Homebrew Toothbar

   / Homebrew Toothbar #1  

chim

Elite Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2002
Messages
3,642
Location
Lancaster County, PA
Tractor
Kubota L4240, Ford 1210
Finally got around to working the toothbar hard yesterday. There is an area next to the creek that has been honeycombed with tunnels for muskrats and who knows what else. There was an old hollowed-out tree that served as one of the entrances. Since I didn't have a chain saw, I cut the tree into several big pieces, and used the FEL to drag / pick and stuff them into the fencerow. Also dug a fairly large area up to destroy the tunnels. I wouldn't have bothered, but the mess was near the blacktop driveway. Toothbar really made life easier, and came through with flying colors. I'm a novice at welding, so don't look for Harv-quality beads. When I was looking at the attached pic, realized the thing near the closest tooth was a drop of water..................chim
 

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   / Homebrew Toothbar #2  
Well... I'm not a welder... but it sure looks like a professional job to me... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Very very nice... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

18-35196-JDMFWDSigJFM.JPG
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar #3  
VERY NICE, and you say your a novice welder, could have fooled me.
PJ
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thanks for the kind words guys, but you'll notice this is not a close-up picture. Every once in a while I make something over at my Mom-in-law's farm using an old stick AC machine. Biggest project was a utility trailer several years ago. I can make things stay together, but it ain't purty. I had the rear end of the B7500 (with filled 12.00-16 R4's) off the ground a few times while hooking one or two teeth on a big tree root yesterday. After a couple episodes of that, the RFM went on for added counterweight. The two 3/8" bolts look like they'll work out OK.

Next time I have the carryall a REAL welder made up in one of our shops, I'll snap a pic. Seems they had some excess stainless angle laying around at about the time I needed a better way to handle the sprayer. The MIG welds look more like a caulk joints than welds.....................chim
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar #5  
Your home made looks almost identicle to by toothbar I bought just recently. Only differents mine has replaceable teeth and use 1/2 " bolts.
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar
  • Thread Starter
#6  
The teeth on mine are replaceable. They have roll pins that are hard to see in the photo. It looks like I'll get away with the 3/8" bolts due to the construction. I have two flat bars welded into a shallow "V" that fits the factory edge of the bucket pretty well. I staggered the edges and ground a bevel on one of them so the leading edge could be thin. For $92 worth of teeth parts from a Case dealer, scrounged flat stock and a couple short pieces of angle, everything worked out well. I spent about 45 minites at a band saw at work shaping the weld-on part of the teeth, and an evening over at Mom's making bright flashes in the shop. This time I remembered to NOT work under the white rolled-up overhead door with my standard hood. Did that once, and the backflash off the door had my eyes feeling "sandy" the next day...............chim
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar #7  
Chim, just remember that its not how good it looks with working equipment, its how well it does the job.

btw, it looks great. You did a good job with the "glue-gun".

Ron
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Thanks, and welcome aboard..............chim
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar #9  
<font color=blue>I'm a novice at welding, so don't look for Harv-quality beads. When I was looking at the attached pic, realized the thing near the closest tooth was a drop of water..................chim</font color=blue>


Let me tell you a funny story about quality beads Chim.

I was a young man and my father was having a ball teaching me to weld. We'd purchased a gas drive (portable welder) together, a Miller Roughneck 1E. I was chewing up my Nam Vet money by going to college at night. It was about the time I was taking my oxy acetylene class.

The equipment was all AC so of course I used sixty eleven rod. With sixty eleven rod you make your bead and how you do it is obvious to the world.

One of my early customers was an old rancher. I was working on his place welding up this and that in exchange for a beef cow and her feed.

I drove up there one morning and a visitor had a two thirds made flat bed on a dually. Of course I checked out the welds. They made me sick inside. Gawd they were pretty. They were like a stack of dimes on it's side. I thought to myself that someday, some way I was gonna be a real weldor like that.

My next semester at the college was stick welding. The first night the instructor placed two coupons (quarter by two by four inch pieces of steel) on the table. He picked up a stick of 6013 eighth inch rod. And he explained to us that what you did was you drug the rod, you didn't move it around like my dad had taught me with sixty eleven.

He had us put our hoods down and we watched as he just drug that rod slowly between those two coupons.

When he was done with the rod we all looked up. The flux had started curling up breaking off the weld all on it's own. The bead underneath looked like a stack of dimes, laying on it's side.

Loud enough for the whole college to hear was my reaction. "That cheatin' S.o.B!!!!!!!!!" as I recalled those welds on that almost done flatbed.

In the thirty years since I've picked up the understanding that with the right rod at the right heat in the right position moving at the right speed a weld can be perfect in effect and appearance. But it's sorta like the perfect day in a marriage. It happens but not always on command or necessarily when you want it to.
 
   / Homebrew Toothbar
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Harv, thanks for the story. I should get some tutoring. There's other stuff I made (snowplow mount, a couple of winch mounts, utility trailer, plow for pulling w/ a winch - that's a long story) and it doesn't break apart even with abuse. Still, I'd like to have "purty" be a part of it one of these days. I admire the nice work done by the real craftsmen, like I've seen here by you and other posters. Keep posting it................chim
 
 
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