Post by Ronmar on Sept 27, 2010 19:15:45 GMT -5
Pulling stumps is nasty business:(
Noticed my bucket was a little out of shape, and upon further examination found some split welds. You can see in this pic, the top back edge is curved, and some broken welds in the upper left. The weld joining the side to the back in the upper left is also split about 2" down the back.
First trial at repair was to set the whole thing up in a press and squeeze it. Well I could get it back square, but the piece of re-enforcement angle iron had taken a set and would just bend right back to it's new curved shape. So much for the easy way...
I proceeded to cut the angle iron out with a grinder, so I could replace it with a straight re-enforcement piece. This proved to be not so difficult, as you saw in the picture, one of the end welds had already separated, and the other end didn't have much better penetration.
The angle iron was cut nearly 3/4" too short to span the inside of the bucket, and the gaps this left at either end were filled in with weld metal that didn't get real good penetration into the sidewall or the end of the angle iron.
There were only two short welds on the lower edge of the angle and only one of those actually got some penetration into the angle iron. The other only touched the back of the bucket. This only left the easily accessed front edge weld, and I quickly discovered that this angle was less than 3/16" thick. The grinder made short work of it. 3/16" is not very strong for a key stress point re-enforcement, and installed in a way to make the worst use of it's meager strength anyway, especially when not welded 100%. I also discovered once I got the angle out is that it was installed before the bucket inside welds were done, so there was no weld on the inside corners joining bucket back to sides(strongest weld) for the top 1 1/2". This explains the 2" of broken weld on the back side. With only the small outside weld to hold it, and the poor re-enforcement, I was quite amazed that the bucket held up as long as it did...
So with the bad angle out of the way, I bent the ripped corner back into shape and re-welded it on the outside. I cut a new crossbar out of 2" X 1/2" strap and positioned it so it could properly resist the forces the bucket back encounters when curling. I pounded this into place till it touched the corners where back meets sides and welded the ends in place. I then compressed the bent back inward to meet the new straight crossbar using large "C" clamps. When the back was straight against the new piece, I welded it in place at several locations and removed the clamps. I then welded the 1 1/2" of inside bucket corner that was missed when the bucket was made, and completely welded the new crossbar in place inside and out. I re-did the original thin outside back to sidewall welds and added gussets to the outside of the pivot brackets to further re-enforce the top corners of the bucket. Here is the finished repair. I am thinking this will hold up a little longer than the original:)
When I removed the bucket to do this work, I noticed the last pivot pin on the bucket was dry. Come to find out, the two grease fittings in the dogbone pushbar were screwed into blind holes that had never been drilled into the bushings to allow grease to reach the inside bearing surface(shame on me for not noticing that no grease squirted out around the pin when greasing these fittings). Drilled them out, so grease can get where it needs to be now:)
Next step, some sawtooth plates added to the ripper teeth to help rip thru roots when pulling stumps. The thing digs like a mad dog after a lost bone, but it won't move the stumps till just about all the roots are cut:(
Noticed my bucket was a little out of shape, and upon further examination found some split welds. You can see in this pic, the top back edge is curved, and some broken welds in the upper left. The weld joining the side to the back in the upper left is also split about 2" down the back.
First trial at repair was to set the whole thing up in a press and squeeze it. Well I could get it back square, but the piece of re-enforcement angle iron had taken a set and would just bend right back to it's new curved shape. So much for the easy way...
I proceeded to cut the angle iron out with a grinder, so I could replace it with a straight re-enforcement piece. This proved to be not so difficult, as you saw in the picture, one of the end welds had already separated, and the other end didn't have much better penetration.
The angle iron was cut nearly 3/4" too short to span the inside of the bucket, and the gaps this left at either end were filled in with weld metal that didn't get real good penetration into the sidewall or the end of the angle iron.
There were only two short welds on the lower edge of the angle and only one of those actually got some penetration into the angle iron. The other only touched the back of the bucket. This only left the easily accessed front edge weld, and I quickly discovered that this angle was less than 3/16" thick. The grinder made short work of it. 3/16" is not very strong for a key stress point re-enforcement, and installed in a way to make the worst use of it's meager strength anyway, especially when not welded 100%. I also discovered once I got the angle out is that it was installed before the bucket inside welds were done, so there was no weld on the inside corners joining bucket back to sides(strongest weld) for the top 1 1/2". This explains the 2" of broken weld on the back side. With only the small outside weld to hold it, and the poor re-enforcement, I was quite amazed that the bucket held up as long as it did...
So with the bad angle out of the way, I bent the ripped corner back into shape and re-welded it on the outside. I cut a new crossbar out of 2" X 1/2" strap and positioned it so it could properly resist the forces the bucket back encounters when curling. I pounded this into place till it touched the corners where back meets sides and welded the ends in place. I then compressed the bent back inward to meet the new straight crossbar using large "C" clamps. When the back was straight against the new piece, I welded it in place at several locations and removed the clamps. I then welded the 1 1/2" of inside bucket corner that was missed when the bucket was made, and completely welded the new crossbar in place inside and out. I re-did the original thin outside back to sidewall welds and added gussets to the outside of the pivot brackets to further re-enforce the top corners of the bucket. Here is the finished repair. I am thinking this will hold up a little longer than the original:)
When I removed the bucket to do this work, I noticed the last pivot pin on the bucket was dry. Come to find out, the two grease fittings in the dogbone pushbar were screwed into blind holes that had never been drilled into the bushings to allow grease to reach the inside bearing surface(shame on me for not noticing that no grease squirted out around the pin when greasing these fittings). Drilled them out, so grease can get where it needs to be now:)
Next step, some sawtooth plates added to the ripper teeth to help rip thru roots when pulling stumps. The thing digs like a mad dog after a lost bone, but it won't move the stumps till just about all the roots are cut:(
