Straightening Bucket Edge?

[Beaver Cove Deere]

Don't use the middle of a bucket for prying stuff out of the ground. Not to OP but a general statement: Only use the corner of the bucket and that doesn't happen.

 

[repete]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

 

[rScotty]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

I've straightened a lot of metal, and dealing with the stretch is the key. Heat makes things easier, but to fix it right the bent part usually needs to be disconnected at one or both ends to give the stretch somewhere to go. Think about a place to let the stretch run out and you will be surprised at how much better it works. For cold-bending bucket lips, that means either unbolting the cutting edge or cutting to release the lip from the bucket sides if the cutting edge is welded on.
It's common to cut the end constraint, straighten the part, and then re-weld it.

 

[5030]

People don't realize that most all builders offer 2 styles of buckets. A standard 'material' bucket and a heavy duty 'excavation' bucket. Both my M9's have the HD buckets and one also has a material bucket which I hardly ever use. I use a round bale spear on both, loading 4x6 rounds all the time. Never bent the cutting edge at all. Very stout.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

You can flame bend metal if you've got a big enough oxy/acetylene torch. If you've seen the empty flatbed trailers behind a semi truck, you'll notice they have an arch to them when they're unloaded. That is put there with flame bending. A series of triangles are heated and the steel in the bed rails expands. It also gets soft enough to deform, and since the triangle is wider at the bottom, more metal deforms on that side. When the steel cools, it shrinks, and there's more stress on the wide side of the triangle. So that wide side is on the bottom of the trailer bed rail. Do enough triangles in the right places, and you have that pretty arch.

For the bucket lip, you don't need triangles, just enough spots heated through so that the steel expands, yields, and cools off. I would have needed a bigger rosebud for my oxy/acetylene outfit to make it work, and it was easier to just pass the bucket on to a new owner.

 

[Username Taken]

A shop I worked in many years ago specialized in crankshafts. We repaired and rebuilt a lot of them from Penn Central and elsewhere. Penn Central was usually from their electric motors. About a 3 - 4 inch throw. Weld 'em up, chrome the journals and grind them down. I worked an OD grinder. A big one. 42'' diameter big. We didn't bother with automotive cranks. Cheaper than dirt to replace them, just industrial stuff that was often a one-of-a-kind and almost irreplaceable

Other parts of the shop did other things. We would get in crankshafts with a three foot throw on them once in a while. Not for engines but they were for presses. Like a punch press except huge. We'd get them in from Fisher Body and shops doing other car panels, etc. They used them in fabricating body parts. Its all different now, hydraulics. But back then, some of the old stuff was still 'lift it up and slam it back down.'

I've seen our guy(s) straighten out a crankshaft, about 6'' in diameter, that was bent, using a torch and then spraying water on one side and it would straighten right out. He was good. I was cmpletely unaware of how he did it and that's how he liked it.

Never tried it on my own. But I would think there's gotta be a youtube video on it somewhere.

 

[CoyPatton]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

Sorry to disagree. But a good metal working person can shrink that metal. Wish I was one, and it may be a dying skillset, but it can be done.

 

[repete]

I did not say it was impossible but the reality is 99.9% of us here would not have the tools nor ability to shrink a 5' edge to make it straight again. Most would simply stretch the other side to make it match the already stretched side and that would only cause a lack of density of the metal on both sides making future bends even easier.

 

[Username Taken]