I was hunting around in the scrap for some sculpture parts when I found a few of these things. They are teeth for a loader bucket or some other earthmover, but I'm thinking they might be a useful hot cut hardie. If I cut the tabs off the bottom and weld on a square section to suit the hardie hole I can't see why it wouldn't work. Would save a lot of forge work.

I'm not sure if it's hard faced, tempered or what, so I haven't taken the grinder to the cutting edge yet. A file wants to skid off. Any ideas for a hardie tool or just chuck them back in the scrap?

 

Looks like cast iron.

More likely cast steel. Give it a good whack with a hammer and see if the lugs break off or just bend.

They are designed to take a beating and keep on ticking, I've certainly put some through some abuse and they didn't break easily.   

I know a couple people who have use teeth as hot cuts. I have one myself that I have used before I made my hot cut. As mentioned they are cast steel and very tough. Mine is from an excavator and the machine would easily leave tooth marks in solid concrete or stone without any damage to the bucket teeth other than possibly slight wear. Esco makes decent teeth from what I remember.

That looks unused, probably worth a few bucks to the right guy! So before you duff it stick it on your local equivalent of fleabay! But I'm sure it'll make a good hotcut.

I gave those lugs a whack with a hammer and apart from a deafening ring there was no reaction. Would not break or bend. I found a newer file and, with some patience, did manage to file a reasonable edge.

I'll cut those lugs off and make a hardie and see how it performs.

Jackhammer bits make good hardies

I have to say, Ian is providing sound advice here for anyone re-purposing items old or new, before you give it another life, find out what it's worth as it is. For all we know that item may make enough to buy you a whole heap of tooling!

A quick word with a plant fitter or welder from, or dealing with, a local construction firm should give you an idea if it has any value and may even produce a source of free worn out or broken parts you could make good use of!

The question is how to weld a bar for the hardy hole onto your cast material?   I'm sure one of the guys on this forum would know.  It may be better to ask on the welding section on this forum.  

5 hours ago, SoCal Dave said:

The question is how to weld a bar for the hardy hole onto your cast material?   I'm sure one of the guys on this forum would know.  It may be better to ask on the welding section on this forum.  

Dave, I don't believe it is cast. Well, not cast iron anyway. I have no doubt it will weld easily. We shall see.

That will definitely work.  Weld a stem on it and give it a go.

that is a high carbon cast steel tooth -- you mite get away with 110-18 or better arc rod

pre & post heat a must ! weld will want to shrink pulling away from tooth = crack / cool slowly 100% weld

they are bolted or pined in I have had to weld them in when tooth bracket is badly worn sooner or later weld gives

Vaughn, good to see you are able to post again. I'll try welding a stem on it, but it seems from that last post from IW, that it may not be so straightforward. It's not going on a dozer blade though.

Turn your tooth upside down in the vise and heat and upset your shank into the back of the tooth to fill it as much as possible. The welds won't crack if they aren't taking any force. It's pretty much the same idea that keep teeth on a bucket. The ones on our old bucket were only held in by simple roll pins. It was the formed shank that took all the load. I'd forge it close, then heat it good and hot and drive it in to form to the pocket. Then shape your hardy shank if needed and tack the two together.

Greetings Aus ,

Sometimes the obvious is not clear .. Just put it your vise holding the boss and give it a try.. If you are satisfied with the performance use the open boss ...fit up a hardy blank that fits with the width of the boss and plug weld the window .. Than cut off the other boss . Should work .. I would keep the mass as cool as possible .. Just a old boys 2c.. Good luck

Forge on and make beautiful things

Jim

Bucket teeth are typically pretty high manganese steel, hard and tough. I doubt any mere human could do anything to it it'd notice. Sharpen it up and see how it works as Jim describes.

If you weld a shank to it keep it as cool as possible. Manganese has weird HAZ properties it just doesn't like being kept hot for long. Preheating it is exactly the wrong thing to do IF it is manganese steel.

I'd stand it in a bucket of water with the zone being welded just above the surface and weld it fast single pass and let the water draw the heat. Don't quench it though just let the water draw it down.

Of course I could be wrong, do it my way and extraterrestrials might come arrest you for abusing one of their sperm.

Frosty The Lucky.

OK, 'tis done and it works fine. I just caught up with the last few posts. 

Just cut off the lugs and welded on a 3/8 plate and then a 7/8 stem to fit the hardie hole. Not the tidiest of welds but it seemed to penetrate OK and I think it will hold up to anything I'm likely to dish out. I use a hot cut mostly for nails out of 3/8 mild, so it will handle that.

Thanks for all the advice. Much appreciated. Here's a pic:

 

Ausfire:  You can't get away that easy.  Did you preheat?  What rod did you use and what settings when welding the plate.  Good job and good luck.  

Dave,

No preheat, stick welder turned up max, Satincraft rods bought from  Supacheap Auto. Was going to use the Mig but figured I would save the gas and burn up a few old rods.

ausfire, nice job on the hardie.  Just curious, if you were able to weld the plate on first, then the bar, why not just weld the square bar directly to the tooth and skip welding on the plate?

teeth off of buckets and things that will live a hard life of digging and scraping on rock and dirt will work great for a cutting hardy and maybe other tools

Cool Ausfire, I bet you could cut rebar cold on that sucker (tho hot would be recommended) love the things you dig out of your scrap pile.