Welding tiller tines

[DeNiro]

Yes I talked with Clean Cutter several times and there were a few that "might fit", but there were a lot of questions about clearance problems once installed. I sent them a tracing and the hole size and location was adaptable, but it was not a good match for shape.
For the record it is a Mitsubishi 60" PTO tiller that I've had for 5-6 years and it has worked well, but nmy clay soil is tuff on tines.

 

[gwdixon]

Well, I couldn't find the broken tines in the shed. I may have thrown them out thinking I couldn't repair them. They had broken at the place where they bolt to the tiller housing, and I remember making the effort to bevel and make a clean weld so they would bolt back in place, but I didn't preheat or put them in sand to gradually cool them. Then they snapped like peanut brittle when I started using them.

If I can't find them, I may have to buy a couple of replacement tines after all. This is a smaller tiller I use for cultivation once the garden is growing.

Now I have another tiller (Troy Bilt Horse) that still has the original tines on it that are worn. A set of replacements is about $100, I think. Is it worthwhile to try to weld on more steel and retemper them or just buy the replacements? I'm a bit concerned that the replacements may not have the quality of steel of the original tines. Should I use 10018? I have a Lincoln AC/DC tombstone welder.

You can touch up the original times on the Troy Bilt with hard rod. That will save the replacement cost.

Even if you decided on a replacement set of tine, my advice would be to hardface them as well.

 

[Kernopelli]

This won't help with your welding question but I can offer some advice on tilling clay with a rice tiller......always break the ground first before tilling it. I loaned my tiller to a friend once and he brought it back with 3 tines left. He tilled his buddies garden spot, a virgin piece of rock hard clay and it destroyed nearly every tine. I personally have broken very few tines and the main reason is that if the soil isn't relatively loose, I will first break it with the scarifiers on my box blade.

I did luck out on replacing my broken tines though. I bought a John Deere 375 front blade from a guy off ebay and when I picked it up I just happen to notice he had a pile of used tines sitting next to some old implements. I asked him if he would sell them and he told me to take them, he was going to take them to the dump! There were about 60 tines in all so I had plenty to replace all of mine and about 20 extras. What a blessing!!!!