weld (all the way up and down). What I did was to grind a channel into the back side of thumb bracket so that the bracket fits flush onto the crowd arm. It was a lot of grinding but made for a much better (flush) fit. Nice pictures. Showed me what I wanted to see.

Derek <P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by Rowski on 07/01/01 03:14 PM (server time).</FONT></P>