I recently picked up a decent CAT one owner excavator, super tight, no leaks, working AC, apparent good maintenance EXCEPT for the bucket teeth. I don't know what the guy was thinking, but he was having a problem with the teeth staying on the shanks. His brain-dead solution was to weld the teeth to the shank and then use a 3/4" square bar on the top and bottom of the tooth to help keep it on. Over time the teeth got so worn it looked like someone trying to jam a fist into the dirt. When I go the machine home just for fun I tried to dig a ditch in our hard rocky ground. It was so painful that I stopped after a couple of half full buckets. Although new teeth, shanks, oxygen, acetylene and a bunch of grinding wheels were not cheap...about $800 total, once done the machine will be able to actually dig hard ground and when the teeth wear down I'll be able to knock out the pins and replace them. Photos are the progress up to welding the new shanks which should arrive today. Just never been able to figure out how someone can buy and operate a machine and not keep decent care of it:Banghead
Nice clean work so far! Good job.
Un-***king believable what some folks will do to "save" a few bucks.
Hey, is that an hyd thumb
Imagine how much money that guy lost in production. Unless all his work was T&M.
Another outstanding example of one of the many people who should be outlawed from having or getting close to a torch and welder.
the time and rod to add the 3/4" stock most likely would have been 2/3 the time to replace the shanks ! again the simple things are not as easy for owners to see .
I've worked for lots of people that weld on teeth that are falling off. One guy would even weld 1/2" flat stock to the bottom of the teeth as they wore out, but we weren't digging in hard ground. Thats a little crazy though if he kept hit bucket at the proper angle while digging keeping the teeth sharp it wouldn't of been as bad.
Two tanks of oxygen, one acetylene, 15# 5/32 7018 rod, 15 grinding wheels and a lot of sweat and the new shanks are welded on. As soon as they cool down a bit it will be time to pin on the new teeth and see how it works!
Yes it is and is one of the reasons I bought the machine. I've had manual thumbs in the past and what a pain it is to pull down the brace, pin it and get back to work. For the work I do, I should be able to increase production.
When I just tried to dig with the welded teeth it was almost as painful as scraping your nails across a chalkboard.
That's more like it .........!!!
Gotta love a hydraulic thumb on a digger and a fresh set of teeth!
An ArcAir carbon arc torch works great for removing welds, much cheaper than oxygen and acetylene and more control also. Nice work on your bucket.
gotta love hyd thumbs, i ran a 311 once and i was a nice machine