Millermatic 140 for bucket hooks

[Dano33]

Hello all,

I was wondering if my Millermatic 140 would be able to properly weld a 2x3 1/4" plate to my bucket followed by a grade 70 hook on top of it. According to the manual, I can do 1/4" plate, however I may need to make multiple passes.

Any suggestions?

 

[Arc weld]

Should be OK if you run it hot and do a couple passes on the hooks. This of course depends on your welding skill. Don't leave a crater at the back of the hook where a crack could form. You want your bucket to twist before the hooks rip off. I don't think I'd use grade 70 hooks, just standard forged hooks. Grade 70 might require a special technique for welding. JD had/has weld on hooks that also have loop but I don't know how expensive they are. They used them on the front loader bucket on their backhoes.

 

[Shield Arc]

Couple things that may help. Sand all the paint off the bucket in the weld zone. Tack everything in place. Take a grinder and feather the tacks. You want a little ramp on both sides of the tack. Depending how long the tacks are, I'll either run completely over the tack with the weld. Or stop right on top of the tack. Then pre-heat with a weed burner, before welding. Always feather the stop, and start of a weld, before making the next weld. Try to always leave the stop of the weld in the center of the object being welded, never on the end or edge. Sometimes this just doesn't work out though.
If you're running gas, 100% CO2 will be just a little hotter. Or run some self shielded flux core.

 

[farmer2009]

Sheild arc will you please explain feathering the start and stop. Some of us newbies might not understand. I always have a bump at start and then end just flows out. But also never had any formal training on welding just picked one up and quite when it held usually try to over do it on repairs and they normally hold.

 

[Shield Arc]

I like to take a die grinder, 3rd from the left in the first pictures, feather the start and stop of the weld, as in the second picture.

 

[farmer2009]

Ok. Shield Arc I see what you are doing to get your taper. I thought you was doing it with the welding rod during the welding process.

Nice assortment of grinders you have there. Never seen electric die grinders only air.

 

[Shield Arc]

All four of the grinders on the left are die grinders. Personally I don't like to use air tools around objects being welded. Sometimes they'll spit a little oil on the weld zone. Plus I don't run my compressor unless I have to. I've listened to enough noise in my life, so I like it quite as long as possible.

 

[troutsqueezer]

All four of the grinders on the left are die grinders. Personally I don't like to use air tools around objects being welded. Sometimes they'll spit a little oil on the weld zone. Plus I don't run my compressor unless I have to. I've listened to enough noise in my life, so I like it quite as long as possible.

That's why I encased my compressor in a sound-proof box.

 

[Shield Arc]

That's why I encased my compressor in a sound-proof box.

This is what I did most of my life. When you listen to bang, bang, bang all day long it gets old real fast. So now I like it as quite as possible.

 

[farmer2009]

This is what I did most of my life. When you listen to bang, bang, bang all day long it gets old real fast. So now I like it as quite as possible.

No wonder you like it quiet. You have heard more noise than most of us ever will. Never could stand the bang bang when they were built bridges near me.

 

[Shield Arc]

They always tried to make us wear ear plugs, but I never screwed them in tight, you have to listen to the tone of the hammer to know what it is doing. The tone tells you if the hammer is giving all it has to give.

 

[brin]

This is what I did most of my life. When you listen to bang, bang, bang all day long it gets old real fast. So now I like it as quite as possible.

Looking at the picture of one of your work sites makes it real easy to understand just how dangerous working on projects like that must have been....sure glad you survived...

 

[Shield Arc]

Looking at the picture of one of your work sites makes it real easy to understand just how dangerous working on projects like that must have been....sure glad you survived...

Barely! When I was 37-years old the huge marine construction company I was working for got slow. I went to work for a little maw & paw outfit. Making a lift, weld on a pad eye broke. Rigging went right through the safety latch on the hook of the crane. Hit me in the back, drove me face first into the deck of the barge, then into 35-feet of water with the rigging wrapped around me. Crew member jumped in and got me untangled before I drown. Shattered everything in my face except my jaw, I have 7-plates in my forehead! Missed 6-months work, went back to work for the huge marine construction company as a non working foreman, about a year latter they made me a superintendent. Did that for years before my health went south, then I retired.

Here's the marine construction company I worked for web site.
General Construction Company

 

[brin]

Barely! When I was 37-years old the huge marine construction company I was working for got slow. I went to work for a little maw & paw outfit. Making a lift, weld on a pad eye broke. Rigging went right through the safety latch on the hook of the crane. Hit me in the back, drove me face first into the deck of the barge, then into 35-feet of water with the rigging wrapped around me. Crew member jumped in and got me untangled before I drown. Shattered everything in my face except my jaw, I have 7-plates in my forehead! Missed 6-months work, went back to work for the huge marine construction company as a non working foreman, about a year latter they made me a superintendent. Did that for years before my health went south, then I retired.

Here's the marine construction company I worked for web site.
General Construction Company

Holy Cow ! --What an experience...very fortunate to have survived that....I can't begin to imagine what must have been going through your mind under water....I'm sure glad you made it...I bet a lot of them didn't ...it sure looks dangerous...

 

[Shield Arc]

Oh I was out for a week. I don't remember being in the water, I did wake up when the paramedics were cutting my shirt off, then again in the helicopter, then one more time in the emergency room at the trauma center, then it was lights out for a week!

Yes very dangerous work! Guess that's why we make the big bucks.

 

[farmer2009]

Oh I was out for a week. I don't remember being in the water, I did wake up when the paramedics were cutting my shirt off, then again in the helicopter, then one more time in the emergency room at the trauma center, then it was lights out for a week!

Yes very dangerous work! Guess that's why we make the big bucks.

Yea but the sad part is they make you earn every bit of that money. Some pay with their life(like you almost did). Most pay with their health.

 

[Shield Arc]

Yea but the sad part is they make you earn every bit of that money.

The summer before I got hurt I was right on the Canadian border driving 190-feet long concrete piling. Had my nephew, (in his early 20s) by marriage in the crew working for me. It was about 11:00 P.M. We were done for the day. Tying up the pile barge for the night, my nephew wasn't wrapping the 3-inch braided lines on the bit tight enough for me. I pushed him aside re-wrapped the line while doing this I said Steve if you don't get with the f_ _king program I'm going to run your a s s off, I looked up at him, he had tears in his eyes because he was so tired, I said Steve did you think they were just going to give you $30.00 and hour?

 

[kg7il]

What?

 

[tcartwri]

To the original question; no I don't think it would have enough power for what you want to do. Too much mass in both parts.

 

[Arc weld]

Wow! That must have been a very traumatic event Shield Arc. What happened to the guy who's welds broke or the inspector that approved them? Did the company and/or workers comp. have to pay you?