285 Demag repair

[Popeye an old miner]

The pins kept sliding on this bucket, we tried a bunch of different solutions and nothing seemed to work. They need to grease this thing more often and fix the automatic greaser lines which if you ask me is a flippin joke, get out of the damn seat once in awhile and grease the damn thing.

So they lost pin on the left altogether one day. Me and the operator wrestled the cylinder back up with a comalong and slid the pin back in, by that time it was time go home. I talked with the maintenance foreman on this job who Ive known since he was in diapers, 30 years old very sharp and not afraid to make **** happen. He asked to come up with a solution til they can get this fixed right, they are talking about doing some line boring and bushings, pins and such on this bucket, but it wont happen for a year or 2.

This is what I came up with, it aint pretty and its overkill but damn the pins wont be comin out now.





this is the view from up in the back of the bucket looking out

the side cutters I built this winter are holding up very well

this is the Demag

Its gonna be a long day when we got to change cylinders or pins, that will take awhile to cut that suff to get the pins out but that was what needed done.

[CAVEMANN]

"Fix it right" if it's like the company where I worked then it's relative, when copper prices were down they didn't want to spend the money, when prices wer up they wanted the production, typically bean counters cant see anything BUT the dollar hanging right in front of them. "Fix it right" ultimately never happened.

[Popeye an old miner]

"Fix it right" if it's like the company where I worked then it's relative, when copper prices were down they didn't want to spend the money, when prices wer up they wanted the production, typically bean counters cant see anything BUT the dollar hanging right in front of them. "Fix it right" ultimately never happened.

Yup...I think it been that way since the very beginning. Evry place, and evry type of work Ive done its been the same way, run run run til it don't go no more then fix it up just good enough to get it goin.

These guys aren't quite as bad as some though.

[Bls repair]

That looks like one of those permanent “temporary” fixes nice work . Had a boss ask me to do a temporary fix one time ,asked him when we were going to fix it right. He paused and said”the next time it breaks”

[Popeye an old miner]

Slim wasn't too concerned whether it was supposed to be temporary or permanent, they got a 45 foot vein under the rock that this shovel is digging off the top, they want that coal. We thought we had this thing fixed 4 or 5 times already, now its fixed and the pins absolutely will not come out unless you cut that stuff off first.

[docwelder]

POM; not to get too far afield but don't you have oilers over there to handle greasing and oiling? anyway- you bailed the company out again but that's what experienced welders do. good idea making a captive pin. hopefully it won't be you that has to bust b@lls cutting it out down the road.

[Popeye an old miner]

POM; not to get too far afield but don't you have oilers over there to handle greasing and oiling? anyway- you bailed the company out again but that's what experienced welders do. good idea making a captive pin. hopefully it won't be you that has to bust b@lls cutting it out down the road.

There is 2 fellas there that do greasing and such, they take care of the oil when the operator lets them know about it, and they have a schedule for greasing. This thing has a automatic greasing system, apparently its not working right for these 2 pins, the oiler guys grease these pins in the morning when it gets started and the operator is supposed to grease them twice during the day as he checks to make sure everything is working right.

I don't get involved in their routine maintenance issues too much, I don't work for them I am just a contractor so its not really my busness what they do. I just offer suggestions and fix what needs fixed. They pretty much leave me to come up with an answer how to fix it.

I most likely will be the guy cuttin this apart to change cylinders and to get it ready for line boring when they decide to do that. I wouldn't feel right putting some other poor schmuck through royal hell cuttin all that out.

[richT]

nice job! heck im in NJ ill come line bore it for ya!

[Popeye an old miner]

nice job! heck im in NJ ill come line bore it for ya!

The guy im contracted to has 3 line boring outfits and 2 guys for each setup, thanks for the offer though.

[richT]

The guy im contracted to has 3 line boring outfits and 2 guys for each setup, thanks for the offer though.

do they do it in house?

[Popeye an old miner]

do they do it in house?

If you mean by in house out on the job yes they do it out on the job just like I do, we also got a guy in a shop who does it along with a machine shop with lathes and stuff, and a hydraulic shop as well. I don't get involved with that end of it very much, I am usually put in the mines workin

[farmersammm]

Might not be that hard to cut out. Just a matter of paring it away a bit at a time blowing the metal downwards.

Wouldn't want to try a straight sever cut, what with the chance of the O2 stream wandering into the good stuff ya wanna keep. Bigazz tip, and literally just melt it out as you go. Just watch were your feet are

[Popeye an old miner]

Might not be that hard to cut out. Just a matter of paring it away a bit at a time blowing the metal downwards.

Wouldn't want to try a straight sever cut, what with the chance of the O2 stream wandering into the good stuff ya wanna keep. Bigazz tip, and literally just melt it out as you go. Just watch were your feet are

That's what Im thinkin, its just gonna take a bit of time to do it, and most of the guys I know doin this work don't have the patience anymore to do it like that. They wanna light it up and get it out and be damned if its rip **** or bust while they are doin it

[WenValley]

Popeye:

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts, and looking at the pics. Thank you for taking the time to share with the group the cool stuff you get to work on I would buy you a steak dinner just to spend a day with you on the job. You've forgotten more than most ever learn. Keep posting!

[Popeye an old miner]

Popeye:

Just wanted to tell you how much I enjoy reading your posts, and looking at the pics. Thank you for taking the time to share with the group the cool stuff you get to work on I would buy you a steak dinner just to spend a day with you on the job. You've forgotten more than most ever learn. Keep posting!

Thank you for the compliment...im glad you enjoy the pictures and posts, even though im not such a great photographer. Steak dinner? Sure come on to Pennsylvania and spend a day or 2 be glad to have the company out there...some days get pretty lonesome when noone shows up with a busted doohickey to fix.

[MISSING LINK]

Does that pin float on that curl cylinders? I don't remember if on our Komatsu pc4000 if the curl cylinder pins float but I know on the Cat shovels all the pins float and they just have keeper plates bolted on the ends of the pins. But the picture attached is for our P&H electric rope shovels. Normally from the factory they get just a big bar welded across to keep the pins in, but we take those off and put pin collars with an 1 1/4 dia bolt through so you can simply cut the bolt off and put a new one in when you do a dipper change. Not sure if this would help you guys out, but we do retrofit a lot of pins that have a solid keeper to a pin collar keeper style as it seems to save a lot of time.

[Popeye an old miner]

Does that pin float on that curl cylinders? I don't remember if on our Komatsu pc4000 if the curl cylinder pins float but I know on the Cat shovels all the pins float and they just have keeper plates bolted on the ends of the pins. But the picture attached is for our P&H electric rope shovels. Normally from the factory they get just a big bar welded across to keep the pins in, but we take those off and put pin collars with an 1 1/4 dia bolt through so you can simply cut the bolt off and put a new one in when you do a dipper change. Not sure if this would help you guys out, but we do retrofit a lot of pins that have a solid keeper to a pin collar keeper style as it seems to save a lot of time.

No those pins don't float, they are supposed to stay stationary. The original setup to keep them in place was pretty simple, but the whole problem is they aint getting enough grease. These guys depend on these auto greasers to do this and they aren't working on these 2 pins, they need to get out the seat about evry 4 hours and grease them with a grease gun, shucks they gotta get out once a day or so to piss or take a crap, that would be a good time to do it. As far as line boring and such I don't know if it needs that or not, im thinkin if they get enough grease they will be ok

[leightrepairs]

Bad thing is you took away the only time is was getting lubricated by putting the pin retainer on it. Now the operator will not worry about it at all since the pin won't work itself out. If they don't fix the auto greaser you will be fixing the bore and pin that gets worn to nothing since it is dry. But your fix looks good as does all the work you post.

[Popeye an old miner]

Bad thing is you took away the only time is was getting lubricated by putting the pin retainer on it. Now the operator will not worry about it at all since the pin won't work itself out. If they don't fix the auto greaser you will be fixing the bore and pin that gets worn to nothing since it is dry. But your fix looks good as does all the work you post.

Yeah I know, I told them that much, the lead mechanic told the operator to get out and grease em at 9 o clock, noon and 3 oclock, the oilersguys will do it for him first thing in the morning. The operator been greasing it from what the mechanic told me so it should hold up. There is a valve or somethin needs to be replaced to make thgis auto greaser work, they said its on order so maybe it will get fixed, I still don't rust it though, there aint nothin like a guy with a grease gun doin it, that way you know damn well its getting done.....thank you

[leightrepairs]

Yes sir an auto greaser can be nice but they don't look at the rest of the machine like a good oiler does.