They get welded to the front of buckets all the time with massive pressure on them so I don't see any problems as long as he used 7018's or equivalent.

 

I wasn't worried about welding it, however his welds were very poor. I was thinking about it snapping off at the support because it's brittle.

Jon

 

I've welded grader blades since forever. Preheat is needed if you don't know the steel specs. I've had some steel cold that seemed to reject weld, it'd pop off like popcorn. I use weld on cutting edges of manganese steel. Welding makes them stronger. I also consume "grouser stock" made to replace worn grousers on bulldozer tracks. I use it all over the place. Most often I refresh the cutting edge on buckets.

For me preheat is the key. This stuff is brittle as glass, long welds build up tension when they cool. An 8' cutting edge I made in three pieces, weld the joints last. It is not very ductile.

 

I would not use grader blade for a drawbar in an unsupported application. Far too brittle. I use quite a bit as wear shield on buckets, blades, etc. and know how it can fail if it doesn't have full support behind it.

 

My two cents but most drawbars drill ok so I would say they are mild flexible steel that is cold rolled giving it a case hardened strength and wear resistance

Sent from my moto z3 using Tapatalk

 

You're not crazy for thinking it's a bad idea. Might last forever, might break the first use. Unless that engineer is putting his stamp on the plans his input wasn't worth the breath it took to ask the question.

I have a cutting edge on the track loader that is cracked clean through from one of the bolt holes to one edge. Came out of the pile that way. We bolted it on anyway and it has run that way for nearly 18 months now. It is the thickened edge of the bucket that gives it strength, the cutting edge is to resist wear.

 

Some bolt on bucket edges are in pieces new intentionally.

 

It's not "Just fine" to use grader edges for anything structural! It will break with ZERO warning!...………...or, as has been pointed out above, may last forever. If you are willing to take that gamble, then go ahead, but this "expert" strongly advises against it.

 

I live in a very rocky soil. I go through backhoe bucket teeth pretty fast. New teeth work better than worn out teeth. I decided to experiment with the technique very high quality wood chisel manufacturers use, They add a hardened tool steel very thin layer that makes up the cutting edge.
I added a layer of discarded grader blade to the worn teeth sort of like a finger nail. They lasted most of a year before they started breaking just past the weld. I will try that again with manganese steel 1 x 3 stock.

The intended purpose of bolt on grader blade is wear resistance. It usually has other alloys that give it resistance to wear. It is brittle, so it works as small wear guards but not where it must be tough.

Weld on cutting edges are meant to be strong, even after welding. The alloy most responsible for abrasion resistance is manganese. You can weld it cold with no preheat, and it doesn't lose its hardness, or crack from internal shrinkage stress. Manganese steel becomes work hardened, the more impact stress the stronger it gets.

Neither product is good for drawbar construction.

 

Willy, this will blow your mind... But when you weld that manganese, quench it with water while its hot. that will actually soften the manganese and reduce the chances of cracking. Sounds crazy, but look it up. Used to do quite a bit of build up on mang crusher parts and that's how we did it. Then it will work harden properly.
Showed a guy once how it works on a new crusher jaw by using a center punch on a corner of the jaw, made a nice deep crater. went to another corner and beat it with a hammer, used the center punch on that spot and flattened the point on the punch.
I ran some ESCO high mang ripper points on a D9 Cat in sandstone like stuff and they just wore away in hours because they never had a chance to work harden, but they would do well in hard rock.

 

Is this a drawbar that's bolted to the bottom of the tractor ? Or a three point mount one ?
I suggest don't mess with it and buy one specificly for that tractor. Many tractor junk dealers should have one.
What tractor is this for ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

I would try softening it some by heating to red hot then burying in ash or lime and allowing to cool slowly. Might take some of the brittleness out?

 

When I rebuilt my drawbar assembly, I found that it couldn't be machined. Just ate up the end mill. So, at least on my tractors, I'm thinking the steel is at least harder than a standard low carbon steel. Forged...…..not sure. But definitely some sorta heat treated steel.

While some alloys are weldable, many are not. I'd err on the side of not welding. And I certainly wouldn't use a blade for a drawbar. Totally different set of specs for the steel probably used.

 

We used a chunk of grader blade as the wedge on a wood splitter worked great until it snapped and flew past our heads next one was mild steel with a 1” piece of grader blade welded to it for qn edge that has worked way better

 

Twenty miles from me was Howe Scale. I believe the reason the company failed was employee theft. Every wood splitter wedge for decades was centered with "pivot stock" All the wedges on early splitters were from 1/4" mild plate with a piece of stolen pivot stock as the sharp edge.

A 100 year old high quality wood chisel was made of basic iron with a .030" thick piece of tool steel forge welded to its back. Made the hard steel edge very thin. A laminated chisel was then, still is superior to tool steel chisels.

My twist on a hard steel cutting edge is in the picture. The wedge is of two soft low carbon plates. One is longer than the other. Inside are pie slice shaped horizontals.

The flats are welded, this draws the long toward the short. This leaves a place to put some hard surface. Cut off the excess, it offers a hard cutting edge.