More Bite for the Bucket

[Anonymous Poster]

Well this all started when I was talking to my father on the phone the other day and found out he had a set of teeth for a bucket on one of the John Deere tractors he no longer owned. I of course got my hands on them as soon as possible to find out if they would work on my Westendorf TA26, 72" bucket.

There were 9 teeth in all and they were for a bolt on application.

Here is a pic of a tooth before my modifications.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I found that the teeth were for a bucket with about a 1" thick cutting blade. Since my cutting blade is 1/2" thick, my solution was to weld 2 - 1/4" thick spacers to each tooth, 1 over the blade and one under the blade instead of attaching them to a long piece of steel, thereby making a tooth bar. This was simpler as I did not have to angle cut the steel bar to match the angle already on the bucket.

Since the spacers were the same width as the tooth, there was no grinding required and the bolt on feature is retained.

Another picture,

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I drilled and tapped the bucket on 8" centers and bolted on 8 teeth. Simple quick and easy. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Here's a picture of the finished project,

 

[OkieG]

Beau-T-ful!! Good work. I like it.

OkieG

 

[Inspector507]

That looks great /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

Looks good...just added a toothbar to mine last week...haven't had a chance to try it out yet due to all the rain...

 

[wasabi]

nicely done!

 

[RayBee]

Really nice job!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif ..RayBee

 

[Anonymous Poster]

What brand and type of welder did you use?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Believe it or not I used a Miller 130 Mig with .030 wire. I bought this machine the first year they came out. Turns out there is a flaw in the design of the circuitry that allows the welder to draw more amperage than it is rated for. The result is, this little welder, when hooked up to a 110volt outlet with heavy gauge wiring (#12 or better) from the breaker panel will weld 1/4" material no problem!

I originally intended to use the welder to weld patch or quarter panels on the cars I restored. Then one day a friend needed some welding done on a frame he was working on and needed to finish it quickly when his welder died. So without any other option handy, we hooked up the 130 and tried it but it was to weak. Desperate, we tried a heavy duty extension cord and it worked great. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Well the next time I saw my Miller rep, I told him what had happened and he then informed me about the flaw. He also told me that it had been fixed on the new models. Personally, I could'nt be happier with the little welder and hope it never gets "fixed" /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif