Fixing Cracks in a Backhoe - Big ! with pics

[john_bud]

Finished up the rest of the suspect seams on the inside of the bucket today. It looks all nice and pretty.

Went over the the neighbors today to look at the teeth he is willing to give me. YIKES! They are Hensley X400L's. Each replaceable tooth is about 10" long, 4" wide and weighs about 12-15 pounds. Way too big! These are for excavators in the 40,000# class. Will have to check prices on ebay for more appropriate sized teeth and compare to the local Catco.

Called the machine shop today too. It will be 3 weeks this Friday since dropping the parts off. They have everything done except for welding on the lower box mount for the swing post. They had to order a boring bar to align it so it could be accurately welded. Was supposed to be here Monday, but...
it isn't here yet. They have about a hours work with the bar in hand. Should be soon. It's gonna be almost too nice to use once it's all back together!

Of course the hydraulics could use some love too. But that's a different story.

jb

 

[rdbrumfield]

I believe in your case, I would cut the whole unit off up past the goobers and fatigued metal and start anew with some T-1 plate and make a complete new box to the original dementions and weld it on to the material that you have left on. Being sure to make the cuts true and at an angle to give you more welding area. It will be an almost total rebuild, with new bushings and such, but you won't be spending your time back in the weld shop when you need to be playing in the dirt.

 

[john_bud]

OK, I got the hoe parts back from the machine shop. Ouch! It was more than anticipated as the labor was about 3x what I thought. They charged me 20 hours at $50 and hour. The machinist said they felt sorry for me and cut the labor in half as he said he had at least 40 hours on it. I'm not sure how, but....

I will post more pictures later - gotta zip out and get some stuff done now. Here is the bottom of the box showing the swing post mounted. The bottom mount had to be cut off and moved over 3/8's of an inch. Looking at the professional welds, I would say that are nice - better than mine - but not a ton better. Then again, modesty isn't one of my many many many faults...






There was some discussion about if with all the welding it was going to go back together or not. Well, the swing post fits and swivels nicely. No play at all. More updates to follow...

jb

 

[schmism]

HOLY MOTHER what the **** would you be doing for 40 hrs on the thing! For 40 hrs you could have cut one out of plate and built one from scratch for that!

OK, I got the hoe parts back from the machine shop. Ouch! It was more than anticipated as the labor was about 3x what I thought. They charged me 20 hours at $50 and hour. The machinist said they felt sorry for me and cut the labor in half as he said he had at least 40 hours on it. I'm not sure how, but....

 

[thingy]

John,can't tell alot from the pictures,but I agree,those welds don't look that hot[good],,,,and looks like they were made with mig? If so,,they might be a machining shop,,but they ain't much of a welding shop,,,fcaw or stick oughta be used on something like that,,,,maybe they are the same people who did some of the welding on it to begin with,,,not saying the welds will fail,just saying I wouldn't bet much money that they wouldn't,,,,course like I said,can't tell alot from some little pictures,you'll probably be alright though,,,thingy

 

[JimR]

Somebody was doddling on that job if it took them 40 hours to do that. I could see where position such a big item would have taken some time and such. But not that much time. Did they also make up new pins and bushing for it, or where they able to buy them? Look at the bright side. It is almost done and you will be able to have a lifetime of use out of it.

 

[john_bud]

Thingy, If ya click on the little pictures, they will expand in a new window as a full sized photo.

On the amount of work, Lets see they made 2 sets of links for the swing post to swing cylinders, the two pins for the swing post, cut off aligned and welded the bottom bracket and did 11 bushings. I was plannng on a total bill of around 700 and it was 1450 ish instead.

The welding looks slightly better than mine, they did use mig but 100% argon I think. I use 100% CO2 - more splatter and a hotter puddle but less $$$$.
Here's more pictures.






Here's a picture of the water bucket from my shop that I use to wash my hands. I may need to run the heat a bit more....NOPE, saw the power bill!

 

[thingy]

Probably a mixture is what they are using,75 percent argon and 25 percent CO2,or something like that. Yeah,looked at pictures bigger,,not that bad I guess,but not all that great either,considering they got paid to do it,,not supposed to stop or start on a corner,supposed to wrap corners or edges and stop after you get around them if you have to,supposed to fill craters,[stops],,supposed to flatten out starts and not leave a humpy thing,grind if you have to,,left some undercut,maybe didn't put enough filler metal in some spots,[you got to use multiple passes when you need to,if you don't need to,fine,but if you are only getting a 1/4 inch fillit on in one pass and you want a 3/8 fillit,than that one pass ain't going to do it]..like I said,maybe a good machine shop,but maybe not the best welding shop.
And mig ain't the way to go here,somebody who does this kinda work for a living ought to have known that.
Many people can put down a bead like that with mig,,but not near as many can do it with stick,,which is what shoulda been used here,,multipass stick,,probably 7010 for a root, turned up,and 7018 for the rest,or at least 7018,,,,
And you don't know about things like did they clean good before welding and did they use any preheat if needed,,you see welds looking like that,makes you wonder about all the rest. thingy

 

[Ifixcars]

John, I liked some of your welds better than the "pros" beads. I agree that the welds from the machine shop weren't perfect but they are a lot better than you had before. I'm glad it mounted up nice though. Won't be long now, huh?

 

[john_bud]

Yeah, I was a bit disappointed on the welding quality. I really was expecting it to be stick welded.

Won't be too much longer. I am debating how much to put together now. It needs to be stripped and painted and that ain't too easy when the high is -3F!! I was going to pound off the old paint with the new needle scaler, but the air lines in my shop popped. I put PVC in temporarilly (15 years ago) and they popped on me. Yeah yeah, shouldn't use PVC. But it was only for a short time. I'm debating on using copper or iron. Price is nearly equally high.

That was right before my truck gelled to death along with about all the rest of the diesels in the area. BIG batch of bad fuel. Took 1 qt of PowerService white, 16 gal of new fuel and a trip to the heated car wash to get home. Then 2 filters changed --> still gelled! Then 1 qt of Powerservice Diesel 911 and 24 hours in a heated shop to get back to running. Then a double dose of Howes to get it to running normal. No water evident in the fuel or filters. Just wax from helll. All the commercial guys have been buying up everything on the shelf that says "rescue" or "anti-gel". The trash hauler bought EVERY drop from our local CATCO. I love new fuel mixes...