Working on a Kobelco SK250LC extended reach, pins/bushings at bucket are toast. Priced 4 new pins from Kobelco, $2500. And they're not even 250 class machine size pins! Being an extended reach, the bucket pins are more like a 100 or 120 class machine. Does anyone know a supplier for hardened pins? Another thought I had was using induction hardened chrome hydraulic cylinder rod stock and have a machine shop taper the ends and bore retainer holes, has anyone here tried that?
C.N. Wood out of Woburn MA, is a Konatsu, Kobelco, Volvo, etc..... dealer and can usually get me just about anything, OEM or aftermarket. http://www.cn-wood.com/ These guys always amaze me with what they have also http://www.genalco.com/
Thanks TozziWelding, will contact them tomorrow and see if they have options. :drinkup I'm really curious if one could use induction hardened rod and have a machine shop finish the tooling to make a suitable pin. I made a quick call to a local supplier for length of metric rod that I would need, quote was about $350 bucks, it seems that leaves a lot of room to pay a machine shop to finish making pins compared to $2500 from Kobelco.
I have used lots of cylinder rods, for pins I usually go to the local, but big hydraulic shop and go thru their scrap hydraulic rods. I take them to the machine shop and get them to make the bushings, weld them on and go to work. Im not a engineer, but Ive never broke or bent one of these pins
That's kind of what I was thinking Willis. Induction hardened hydraulic cylinder rod is tough stuff, I can get it for a fraction of the cost of OEM pins, seems like I have a lot of room to have a machine shop finish it and make a pin. Thanks.
I have had a machine shop make pins and send them off to be hardened, with good results.
Willie i have had a local machine shop here do that on a few. there is a bridge builder (engineer/owner) that does that on all of his excavators & swears he has never had a problem. he is also tighter than bark on a tree.lol but he have guys that can break edges off ball bearings also good for me tho!!
LoL, I know that feeling, I work alongside of Thing 1 and Thing 2, they could F-up a free lunch. Given what you and Willis have said, I think I'll look into hyd rod and having it machined to suit my need, $2500 for 4 pins the size used on a 120 class machine is like "are you friggen kidding me!"
I will call my buddy the machinist tomorrow and see if he knows if he can get hardened blank stock. Better yet I just emailed him and sent him a link to this thread
the first time it was suggested to me it was by the machine shop. he said the bridge builder had him do it everytime they had one wear out. he has ALOT of WELL USED/abused equipment but it gets the job done. i was going to have him make pins to have sent off to be hardened. this was cheaper & quicker,
Thanks Tozzi, I know I'm not the only member here that has ran across this absurdly expensive dilemma. There has to be a better alternative to either paying [really] big bucks to the OEM for pins, and the other alternative to having a local machine shop fabricating pins from cold stock then having them sent off to be hardened. With all the choices we have in steel, there has to be a better way that will serve us all that doesn't empty our wallet.
Willie, you know as well as I do, you do the best thing for the customer time and time again, and help them out then they turn around and shove it right up your ***. I am slowly getting away from finding customers the best deals, from now on I get the deal for me and charge them OEM prices.
I understand Tozzi, some folks just don't understand the value of a competent mechanic, and that person doesn't get a hold of the concept of "you're treated like you behave", this world has no shortage of arseholes. In my particular case, this is one of our rental machines, I'm trying to find a way to perform a good rebuild without having to lay out the bucks for OEM pricing, cuts into my end of year bonus ya know, and if we can come up with a viable solution, it may serve the owner/operators of machines here on HEF as well, at least that's what I hope.
If you have a good nearby aftermarket bucket/attachment company, sometimes they are a good source for pins. Steel Unlimited here in SoCal has been a good source for pins at a reasonable price.
If using induction hardened hydraulic cylinder rod it would be worth while checking the depth of hardness. OEM pins are generally around 1/4 inch depth of hardness. If a rod was only say a 1/16th its not going to last long. OEM pins are usually 4140 chrome moly or similar. I sometimes machine new ones and send them out to a shop with an induction hardener. Its often a lot cheaper but sometimes Cat sell the smaller and older parts for 1/2 what you can make them for.
If noone has a listing on aftermarket pins for your machine you could always get measurements of the pins you need. They can be matched to either a Cat pin or Komatsu pin that is the same diameter. The only difference is usually the length which isn't a major factor in fitment. Most pins are either 80mm, 90mm, or 100mm in diameter. You would need the length and a measurement of where the hole is on the pin. Good Luck.
You have to be careful there with say a excavator bucket pin. A 80mm Cat pin is 79.85 mm. A Komatsu pin is usually 79.9 and another make will be 80.0 mm. A new Cat pin will not go through new Hitachi bearings. You have to rebore the arm to take a Cat bearing. So it can get a bit more complex when you go to do it. I have a client with a fleet of around 40 diggers. Originally they were all Hitachi. Then they started to buy Cat as well and as they wanted to interchange buckets we started reboring the Cats for Hitachi bearings as soon as they took delivery.