IH tiller tines

[kweaver]

Allen - The subject is still relevant (it is tiller season) and I was responding to Nick's yesterday post.

and who you callin "genlemen" ?

 

[nhasson]

Hey Allen, someone had to respond, right? Anyway...Ken, I've been welding for about fifteen years or so, certified and all. I did exactly as Terry B.'s post said to do but I still think the way they were heat treated caused the problem. When I was doing it, I told my son who was helping that I thought we were going to break some tines. We were only heating up from the weld area to the end and then treating them. Went to work on a Sunday when nobody was around and used their oxy acetylene for the hour or so. Like I said, it was probably the way I heat treated them. And my garden soil is nice. The neighbors has all the rocks. Not that I like beating the crap out of my tiller but they don't have much and they ask every year. Kind of feel bad now, the neighbor put alot of work into his crappy soil and had a nice garden going until the dang deer destroyed it last week. And I have a chain for the top link. I wasn't counting them as I broke them, lol, I didn't know till I was done. I only tilled over there for half an hour.

 

[nhasson]

Ken, a buddy of mine used to work at a heat treating shop in Detroit years ago. I told him what I was going to do and he told me they would break where I quit heating them if I wasn't doing the entire tine. Well, I believe him now. Figured I would try anyway. He said they had a chart at the ovens that told them how many hours of treating that they needed compared to the thickness of metal they were hardening. I think if I would of spent more time on the hardening process of it would of turned out better. In my garden, they tilled great. My garden never looked better. The tiller wasn't bouncing, it just dug and dug. I think I even emailed Terry B before I did my tines and asked him if he ever broke any and he said he didn't. Kudos to Terry for the info and doing a great job. I wasn't so fortunate. I'm not done yet though. Just my two cents. Open to suggestions. Thanks.

 

[kweaver]

Nick - You're tryin to bring me out of hiding aren't ya ...

What you were suppose to be doing wasn't "hardening" them , you were "tempering" them after you welded them to bring the base metal up to temp along with the weld to relieve the tension between the two.

I was earlier going to suggest 600°F for twenty minutes but I was holding off until I checked but I doubt if I can find the info now , been to many years ago.

I hard welded the cutting edge on two bolt on cutting edges on our PTO post hole digger at the farm , never had a problem out of them nor had to redo it after maybe 600 holes. The original cutters which I was welding on , drilled maybe 30 holes and was as sharp as my backside after that. My grandfather went to buy a new set of cutters so I figured while he was gone I'd fix the old ones.
The parts guy at the blue dealer told him the replacements wouldn't last as long as the originals did. I don't think the replacements were ever put on.

Anyway ... if you had pre-heated the entire tine before welding then tempered them after welding they should have lasted.

 

[tcbusch]

Just used the tiller again today and it still works great. My goal was not to harden the whole blade, just the cutting edge. I didn’t want the blade to be too brittle. I assume this is how the mower blades are made. If you hardened the whole blade it might explode if you hit a rock.

Right now my biggest tiller issue is the small belt. It jumps off when I hit big rocks or roots. I guess that’s better than breaking something.

 

[mgonitzke]

Terry-

Do you have the lower 3-point bracket in addition to the tiller gearbox bracket? If not, that could be one reason why the belt is coming off.

 

[nhasson]

Hey Terry, my belt never comes off. I'll trade you a good belt for your tines. Lol.

 

[nhasson]

Matt G, how long ago did we swap pulleys for our tillers? I was trying to remember when I got my tiller. Nick

 

[mgonitzke]

Nick-

That must have been at LEAST 4-5 years ago. I'm not sure I was even in college yet when we traded. That worked out great for both of us.

I finally used my pulley this summer for the first time

 

[nhasson]

I was thinking about 4 yrs ago. I have a million miles on mine by now. Yep, worked out great.