Hard facing a bucket

[Hookblock]

Hi, new to TBN have been reading for awhile, learned a lot ! I have a JD 4310 with a 410 loader I bought it used with about 400 hrs, very happy with it. I do have a driveway about 500 ft long and all gravel. The guy I bought the tractor from had a gravel driveway about 800 ft long. The bucket is starting to wear on the corners about 3/8". And with all the snow we are getting cleaning the driveway is becoming daily maintenance. I did do a search on hard facing, and I didn't find to much info. So my questions are:

1 is it worth it
2 any good advice for hard facing
3 is there a good pattern (ie; lines, x's, both, or other ideas)
4 is preheating necessary
5 better to replace the cutting edge

I stopped at the welding shop and they recommended Stoody 19 - 5/32'', but not much else when I asked the few questions above. The welder I have is a miller bobcat 225, and I have good welding basics. Thanks to all.

 

[RancherSam]

Hi Hookblock, and welcome. I'm fairly new to tractors, and learning a lot on the forum as well. I'm also considering hard facing my loader bucket ( I have hardfaced my shredder blades, and that has worked out pretty well ). Here's a link that might give you more information on how to lay out the beads on your bucket.

Hardfacing - Rockland Hardfacing helps protect bucket and attachments from abrasion, heat, and impact. Hardfacing on wear parts with carbide embedded hardfacing can extend part life by up to 5 times.

Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Soundguy]

We hardface our cutting edges at work on our pay-loaders... they seem to last longer than the road grader cutting edges.. etc.. No scientific proof to back that up.. just casual observation.. etc.. Our local welding supplier ordered us some rod that had good abrasion resistance characteristics.. dunno what# it was though..

soundguy

 

[Reg]

My poor (almost non existent) technique for clearing snow probably means I should be thinking about this.
It isn't the SNOW itself, more the sand and grit that the town puts on it - and of course the salt.
Tangent question; is salt more or less corrosive to hard faced edges ?

 

[yomax4]

Howdi. Stoody 19 is a good choice as is 21, 31, 35 or wire such as 101,110. One thing to remember is if you have a half inch of material missing, You will need to build it up prior to hard facing. Hard facing materials should only be put on 2-3 layers. If you want a nice booklet on hard facing send me you address and I will send one to you.

MM ( Stoody Rep.)

 

[dirtworksequip]

Hookblock, I work for a large excavation company and they hardface almost all of the wear areas on dozers and excavators. The buckets and blades of all the machines get the hardfacing. It works and I am supprised at what a difference it makes. These machines are getting thousands of hours on them. I would say it is well worth the extra time and expense.

As far as your bucket you might want to check the floor and the back of the bucket to see if those areas are thinning. If the corners have wear then I would say that other areas are worn also.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[sandman2234]

When I built the poor mans stump grinder, I took the time to hard surface all of the teeth with Stelite hard surfacing rods. There has been no wear on it, and I have been known to grind stumps with it. I would think if you can run a decent weld, it would be a good way to spend a day.
David from jax

 

[RonMar]

I have been using mome made weld hardened edges for a long time now. At the very least, if it does wear down, you an build it up and re-grind it yourself as needed.

 

[DavesTractor]

I had a friend that took his brand new bucket off his NH, turned it over and hardfaced the entire bottom of the cutting edge with his new welder. He turned it back over when done and his cutting edge, and his bucket, had a big bow in it. The heat warped it.

Someone with more experience than I should comment on the best way to avoid this.

 

[patrick_g]

I had a friend that took his brand new bucket off his NH, turned it over and hardfaced the entire bottom of the cutting edge with his new welder. He turned it back over when done and his cutting edge, and his bucket, had a big bow in it. The heat warped it.

Someone with more experience than I should comment on the best way to avoid this.

This is the sort of thing that separates weldors from guys with welding equipment.

Owning a gun doesn't make you a marksman. There is no simple answer. It is a whole topic. Apparently the guy had not read nor heeded if he read) any books on welding. All I have seen mention the fact that welding heat causes metal to expand and that poor technique can warp pieces of metal and assemblies.

Asking what to do to prevent this is like asking a pilot to tell you how to fly and not crash, expecting a couple sentences to make you a pilot.

I'll mention a few things...

Taking it easy and letting the heat spread and dissipate is good. (Make haste slowly!) Alternately welding one side and then the other is useful some of the time. There is really no way to just tell someone how to not get heat distortiion while welding except some useless comment like just do it right and it won't warp.

I suggest reading on the topic in standard welding texts (Lincoln has a terrific welding book about 8x11x2 1/2 inches) then practicing to gain practical experience.

Amazon.com has oodles of welding books. I just looked and they have 48 books on welding. Reading and practicing will help as there is no simple couple sentences answer to make you a pilot, marksman, portrait painter or weldor. A class is even better. Finding a tutor who will work with you one on one is even better. Looking for a simple secret hint to transform a novice into a weldor is just NOT PROVIDENT.

Pat