iointerrupt
Member
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2011
- Messages
- 46
Finished product first:
I recently finished building a 2-ton dump trailer for my tractor, and I needed a slightly longer drawbar for it. I had also noticed that the trailer was smearing the steel of the drawbar I was using, after just a few outings.
Looking to kill two birds with one stone, I figured I'd try making a silicon bronze'd drawbar. The bronze will wear faster than steel, but I prefer wear out a drawbar than a trailer tongue.
I had a piece of scrap 1" thick, 2" wide steel to base the new drawbar off of. Here it is after TIG brazing the first layer of silicon bronze:
After the first pass, I ran it through the mill to knock off the high spots, then did a 2nd build up pass. After the second pass, total build up was about 0.220" thick. From there is was milled down till it cleaned up, leaving about 0.150".
Here it is after final milling and a pass through the belt grinder to make it look pretty:
Rest of the work was just finishing up adapting it to the 2" receiver size that I use on my equipment. A 2" square tube had a .25" end plate welded to it. Then a 1" slot was milled through all that to insert the 1" drawbar bit. Finally a couple of TIG welding passes around the outside, and some stick welding passes around the inside (cause who doesn't like using all the welders on a single project):
For an evenings effort, I'm pretty happy with it. I'll admit I haven't tried it out yet, but for now it sure looks pretty sitting on the work bench.
I recently finished building a 2-ton dump trailer for my tractor, and I needed a slightly longer drawbar for it. I had also noticed that the trailer was smearing the steel of the drawbar I was using, after just a few outings.
Looking to kill two birds with one stone, I figured I'd try making a silicon bronze'd drawbar. The bronze will wear faster than steel, but I prefer wear out a drawbar than a trailer tongue.
I had a piece of scrap 1" thick, 2" wide steel to base the new drawbar off of. Here it is after TIG brazing the first layer of silicon bronze:
After the first pass, I ran it through the mill to knock off the high spots, then did a 2nd build up pass. After the second pass, total build up was about 0.220" thick. From there is was milled down till it cleaned up, leaving about 0.150".
Here it is after final milling and a pass through the belt grinder to make it look pretty:
Rest of the work was just finishing up adapting it to the 2" receiver size that I use on my equipment. A 2" square tube had a .25" end plate welded to it. Then a 1" slot was milled through all that to insert the 1" drawbar bit. Finally a couple of TIG welding passes around the outside, and some stick welding passes around the inside (cause who doesn't like using all the welders on a single project):
For an evenings effort, I'm pretty happy with it. I'll admit I haven't tried it out yet, but for now it sure looks pretty sitting on the work bench.