skidder blade repair

[rick f]

As you can see in the picture my blade needs repair. At some time the bottom was cut out and not put back. I'm looking for ideas to repair it. Should I cut it out and put new steel in or just plate over and call it good?  What grade steel would this be or should I use?

Thanks guys

I hope this picture works

  

 

[MJD]

My 440 had a blade edge from a dozer welded to the face, made the blade real strong.

[mad murdock]

Mine has a bolt on cutting bar like those on a cat. I think for long term planning, tabbing a feature that can be bolted on the bottom like a cat blade is will be best.  Depends on what you want.

[Timbercruiser]

Would be a good idea to put new plate and put some type of cutting edge on it like a grader blade or similar on it. You can get hardened plate if you want but it will take a proper preheat process to weld on it thats all. Hard surface rod on the ends will help too .

[snowstorm]

i would cut out the bent part and use at least 3/8" for the blade face with a 1/2" base angle under it. if you put a cutting edge on also it must be bolted on. you can not weld cutting edge steel. it will break

[240b]

Looks like its bent up into the moldboard pretty well.  I'd cut out all the bent stuff have a new blade face bent up out of hardox and use a piece of 3/4" mild steel behind the bottom edge than stich weld an cutting edge of AR bar stock on the front side. 5/8x4 makes a decent cutting edge for a small skidder.. Probably a couple days project. Or find a blade off another clark in better shape..  Forget the welding a piece over the mess. My nieghbor did this. He's got mud packed up in there now an every winter that frozen blob pushes the steel plate out more. the blade is junk now. Fix it right the first time.

[John Woodworth]

Go to the county road dept. shop and get a piece of Grader blade and use it for the basis of rebuilding your blade, your going to have to replace a lot of metal so when you do your rebuilding set it up to use the grader blade bolts, the stuff wears forever in the woods, my little 10 I did in 1980 and the one 21 in 1991 and the are going to outlast me.

[deastman]

Harold's Logging in Hampden is parting out a Clark 665, I don't know what condition the blade is in or if it will fit your 664 but it might be worth looking into.

[barbender]

The real question might be, how much are you willing to spend on  the repair? Myself, I'd just cut out the bent cutting edge, replace the missing steel underneath, and weld a new piece of cutting edge on. Your blade doesn't look like it's in that bad of shape to me, other than the cutting edge. My .02.

[rick f]

Thanks guys, I've got to put it in the shop and d some cutting and reenforcing. The bolt on blades are a good idea.
Would a dust pan snowplow edge work, even id it's wore some?

Thanks again guys

[barbender]

I've never seen a woods machine (other than dozers) that had a bolt on cutting edge. If your blade is not already set up for a bolt on it could take a lot of extra work to mount one. I'd just weld one on, you'll probably never need ro replace it. If you do, air arc it off and weld a new one on. Weld it with 7018 rod, I've never had one break.

[nk14zp]

Did you get the blade fixed yet?

[rick f]

Nope got a line drawn across it where I want to cut it.  maybe after blueberry season.

[rick f]

Well I'm just a year later and I finaly fixed my blade on the skidder. I cut the bad part out then welded in a 5/8 inch piece across the bottom edge. I then placed a cutting edge on that with bolts. On the underside of the blade I welded a 1/2 inch by 6 inch piece the length of the blade. I then filled in the last of the roll on the front of the blade with 1/4 inch by 3 inch to flatten it out going up the blade. We will see how that works this winter.

  

 

[barbender]

Nice looking repair ;)

[furltech]

Looks good to me

[coxy]

nice job  did you weld it    I have a new cutting edge off a state truck snow plow with the carbide its been on there for 26years and cant see any wear and I do a lot of back dragging the landings and woods roads its faster then a dozer ;D

[chester_tree _farmah]

Yeah looks good.

[treeslayer2003]

looks great.......wanna come do mine?

[rick f]

Thanks guys. Yes I did all the welding on it. I had a local guy punch the holes for the bolts on the cutting edge.

[Nate379]

I didn't realize any loggers in Maine were still using cable skidders.  I grew up in Northern Maine and most everyone had switched over to grapple skidders by the early 2000s aside from small outfits.