Let's talk about BH buckets

[nasdaqsam]

Re: Let\'s talk about BH buckets

Thanks for the tips.

I would greatly appreciate some more pistures. I will also send you a PM with my e-mail info.

 

[Woodsman_Pete]

Re: Let\'s talk about BH buckets

Jim,

I'm sure that you know this, but you can hard face your cutting edge, and bucket bottoms and sides with a special rod
I'm not sure of the name/number of the rod, but I can check with our shop. We hard face all of our buckets for our excavators and our concrete proccessing attachments at work.

On a side note, my buddy has a JD 50 mini-excavator and we built a 12" ditch bucket for him for utility line work. We did exactly what you said, I made up a template from card board for the ears and a second one for the side profile of the bucket. He works in a mill and had one of the guys there plasma cut the ears out, mill the bushings and bend a piece of plate 12" wide to the profile of the bucket. We did all of the welding in his shop/garage. The only tricky parts that we encountered was getting the bushings square and true to the ears, basically tacked that sub assembly together on the machine... (make sure to disconnect the battery if you have a computer) and setting the ears on the bucket to make sure that the "throw" is right when you curl and dump. I'm still impressed at how well it turned out and the abuse that that little bucket has gone thru.

 

[OldWelder]

Re: Let\'s talk about BH buckets

Another fairly easy method, if no hydraulics handy, is to bend the bottom around the side plates with a simple come-a-long. I do it cold, no heating, and simply tack as I pull it around. I've done this with up to 1/4" material with no problems at all.

For hard surfacing, try doing a google search on Stoody. I found these to be great rods, and I believe they have a chart on their site recommending what rod for particular applications.

 

[jim_wilson]

Re: Let\'s talk about BH buckets

Thanks for reminding me of this - I remember when I got my MIG welder and was doing some research I found you could get hard facing wire - I'll have to do a little research and see if there is something I can use with TIG too - I'll do a search for Stoody.