Here is a pic. How do these come off?
can you post a pic of the side of the tooth? are there any pins through the side of the tooth?
That sure ain't no Bobcat tooth. Like Hobbytime said, need a view from the side. My first guess is a King Met tooth, but need more views to say for sure.
I forgot to mention I don't believe this is a Bobcat bucket, but I have no idea what it is. Here are a few more pics. It says Mitsubishi and something else on the bottom, I'm trying to figure out what model # it is.
Never seen a tooth with no retainer pin. May have to cut one off with the air arc or a scarfing tip to find the secret. Maybe someone here is familiar with this type. Mike
they may twist off and have some sort of rubber locking ring underneath the tooth..I would put some heat on it and give it a turn with a big wrench and see what happens..do they have any movement on the teeth to the shank they are on?
did a google search and came up with this..looks like some sort of rubber pieces that hold the tooth to the shank..yours looks like the middle one..
I've seen that as well. It says Mitsubishi Seiko and maybe C400 on the tooth? Looks like they might be the Esco brand. There is no play in the tooth.
I thinks they twist on..give it a try..nothing to lose but time, use some heat to soften the rubber piece and loosen any rust holding them..
I can't say for sure, but those look like Esco Twist-Lok teeth. Never worked with them myself, and I've only seen them a couple of times. If they are Twist-Lok, they don't have a retainer, they twist a bit of a turn to lock. But I doubt you'd twist them to unlock them. Once those fines get built up in the void between the tooth and the adapter it's Gods Locktite, you'll probably have to burn them off with a gas axe. The problem is finding new ones, they're like trying to find hens teeth. I don't know if it's a discontinued product or what, but they're not easy to find. BTW, post #7 above, the tooth in the middle, that's an Esco Super V, that's not what your teeth are.
If they're hard to find, either get new available teeth and adapters or build the points back up with 11018 sticks. Once they're reshaped give them a little Stoody 31 hardrod on the front edge. Mike
I contacted the company that makes Mitsubishi Seiko Esco type teeth and showed them the pics. They were no help. Might be faster and easier to cut everything off and put Bobcat teeth on from scratch.
I found the hasco style teeth and shanks to be inexpensive and readily available. Howard
Those look tight so the shanks are in fine shape. With just a little bit of skill and care you can cut one off without damaging the shank, then it will be easier to see what you have. Another option would be to sand or grind one to a clean surface so you could see if there's any pins through it, kinda hard to tell with that much dirt and rust in the pics.
So I spent way too long trying to get them off and finally did. They have a twist style shank, I think willie59 is right on. Unfortunately, I ground just a hair too much off one of the keepers, so I decided to just have them all cut off and start over with spade teeth.
Just experience on my part. Bucket teeth do one of two things, 1) the shank is worn slap out and the tooth flops around, retainers break, teeth fall off, and 2) shanks are good, teeth fit snug, on those the dirt fines work their way in the gap between the tooth and shank. On those, you pretty much have to be the dog snot out of them to get them off. I could tell by the pics yours was the latter. On those, I take a gas ax to speed up removing them. They're worn out anyway, so no loss. What machine are we working on? What tooth are you going to replace them with, any preferences?
I don't have a gas axe, I used a small wire wheel, a few hammers, chisels and a small torch. This bucket is on a Bobcat 322 mini excavator. I'd like to replace them with something wider, as I dig on top of pipes quite frequently and would like to minimize the damage I do to the existing pipes.
Since you frequently work over pipes I'll suggest buying a narrow bucket and fit it with a straight edge to minimize pipe damage. Mike
Yep, that's an option. It would greatly help if we knew where you were other than just "USA", there's a whole lot of different strata across the USA. For example, if you're in Florida, forget the teeth altogether and just use the cutting edge on your bucket. As for teeth, a Bobcat bucket of that size typically just uses Hensley top pin teeth with a roll pin retainer, but I don't know if they're available in a wide profile.
I'm in Indiana. Teeth are a must.
Bobcat buckets of that weight class typically use either a Hensley X156 tooth or an H&L 230 tooth, either would work fine. Don't know where in Indiana you're located, but you might try Boyd & Sons in Washington IN, good people, they can probably fix you up with new teeth and adapters.
If you go with new teeth and adapters get two extra teeth. Cut a piece of 1/2" plate the length of the bucket width and wide enough to cover the teeth front to back. With the two outside teeth on their adapters, weld the plate to them very solidly. Now you have a removable straight edge to work over pipe with. Just leave the unweldeded teeth on the bucket to support the plate in the middle. Mike
I got six h&l 230 series teeth and Weld on shanks, with pins for about $150 last summer... But, it took a cutting torch, big angle head grinder and 300 amp AC stick welder. Howard
Yes, it's a bit of work, a lot more than what one would think. I've done a number of 300 and 400 class buckets, man you talk about a pile of weld. On those I use a MIG with .045 flux core wire, even with that it takes a while to lay down all that weld on the adapters. I did one on an Kobelco SK330 bucket in the field, broke one of the outside adapters clean off, I have no idea how they did that. But they said they were in a pinch and needed it repaired today, didn't have time to acquire a new shank and replace it. I beveled the broken halves and welded it back on using 1/8" 7018 rods. Took me a good 1/2 a working day to do that repair, but that sucker is still stuck to that bucket to this day.
This is one of my tooth and shank sources... http://www.romacparts.com/ Howard
I decided upon Hensley 156 adapters and flare teeth. Seems like the best of both worlds. Thanks everyone!