The Descriptive Process

[SliverPicker]

Don't let the greenie meanies find out you are frog egg killer. They will take your birthday away!

 

[joesawer]

Lol they would if they could just for slaying their precious trees lol

 

[joesawer]

They plan and scheme my demise as they munch on their bean sprouts and baby spinach salad and smoke their weed, freaking hypocritical tree huggers

 

[SliverPicker]

While driving the most polluting POS on the road. Get behind a VW bus on a hill and your eyes will water.

Peace, love and holy grooviness, man.

 

[SliverPicker]

How do you keep money from a hippy? Hide it under the soap!

How do you keep money from a hippy? Hide it under his work boots.

 

[northmanlogging]

So I'm in between logging projects right now so I figure its a good time to bring the misses home and fix up her blade proper like... just a few cracks...

So I don't have any pictures and I've already cut most of the garbage off of it as of now, but try to follow along.

In between the "ears" of the old style Deere blades, it started with two massive cracks that extended about 3/4 of the blade down, former owner decided that just building up layer upon layer of bird **** would be enough for that part, its not. Now since the cracks started at the top, his first idea was to have a 5/8"? plate welded across said cracks just don't bother with welding those cracks that plate is more then strong enough...

Well it wasn't.

So after throwing on one more booger over the plate, that broke, lets put some 1/8 by 1" angle on there... that didn't work so we'll booger on some more crap, then weld on some rebar over the welds on the angle.

Well **** that didn't work either.

So some 3/8x2" angle across the whole ****ing mess should really do the trick...

Nope...

This is about the time that I bought the ole girl, after a few weeks and some profit I hired a guy to weld some of the worse for wear cracks, those on the face and a few others. Of course that cost a fair penny, and those welds are worth every dime, but they didn't address the problem of all the scrap iron on top.

Flash forward a year or two...

My fat ass now has a welder up to the task and the time to deal with it right now, so I've spent the better part of 5 hours torching off all the BS that has been welded on over the years. Only to find out that the original cracks along the top that have been covered up by a mountain of cluelesness where never welded in the first place...

Tomorrow I'll see if I have any acytalen (?S?) left and torch off the rest of the 5/8 plate, maybe... got some backhoe work that may take the rest of the day...

My welds aren't pretty, they are a little crooked for the most part, but dammit they penetrate and don't have much defect, for the most part they even sit kinda flat.

I'm not even getting into the gusset that was scabbed back on crooked... or the frame welds... that I'm scared too look closely at...

 

[treeslayer2003]

northy you got a dc welder? get some 7018 or better yet 9018 good rods, not lincoln junk from hardware store. turn her down to around 90 amps, ya should be able to do pretty good. them deere blades never where real strong. the 440 we had just had a piece of stout I beam with 1" bar teeth like a mini root rake. it worked well.

 

[northmanlogging]

7018 some crazy brand? from the welding shop... Debating whether or not I should warm em up first... So far the welds I've made on this blade are holding up good... fairly new rods... kept dry just not at 250 like yer supposed to.

ac/dc engine drive welder 225amp, come in handy a few times.

Took welding way back in high school, what I wanted to do before machining... kind kept at it ever since, had to get reacquainted with stick though, pretty much had a welder of one sort or another kicking around as long as I can remember.

 

[Spotted Owl]

I don't remember the numbers anymore, but some of them the oven was not such a good thing. Dry for sure. But, when in the oven long enough, had to dip them in a bucket or puddle to get the arc going better. 7018 is fun rod to burn. I never had a rod oven though, just some of the wrencher trucks had built in's. Some of them wrenchers have nice rigs.



Owl

 

[BeatCJ]

XX18 is Low Hydrogen flux, it doesn't like water. Harder to strike your arc, but makes really nice bead.

I'm not a welder, but my stepdad has has welded 100% xray pipeline all over the country.

 

[treeslayer2003]

i got some cheap over seas 7018 from the steel supplier, they feel like they are coated with some thing sticky. surprisingly they weld really nice.......better than napa ones....

 

[northmanlogging]

With any luck the backhoe job won't take too long and i'll be able to get it done today, backhoe werk is straight across the street, 1-2 loads of fill removed.

 

[treeslayer2003]

pics of the blade

 

[Metals406]

XX18 rod is hygroscopic, meaning it actually attracts moisture from the air. You can make a rod oven out of a light and cardboard box.

XX10, XX11 rods don't have a low hydrogen coating and can just sit on the shelf.

If you want to cut or gouge steel in a pinch, soak 7018 in water, and then crank up the amps!

 

[northmanlogging]

This may take awhile...

The missus don't fit in the "shop"


Left side under 5/8 plate, notice complete lack of weld.


Some boogers, the big glob on the face of the blade was done by previous owner. Plate is still on this side.


Some glorious boogers on the back side, this **** is like 3/4 of an inch thick...


Some of the scrap iron that has been cut off so far... dude was real proud of welding his name into stuff.


A broader few of most of the blade.


These where taken this morning, backhoe job didn't happen so I managed to get it cleaned up and welded before dark.

 

[northmanlogging]

Round two

This is the right side of the blade under the plate... I gouged some of the crap out of the crack but not as much as one would
think...


A sorta view of the back side and the massive booger, and my toes...


Left side prepped for welding, that gusset was bent out about 3/4 of an inch and then scabbed on with some diamond plate,
kinda... not really...


Right side prepped as best I can, gonna need to build up a lot of metal for this side.

 

[northmanlogging]

But wait there's more!

They may not be the prettiest welds or straight for that mater, but by gods they burned deep and clean.


As predicted it burned through pretty bad here, tis ok there was some ugly ass inclusions in the old welds.


The back side while not something to be real proud of at least I'm confident it will hold this time...


There is still some cleanup stuff to do, and hopefully I don't find more cracks under that, but for now I'm done with it toss some paint on to keep the elements at bay and call it a day.

By the way I know they aren't real straight and a little on the bogey side but if you feel the need to mention it whatever...

 

[northmanlogging]

By the way the rods where from pinnacle alloys? made in tex ass... burned pretty good...

 

[treeslayer2003]

your a little hot..........it will hold though.

 

[rwoods]

Today, I spoke with my fellow cutter about his root ball cut. As suspected, he said he cut partially through while standing on the stem (on the top side of cut) and finished the cut from the ground. I told him that wasn’t a good idea and explained the risk of being tossed with saw in hand. A professional tree service guy was there and he confirmed the same. He said he understood. He had more pictures on his phone that I assume his son took. The top had been cut from the tree and the stem appeared to be well supported which would have counter any tendency to slab or roll. Nonetheless we cautioned him not to stand on a stem while cutting a root ball free and that one good fortune doesn’t always repeat itself. He also had a video of the stump snapping upward abruptly. He didn’t need any further commentary as this risk got his attention.

Please further indulge me with your thoughts on this fairly frequent occurrence. It seems that often with 2 foot or so diameter stems that once cut free the stem drops, the root ball raises and they bind with your saw or wedge resulting in a cocked gun. The heavier trees usually muscle on pass. I know you can shorten the stem before cutting the root ball to lessen this possibility but I have resorted to the cut sketched below although I feel like am doing something foolish (final cut is usually upward from below). Am I fooling myself, and short of machinery is there a better way to prevent binding?

Thanks, Ron