Welding to repair snow blade wear bar.

[skarven]

I bought a Dalen 2022 rear snow blade and have done some work to get it in shape. Replaced wheel bearings and some paint work.
There are 5 two-foot carbide insert wear blades and the middle one is missing some carbide inserts. See picture. They are very expensive and I would probably have to change all five of them if I change one.
Would it be possible to put som welding on it to straighten out the edge. It will likely not see very heavy work.
Anyone with experience with this solution?

 

[5030]

If it was me, I'd just pony up the funds and replace them. Never seen anything like that before. My plow steels are all high carbon heat treated steel, not tungsten carbide.

 

[skarven]

Yes. I agree. The best solution would be to replace the wear bars. But the cost of all five of them would be about $900, and I have just bought the tractor, the blade and a snow blower, so funds are thinning out . The financial aspect of snow removal is also questionable with diesel prices steadily increasing.
If possible, I would like to try some welding.

 

[5030]

Then get yourself a combatible piece of mild steel and hard rod it. Be apprised hard rod has went way up in price as well. Just bought 10 pounds of Lincoln earth contact hard rod (DC reverse polarity) and it was 170 USD for a 10 pound sleeve. You really need to use an impact resistant high manganese hard rod or it will break off. If you hard rod it, be sure to bake the rod in a rod oven to drive off any moisture or the hard rod won't lay well and you can multi pass the Lincoln rod. some you cannot. You will also need to preheat the parent material to at least 750 degrees (f).

 

[fieldhand1]

i plowed snow for missouri hiway dpt. for 30 years. our blades had the carbide on one side. we used back up blades in front of the carbide bits. kind of to protect the carbide. we would plow for 12 hrs. and run about 200-250 miles per shift. they had a policy to check the blades when we fuel up. when the carbide broke and fell out we still plow. when the bits wore down to the mole board we cut the nuts off the bolts and turned the bits and the back up blades upside down. and used new nuts and bolts. welded the nuts on and off on another round. these were 12 and 14 foot plows.

 

[skarven]

5030: Thank you for the advice. Your warning about hard rod price is very relevant here. The price here is about 3 times your $170, so it might be better to bite the bullet and buy new ones in heat treated high carbon steel. They should be a bit less expensive than the carbide ones.

 

[skarven]

i plowed snow for missouri hiway dpt. for 30 years. our blades had the carbide on one side. we used back up blades in front of the carbide bits. kind of to protect the carbide. we would plow for 12 hrs. and run about 200-250 miles per shift. they had a policy to check the blades when we fuel up. when the carbide broke and fell out we still plow. when the bits wore down to the mole board we cut the nuts off the bolts and turned the bits and the back up blades upside down. and used new nuts and bolts. welded the nuts on and off on another round. these were 12 and 14 foot plows.

I'm hoping to get maybe 50 hours of snow plowing next winter. That will pay for the insurance and hopefully the diesel, now at about $8 or $9 per gallon. I'm definitley not in your league

 

[5030]

I'm hoping to get maybe 50 hours of snow plowing next winter. That will pay for the insurance and hopefully the diesel, now at about $8 or $9 per gallon. I'm definitley not in your league

ORD is 7 bucks here and Off road is 6. Crazy prices. Crazy times. I've had to adjust (upwards) my per round bale cost just to cover the inputs. Fertilizer also tripled in cost.

 

[Billrog]

That is actually a grader. For snow plowing just weld on a new cutting edge the whole length.

 

[Egon]

As said. Weld on new cutting edge!