977 bucket repair advice needed

Tore up the bucket on my Traxcavator and need some help getting it back together. It has been repaired a few times over the course of it's life, mostly scabbed together. I am looking for the right way to fix it from those who have been there.

First step would to get a new cutting edge. I have not looked into Cat yet, is there any other after market resources for the cutting edge? This one is welded on, how do they weld on a hardened blade?

Where do I start in repairing the bucket? Cut it all out and weld in sections? This one seems to have a upper and lower sheet. The plates on the sides are getting thin. Should that be cut out or welded to bring up the thickness?

Matt

I wonder what steel the bucket is made of? Did cat make it from a high strength- high abrasive steel? Or did cat just use
regular mild steel.

The first thing to do is to take a grinder and hit the bucket with it and watch the spark stream, then compare that to the stream you get from a known piece of mild steel. While the curved part of the bucket may have been made from something like T-1 or AR steel, I'd have doubts as they're both kind of a bear to form without cracking. You could probably get by with a welded in section of mild steel to replace the cracked and torn area.

I've seen some cutting edges welded on but more commonly they're bolted on. If welded on, it should be done with an E 8018 electrode.

As far as the side pieces go, you could cut a section out and replace it with a T-1 or AR chunk. .or just go ahead and hard face the edges and back a few inches with a good hard facing electrode. Cro-Mang comes to mind right off.

It's been quite a few years since I rebuilt a bucket but that was the procedure we used in the mines.

Considering you mentioned prior repair work and the fact a lot of these type of machines are getting scrapped currently it may be more cost effective to pickup a good used bucket.

Theres a great condition 4 in 1 off a 977L near me but shipping would cost more.

Hi, SpragueM.
IMHO, you need to start by replacing the floor of the bucket back to the start of the curve up the back of the bucket. This does need to be made of better quality steel, T1 or similar. Then I would suggest fitting a new weld-on cutting edge. You can weld one of these on your self with fairly minimal equipment, basically an oxy or propane acetylene set - I prefer oxy-acetylene myself but that's just me - and a reasonably good electric arc or mig welder. If using a mig for the welding, you DO need to use the correct gas and wire to give you a hi-tensile weld of similar quality to the hi-tensile, low-hydrogen electrodes that you would need to use if welding with an electric arc welder.

Before beginning any welding, get the mating surfaces fitting as closely as possible. Then set them up with a slight gap, around 1/16" to 1/8" and tack them in place to hold them. You then need to preheat the whole weld area until spit just sizzles on it and keep it fairly close to this temperature during the whole welding process. A good heating torch is helpful in this process. Heat retention blankets will help to maintain the temperature and I just KNOW that you have a cupboard full of them in the back of your fully-equipped workshop. LOL. This pre-heating is even more important when welding on the new cutting edge than when welding a new floor in the bucket.

When fitting up the new cutting edge, set it up so that the top face of the cutting edge is flush with the top of the bucket floor, presenting a smooth face for the material to exit the bucket when dumping. Your photos don't show it but there are usually 'stiffeners' or ribs running from the back edge of the cutting edge along the underside of the bucket floor toward the rear of the floor. In some cases. these stiffeners may even extend slightly around the curve at the back of the bucket floor. These stiffeners also need to be made from fairly good quality steel 'cos they will be subject to a LOT of sliding contact with the ground when you are digging or leveling.

The sides of the bucket can be re-built using worn bolt-on cutting edges from excavator batter or mud buckets or even worn dozer cutting edges (if there is anything left of either them) with pretty much the same welding process as for the new cutting edge.

Hope this helps.