opions wanted-lightweight toothbar

[Knotbored]

I have a small 4WD Kabota tractor (I think its 16HP) with a front bucket and a box scraper.
I have two channel iron scraps about 1.5" X 8" X 30"
I am considering flame-cutting the channel into 6 wedges to be welded to 1/4" X 3" X width of the bucket plate to make a lightweight portable toothbar.
I would use it elmost entirely for brush removal (blackberry/butterfly bush etc.) but seldom use it for any hard dirt digging. I expect it to also be useful used like a landscape rake (very sslloowwllyy) backward scraping to clear small branches from paths thru the woods. Also give me some additional capacity to bring cordwood out of the woods.

I have 20 acres about half timbered with big maples, many footpaths, much brush and a seperate DR brush mower.
Am I expecting too much to expect this new toothbar to be a handy addition? Would I just be wasting my time?

 

[srjones]

If you can weld it, I'd say go for it. However, make it a "bolt-on" incase you need to take it off to do any reworks.

 

[TheKid]

I made this one to get rid of honeysuckle. I think it was a piece of 5/16 plate.

 

[patrick_g]

Sounds like a good idea to me but I'm agreeing that it should be removable. I have seen longer teeth used to wedge saplings into and use curl with the bucket touching the ground to uproot them. It was removable to allow a regular tooth bar to be put on for other uses.

You can build a landscape rake similar to the 3PH King Kutter brand I have but make it as a bolt on accessory to the FEL bucket. It will do much better than a tooth bar for "raking" your pathways. With some ingenuity you may be able to attach both, regular tooth bar to the front (cutting edge) of the FEL buket and rake on the back. Curl will allow you to deploy one at a time.

Pat

 

[3RRL]

I'm with the others, I say go for it. For what you have described you are going to do with it, the toothbar will be a very helpful addition.

 

[Knotbored]

Thanks so much for all these comments and ideas. I have a (very) lightweight MIG and if I can figure how to get it to make multiple welds to handle the thick stock I think I will go for it. I have some questions on (another) weld forum about capacity. If I can get advise about using this Chicago-100MIG welder to work on thick stock I will post pictures when I get done.

 

[patrick_g]

Knotbored,

1. Take your time with the root pass with a little weaving back and forth to spread the puddle. It will slow your forward progress but give you much better results. Just running a bead straight down the middle of the junction of the two pieces requires that the welder heat both at the same time and you are short of heating power. The weaving method will melt into the two pieces more. As this strategy slows your forward progress, you need to pay attention to your duty cycle (number of minutes out of ten that you can weld.)

2. I assume you will be using flux cored wire and will probably have only a little flux and slag to be removed. Wire brush the area to be rewelded to clean all flux and slag out of the way.

3. If you bevel the edges of at least one of the pieces (preferably both when able) you will get a better weld from your lower power machine.

I have been using a 120VAC powered MIG for over ten years. It is a bit light for many jobs and sometines has to be abandoned in favor of the ole Tombstone stick but with care and patience it can do a lot. Mine is a Lincoln Weld Pak 100 and when new was about as good as 120VAC powered units came. I don't think the new ones got much better.

There is often a significant difference in performance between BRAND X and the BIG NAMES. You may not ever get your unit to do what you want.

This will probably not be a popular comment but the best way to use your brand X welder to do heavy work is to sell it to someone and use the money to help you buy a decent welder. Nothing is so frustrating as not being able to quite get a tool to do what you want due to its inferiority. I recently saved some $ by buying a smaller plasma cutter. A couple weeks later I was paying a restocking fee and the difference to move up to what I really needed.

I'm lousy with a oxygen acetlene cutting torch but do terrific with the plasma.

Pat