Replaceable Cutting Edge for FEL

[john_bud]

I don't think you will wear your bucket too much either but the company that built our barn had a spiderweb like pattern welded on to the outside of the bucket (it even had the company initials). The owner said that it was to reduce wear. You welders out there correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that is what is called hard facing.

The rod used is a hard facing rod. The material is very very abrasion resistant. They don't coat the whole surface, but use a cross hatch pattern normally. Of course, they can get fancy and make all sorts of patterns with robotic controlled welders, even company names.

The cross hatch pattern will collect dirt in the void area, the dirt acts like a friction reducer allowing the rest of the blade to glide over the surface. You can still get a very smooth surface, identical to a non-faced edge. Also, the factory edge was welded on to the frame of the bucket, adding HF won't affect it.

jb

 

[bota7800]

So someone just laid a web of welding bead on the cutting edge to serve as a sacrificial wear surface? .

No, I don't think there was hard facing on the cutting edge itself (but am not sure) the sides and bottom of the bucket had a crosshatch pattern. I also do not think it is intended to be sacrificial. This particular backhoe gets a lot of use but the hard facing still looked good.

John_Bud's explanation makes sense to me.