This worked so well I felt like sharing. I have an older (86) Takeuchi tb15, and the teeth were basically junk. I am about 1.5 hours from a tractor parts supplier, and since you have to cut the old ones off anyhow, I chopped off some sections of leaf spring and welded them onto the existing teeth, and cut a 45 on the inside to quasi sharpen them. The material should be just about as abrasion resistant, as it is heat treated carbon steel, and the welds are just far enough away from the cutting edge, that (I think) they will not get annealed. I would not have considered sharing, except it works really well, and they haven't bent or deformed. Leaf springs are abundant in a wide variety of sizes and thicknesses, and it only takes about 20 minutes, so it's kinda hard to go wrong. I mean it would take twice that just to get the old ones off. Maybe more as the previous owner welded them on. Should I bother posting a pic or is this just too hillbilly?
Not bad Post a pic sounds good to me. I'd run a few beads on the entire top of the teeth. that weld metal is HARD and it's also another layer to wear on. just a thought.
Anybody can get pics of factory stuff. Only hillbillies have access to hillbilly stuff. Lessee em...
I always enjoy seeing pics. Besides it sounds pretty cool.
I am about as handy with a camera as I am with a computer. Not very! hope this works. I have been beating on them with gnarly roots for a few days and they haven't bent or dinged. I don't know how they'd handle rock, but it IS heat treated spring steel. I'd try to keep the welds a little way away from the cutting edge to not ruin the heat treatment.
looks like it worked out good. I see your not the only one working in sticky dirt!
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with the sticky dirt! In my area we have this stuff called pigmy soil that is like week old concrete. Terrible stuff. Usually on the sticky stuff I wipe a little bit of old motor oil on the inside and it helps a lot.
I feel like a dork posting again, but I forgot to mention, when you cut the springs don't use a saw. Even bimetal will get trashed. Carbide or abrasive blades (like a chop saw). And I wouldn't torch 'em as that will ruin the heat treatment, too, of course.
Nice idea totalloser. Looks like it will work well for ya.
Looks good to me!
good on you ,I like it .thinking of building up mine up also!
I used to do something similar with 815B compactor cleaning tips. I used discarded cutting edges cut with the oxy. Cheap, easy to weld on and lasted longer than original cleaning boots. It also saved us lots of $$ back in the 1970s when we had Wabco elevating scrapers with scarifing boots. I like to refer to it as "recycling before meltdown". Great stuff......C ya......Ray