Re-lug'ed My Backhoe bucket

[W-Cummins]

I needed a narrow backhoe bucket ( I had 24" and 36" ). New was out of the question as they have gone nuts on the prices. So I found an like new WB 18" bucket for only $185. Only problem was it was lug'ed for another machine. I could have probably adapted the current lugs but it would have been a real pain to re-bore them.

So it's off with the lugs! They were rather stout at 1 1/4" thick, and were a pain to burn off with the torch ( it was hard to get close to the bucket and I did not want to damage it. So many minutes later and lots of grinding....

Their off...
Part of the design of the old lugs ( why they were so thick ) was they did not have any bushings and the pins rode on the lugs. On my other buckets ( JCB) there are steel insert bushings and thickened "bushings" on the lugs, Also the lugs are 9/16" thick. So I needed to make them out of 12" X 22" plates

I started by making the bushings

Then I made a template of the bucket's contour and cut out the plates on the bandsaw. After I cleaned them up and fit them to the bucket I tacked them together so I could bore them for the intermediate bushings.

William...

 

[dsan]

Really nice. Hope to see it completed soon.

 

[arkangel06]

Looking good sofar!

 

[W-Cummins]

So The next step was to weld in the intermediate bushings to the lugs. Unfortunately I don't seem to have the photos from this stage of the project maybe it's because I wanted to forget it??

I carefully laid out the lugs in the welding table and shimmed them up to allow the bushings to protrude from the bottom 0.5 inches. Then I burned them in well with a nice fillet weld on both sides. I had under sized the intermediate bushings, so that after I welded them into place, if they became distorted, I could clean them up and do a final bore to spec on them. So I returned the lugs to the mill and finish bored them. As you can see from the picture the final steel flange bearing has a large radius on it's transition from the bore to the flange. I had originally planed on using an oil lite flanged bearing for this job but found that they were not available in the size I would need. So anyway, as a result my chamfer cuts were not large enough to clear. This was huge pain in the *** as I had to hand fit them.

Next thing to do was to weld the lugs on to the bucket. So with lugs in hand and the pins off the machine, I placed the first lug on the bucket and inserted the pins..... Holding the other lug in my hand I looked down and got that sinking felling in the pit of my stomach, F@#$#@#$ S@#$ I had made 2 right hand lugs!!!!

After much more colorful language and a beer (or 2 I decided that I could

1: Weld the dam thing on offset to the side
2: Make a new one
3: Try to repair the one I made

Well #1 was out, even though it would have worked just fine, and allmost no one would have ever noticed. I would have had to live with it every time I looked at it, or used it....
#2 would require a lot more time and I didn't have any more 9/16" plate
So #3 it was! I took the lug over to the band saw and cut off (through the weld) the bushings as close to flush to the plate as I could. Next I gound the remaining material off flush to the plate. I had planed on then boring out the remaining material but, I noticed a very fine line around the outside of the bushing ( were the root of the weld was) on parts of the circumference. I thought hummmm wounder if I can get those out?? So I took the plates over to the 50 ton Dake and about 40 tons later BAM the first one was out!!! Now I got to make some new bushings, and that time I made the chamfer for the clearance HUGE to avoid the hand fitting.

William....

 

[kool55]

Nice job William.I have screwed up my share of that left-right side stuff. Would like to see more on the millwork. I have a BP and need to be able to do that type of work.

 

[W-Cummins]

So here is some of the aftermath of the right hand problem

The lugs cut off nicely

Here are a few views of the almost completed bucket. I guess I should have painted it before I used it, but I figured it's going to get rusty anyway!

I still need to install the grease zurks on the lugs and maybe knock off the welding splatter and give it a coat of paint??

William....

 

[ephotrod]

Can you give us your welding procedure, ie what rod root and cover, preheat, amp when welding and how you let it cool. I was lost a bit when you started to discuss the lugs but the final photos help. By the way nice job.
Josh

 

[cowboy73]

Looks great.