Bucket repair

[turbo38t]

With as much work as you did on the bucket why not replace the edge? Once they crack they keep cracking....it's weird that the lip is worn so bad but the shanks and teeth look new. Did they put new shanks on a worn out edge? If it's just for loading rocks why bother straightening? Welds and all look good, just seems like a really big bandaid when a transplant was in order....

You didn't forget. I just posted them today. I never figured ouy how to post pics here until recently. Since I have a whole library full from the last few years I can post them now & then, along with new stuff.

I thought there was another thread of rig pics but that was the only large one I found. I thought it funny that when I opened it you were one of the last to post on it.

I just wanted to let some of the newbies see the thread so I didn't start a new one.

[MMW]

turbo38t wrote

"With as much work as you did on the bucket why not replace the edge?"

Because this was a cheaper option. It's not just the labor replacing the edge with new. You have the cost of a new edge. The cost of new shanks or the labor to remove all the old ones & weld them on the new edge & don't forget that the corner shanks are part of the bucket side also.

Like I said I straightened it as much as I could reasonably. It's not perfect because to get it the rest of the way would of taken a long time. Customer was happy.

As far as a big band aid? I wish every customer would say I want it like new. Replace the edge, floor, shanks, wear bar, etc. but this isn't 10 years ago when money was flowing. I just did a 42" bucket last week. 1/4" ms plate liner only. The floor is paper thin the first layer of wear bar was worn out & a second layer was put over the top of that some time ago. Would of been a big job to replace it all not to mention that wear bar is now $20 a foot for 3/4 x 4".

[turbo38t]

I gotcha. You are correct as to doing what the customer wants. The thing I see is that if you do replace the edge and shanks then u have a bucket good for a couple years of digging. I'm betting you will be doing this same repair a month or three down the road or the lip will break in half and NEED to be replaced. Sometimes my boss wants the wear bars replaced but the floor is so damaged and he still says "ahhh.....just take it outside, beat it out with the stick of an excavator, force the new wear bars on and weld it up .....we don't wanna spend a lot of time on this thing"....well...truth be told, in this situation it DEFINITELY would have been quicker for me to cut the floor and wear bars out in one piece, burn a new floor on the plasma table OR with a torch, make a couple bends on the press and weld all new in. I wasted so much time cutting old bars off, grinding everything, trying to straighten a floor that was beat in 3" and then the amount of time to weld it up with all the monster gaps....and now I know the floor was paper thin and will wear out in a month or less. I guess it's what the boss wants LOL.....

turbo38t wrote

"With as much work as you did on the bucket why not replace the edge?"

Because this was a cheaper option. It's not just the labor replacing the edge with new. You have the cost of a new edge. The cost of new shanks or the labor to remove all the old ones & weld them on the new edge & don't forget that the corner shanks are part of the bucket side also.

Like I said I straightened it as much as I could reasonably. It's not perfect because to get it the rest of the way would of taken a long time. Customer was happy.

As far as a big band aid? I wish every customer would say I want it like new. Replace the edge, floor, shanks, wear bar, etc. but this isn't 10 years ago when money was flowing. I just did a 42" bucket last week. 1/4" ms plate liner only. The floor is paper thin the first layer of wear bar was worn out & a second layer was put over the top of that some time ago. Would of been a big job to replace it all not to mention that wear bar is now $20 a foot for 3/4 x 4".

[JSFAB]

Agreed, if the customer does whatever he did last time with that bucket, it's gonna break again. But you also have to keep in mind, do whatever the customer wants. I hear more and more, thanks to California Air Resources Board, "Do the minimum necessary, I gotta scrap it next year anyway, just patch it so it lasts another year." Doesn't make sense doing a major rebuild on something that will be legislated obsolete in a few months. . . .