Bull Hog dental work

[idahohay]

My first season of mulching with a RC100/Fecon head has come to an end due to snow. My jobs have generally been cleanup and thinning on relatively rock free terrain. During aproximately 500 hours of use, I replaced a dozen teeth as soon as there was any carbide breakage. In my case, all were only half broke (1/2 of the double carbide tip) and initially I replaced two teeth when only one was broken. The broken tooth would be replaced as well as a good one on the other side of the drum. The last three brakes were replaced with wore teeth with no breakage.
The broken carbides all appeared to share the same thing: poor brazing or none in the area where the carbide fell out.

At this point the head runs smooth and looks like it will go another 400 hours. I am considering taking a rosebud to the teeth where 1/2 of the carbide is broke, removing the good half and the broken half, then re braze two good tips in a holder.

Has anyone out there done this before? What about the use of hard surfacing rod behind the carbides to slow up erosion? Does anyone out there know the source of the carbide tips used in these hammers? My guess is that they are European due to the 36mm nut and bolts used.

Thanks for this great forum.
H.Rutherford

 

[Gamma]

I started to look into what it would take to rebraze new carbides onto the mounts and found quite a bit of information about it on the internet. There are quite a few businesses that cater to brazing new carbide onto all types of industrial cutting tools and saw blades and some that specialize in selling just the carbide bits themselves. The problem I ran into was not knowing how to describe the carbide bits to any of the carbide suppliers.

BTW: There is/was someone on eBay that was selling new carbide teeth for various mulching heads.

 

[TMTS]

There is a manufacturer from Germany, King Kong Tools, who sells all types of teeth for hogs, grinders, etc...Called them a while back to find out if they made Fecon teeth- turns out they do, but they sell them only to Fecon and Fecon dealers. Asked them about if they can recondition teeth (I only replace when both carbide tips are gone from my Fecon teeth) and he said that they had tried, but spent too much time cleaning and re-aligning the metal around the carbides to make it cost effective...but I have probably 10 teeth that are good enough to be salvaged and re-tipped...then rest have been scrapped.

At the Northeast Logging Expo in Bangor in May I spoke with a rep from Quadco (they make hot saws and other attachments for timbcos and the like) who had some prototype teeth for a Fecon...not sure if they are going to make it to production, or if Fecon would even let them (Patent wise) the Quadco tooth was much like the FAE tooth and that the cutting face was the only piece that was swapped out (Bolt from the back) when dental work was required

-TMTS

p.s Idahohay- where are you in Idaho?

 

[sandman2234]

Just a side note, when your get done with your carbide teeth, toss them in a bucket by the barn door. When it gets full, locate a buyer of used carbide tooling and it might make your day.
David from jax

 

[idahohay]

TMTS, Thanks for the info. Seems like I came upon King Kong website but couldn't find Bull Hog teeth and that was as far as I got. My attempt to replace the teeth early was to avoid the erosion that speeds up once the carbide is gone. Even if I could manage to get the carbide inserts, working on the teeth might not be cost effective.

I would be curious what individual teeth and complete sets cost elsewhere but if this isn't allowed here thats o.k.

btw-I'm located in the panhandle near Priest Lake
hr

 

[TMTS]

I think my dealer sells them for $75+ per tooth...when I bought the fecon head from the dealer they didn't stock any of the wear items like teeth or tool holders...what this translated to was having to pay shipping on every item I ordered...and teeth and holders are not light...

so I got on the phone to Fecon and explained my situation...they got on the phone to my dealer and since then my dealer keeps a few teeth and holders in stock...

I know other dealers sell them for closer to $60 per tooth.

-tmts

 

[idahohay]

$75 per tooth from my dealer. I would hope that buying 40 would be reason for a little slack but will cross that bridge some other time. My dealer is over 90 miles away but always seems to have the right stuff.

 

[sandman2234]

Do you have a picture of those teeth and holders? At seventy five a piece, it would start to get interesting enough that a CNC machine shop might be able to duplicate them (maybe??) I had a discussion with a stump grinder guy here that had the same problem. Only his teeth were in the $15 range, and carbide for the blade was about $10, so it didn't make sense to buy the carbide and still have to put a torch to it. Time alone would eat up the $5 difference, but your talking a lot more leeway, unless something is different about them.
David from jax

 

[idahohay]

Sandman, here is pic of two teeth (bull hog). I haven't made any attempt to replace the carbide inserts yet but I couldn't do any worse than who built these. No apparent brazing where the carbide decided to leave.
hr

 

[rrinc]

rebrazing teeth is or can be economical. usually carbide defects are warranty
issue . as i recall all the teeth are made by the same guys in germany.
if the carbide chips(small) keep running it, wear it out!
not a big difference overall. 1 tooth isnt going to make a difference.
shop around on your prices too.