Straightening Bucket Edge?

[RedNeckGeek]

Anybody have suggestions for straightening a bent bucket edge? Apparently the previous owner was using it to remove stumps and rocks (he also ripped off the top hydraulic cylinder mounts). I've tried using screw type chain binders but wasn't strong enough to make it move. Thought about flame straightening, but wasn't sure what pattern would work best. I just thought this isn't the first time a bucket has been damaged like this and there might be a simple solution.

Thanks in advance,

Scot

 

[petegoud]

I've straightened mine before using a hydraulic pull back ram and chains. I'm using a 10 ton Harbor Freight portable pump.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Heat works great... when the bend is concentrated in one small area. When spread over a larger area than an ox/act torch can heat up evenly, you might be better off bending cold... but that takes a lot more force to do.

 

[Deere Dude]

Try a log splitter set in the vertical position. I straightened out a bent box blade using that method.

 

[Xfaxman]

Turn the bucket upside down, put a jack on the high spot, loop a chain under the outside edges. Bend it a little past straight and let it spring back. Keep going a little farther until it springs back straight. :thumbsup:

That is how I straightened my bent box blade.

 

[stonypass]

Previous owner of my L4200 had moved a lot of round bales with a spike bolted to the bucket so it had noticeable smile in it.

I tried numerous methods that failed but when I had a local welder over for some work he said he could straighten it.
It wasn't just the front edge either the bottom was bowed as well.
Using quite a bit of heat and some well placed blows with a sledge hammer he did, its completely straight now.

The key seemed to be knowing just where to heat it and just where to hit it.
Took him about 30 minutes, but would have taken me much longer even if I'd had the torch.

 

[Egon]

Heat and a big hammer was what was used to get rid of my bucket smile.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

Turn the bucket upside down, put a jack on the high spot, loop a chain under the outside edges. Bend it a little past straight and let it spring back.

Gave it a try this morning, and while I was able to get the edge to move about an inch below flat, it sprang back to just about where it started. I only had a 2 ton bottle jack and I could feel the over pressure valve releasing, so I'll see if I can round up a bigger jack and try again. The log splitter idea looks interesting, too, and I think the bucket will just fit, so that's another possibility.

Thanks for all the ideas!

 

[RedNeckGeek]

To close this one off, I had to admit defeat after trying both a 20 ton bottle jack, and using the backhoe of a neighbor's giant CAT. The tractor that came with the bucket is for sale, and if they want the old bucket, it's theirs for the taking.

 

[Username Taken]

To close this one off, I had to admit defeat after trying both a 20 ton bottle jack, and using the backhoe of a neighbor's giant CAT. The tractor that came with the bucket is for sale, and if they want the old bucket, it's theirs for the taking.

I am not one of them, but there are people out there (machinists/welders) that know how to heat-straighten metal.

I've watched a man heat strighten bent, 4'', 5'' thick crankshafts years ago several times.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

Don't use the middle of a bucket for prying stuff out of the ground. Not to OP but a general statement: Only use the corner of the bucket and that doesn't happen.

 

[repete]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

 

[rScotty]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

I've straightened a lot of metal, and dealing with the stretch is the key. Heat makes things easier, but to fix it right the bent part usually needs to be disconnected at one or both ends to give the stretch somewhere to go. Think about a place to let the stretch run out and you will be surprised at how much better it works. For cold-bending bucket lips, that means either unbolting the cutting edge or cutting to release the lip from the bucket sides if the cutting edge is welded on.
It's common to cut the end constraint, straighten the part, and then re-weld it.

 

[5030]

People don't realize that most all builders offer 2 styles of buckets. A standard 'material' bucket and a heavy duty 'excavation' bucket. Both my M9's have the HD buckets and one also has a material bucket which I hardly ever use. I use a round bale spear on both, loading 4x6 rounds all the time. Never bent the cutting edge at all. Very stout.

 

[RedNeckGeek]

You can flame bend metal if you've got a big enough oxy/acetylene torch. If you've seen the empty flatbed trailers behind a semi truck, you'll notice they have an arch to them when they're unloaded. That is put there with flame bending. A series of triangles are heated and the steel in the bed rails expands. It also gets soft enough to deform, and since the triangle is wider at the bottom, more metal deforms on that side. When the steel cools, it shrinks, and there's more stress on the wide side of the triangle. So that wide side is on the bottom of the trailer bed rail. Do enough triangles in the right places, and you have that pretty arch.

For the bucket lip, you don't need triangles, just enough spots heated through so that the steel expands, yields, and cools off. I would have needed a bigger rosebud for my oxy/acetylene outfit to make it work, and it was easier to just pass the bucket on to a new owner.

 

[Username Taken]

A shop I worked in many years ago specialized in crankshafts. We repaired and rebuilt a lot of them from Penn Central and elsewhere. Penn Central was usually from their electric motors. About a 3 - 4 inch throw. Weld 'em up, chrome the journals and grind them down. I worked an OD grinder. A big one. 42'' diameter big. We didn't bother with automotive cranks. Cheaper than dirt to replace them, just industrial stuff that was often a one-of-a-kind and almost irreplaceable

Other parts of the shop did other things. We would get in crankshafts with a three foot throw on them once in a while. Not for engines but they were for presses. Like a punch press except huge. We'd get them in from Fisher Body and shops doing other car panels, etc. They used them in fabricating body parts. Its all different now, hydraulics. But back then, some of the old stuff was still 'lift it up and slam it back down.'

I've seen our guy(s) straighten out a crankshaft, about 6'' in diameter, that was bent, using a torch and then spraying water on one side and it would straighten right out. He was good. I was cmpletely unaware of how he did it and that's how he liked it.

Never tried it on my own. But I would think there's gotta be a youtube video on it somewhere.

 

[CoyPatton]

A piece of metal bends because it is stretched. It is nearly impossible to compress the metal to straighten it, you can only stretch the other side which further weakens the steel.

I replaced my bucket with a new one that had been removed form a new tractor when the customer wanted the quick disconnect installed.

Sorry to disagree. But a good metal working person can shrink that metal. Wish I was one, and it may be a dying skillset, but it can be done.

 

[repete]

I did not say it was impossible but the reality is 99.9% of us here would not have the tools nor ability to shrink a 5' edge to make it straight again. Most would simply stretch the other side to make it match the already stretched side and that would only cause a lack of density of the metal on both sides making future bends even easier.

 

[Username Taken]