Bushing? Need a weld on hole

[bdog]

I have a piece of equipment that has a dump bed. The bed is held on by three 7/8" pins. The two on the back form a hinge and the one in the front is connected to a hydraulic cylinder.

I have removed the bed and want to build another bed for it that will utilize the same mounting points. The new bed will be rather heavy and the machine is on rough terrain all the time. I could torch the holes but they would not be perfect and there would be slop and i am afraid the bed would bounce around and wear out the pins. Is there some sort of weld on bushing that is maybe 3/8-1/2 thick with a 7/8 hole that I could weld on to the mounting brackets for the new bed? I have seen things like this but I don't know what they are called and if you can buy them off the shelf or if the ones I saw were a custom fab type deal.

[joshuabardwell]

Two options. 1) Sometimes, the manufacturer will sell replacement weld-in bushings, since it is understood that they are a common wear item. Get an exploded parts list for your equipment and see if there is a part number for the bushings. Or just ask a dealer to check for you. 2) DOM tubing is available in specific ID and wall thickness. It is readily adaptable to being made into bushings. However, you may need to ream out the ID on a lathe or drill press, since it is usually either dead-on or slightly under its nominal ID. In other words, if you need to fit a 7/8" pin, buy DOM tubing with 7/8" ID and then ream it out. If you are going to weld on the bushings, you want to make them a bit more oversized than you would if you weren't going to weld on them. The machine shop that did my reaming said only 3 or 4 mils might be appropriate if I wasn't going to weld, but they used 8 mils because I'm going to weld.

For cutting the holes, I recommend cutting a slightly oversized hole, then put the pin in the piece and slide the bushing over the pin. Then tack the bushing in place. This will make sure that the bushing will perfectly line up when the welding is finished.

[joshuabardwell]

DOM Steel Tube (Drawn Over Mandrel)

That site has 1 1/4" OD x .375" wall thickness DOM tubing, which if my math is correct, leaves 7/8" ID. It's $17 / foot, plus shipping, so it ain't cheap, but it'll do you.

[Kernopelli]

DOM is great for bushings. I have also welded shaft collars in place, like for the type of repair you are doing. I have taken the set screws out before and put grease zerks in place of them....not sure it helps much but hey, can't hurt. SpeeCo Shaft Set Collar - Mills Fleet Farm

[Brad_Blazer]

McMaster-Carr
CountyLine® Set Collar, 7/8 in. Dia., Pack of 2 - 1195264 | Tractor Supply Company
Order Mild Steel A513 Tube in Small Quantities at OnlineMetals.com

[bdog]

Thanks guys. Headed to TSC to see if they have the shaft collars in stock. Looks like the cheapest and quickest option. The DOM would work also but more costly.

[joshuabardwell]

Thanks guys. Headed to TSC to see if they have the shaft collars in stock. Looks like the cheapest and quickest option. The DOM would work also but more costly.

Are you sure they're more costly? Looking online, shaft collars with 1" (or thereabouts) ID run $5-$10. And they're only about 1/2" thick. For $17, plus about $15-20 shipping (sadly) so total cost let's say $40, you can get a 12" length of DOM which will make 24 of the same piece, or $1.66 each. Also, with the DOM, you can cut the bushing to any thickness that you want.

If you were to buy more than 12" of DOM, the cost would go down even further, as the site charges about an extra $10 for the first foot to cover their cutting and handling.

[bdog]

The 7/8" ones are $6.99 for a 2 pack at TSC. I need 6 of them. $21 at the store down the road and hopefully they have them and I get them today.

If I needed more the DOM would make sense.

[bigtiller]

Would the bushings used on a 3 point hitch to go from category 1 to 3 work?

[SPIKER]

Try calling around to local Machine Shops and Welding supply/Steel Suppliers for some of the DOM, we bought a LOT of it and make Hinges with it and usually reamed them out to a Brass Bushing Size pressed in the Brass Bushing then drill thru for Zerk fitting. Some times there is a bit of distortion on the DOM when welding and the BRASS Bushing will be easily re-reamed if need be using hand reamer.

For the low moving dump bed probably just add Zerk hole & over ream slightly. Be sure to align grease hole so that it will be accessible when down or UP and that full travel does not sheer off the zerk.



Mark