Rebuilding bucket for mini hoe

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Hey all,Not very active on this forum but I figured I would toss this question out there for you guys. I'm a heavy duty mechanic, with a background in welding. I've got this John Deere mini hoe (35d) in the shop and it needed some more material on the bottom of the bucket. So I cut the old stuff off and cut and bent some 3/8 cold rolled mild steel to replace it with. Any advice on some settings/techniques? The bottom of the bucket was fairly dented, so there is some gaps in some areas. I have access to a Miller 350 cc/cv machine running .035 wire(attached a pic of the sticker on the spool, never seen this before but runs like normal mild wire???) with 75/25 co2 mix or the stick machine with 7018 rod. Would prefer to mig it but I don't mind using stick either.
Reply:I'll be honest I know nothing about that type of wire so my gut reaction is a handful of 1/8" 7018s. I've only ever stick welded tractor loader buckets so I am a little biased. If you really want to wire feed it, I'd go flux core.Edit: I just looked up the wire and s-6 is just what Unibraze brand calls their ER70S-6 wire. So it is just standard mig wire. Personally I'd still stick weld something like that.Last edited by Iain P; 01-27-2016 at 08:53 PM.My "collection":Homemade Stick WelderVictor O/A TorchAC 225Ideal Arc 250HF 90 Amp Flux CoreHF Mig 170Solar 2020 Plasma CutterPower i-Mig 140EHarris O/A torchHF Dual Mig 131140STAlpha Tig 200x
Reply:In my opinion it is a complete waste of time to use cold rolled on that. AR400 would have been a much better choice.
Reply:Looks great.Could run some cris cros beads on the plates as wear surfacing Burn up some cheep rod on it.Just a couple welders, big hammers, grinders, and torches.Work will free you.Men in dirty jeans built this country, while men in clean suits have destroyed it. Trump/Carson 2016-2024
Reply:You could use a dog and wedge to pull the bucket to the wear strips. Really helps to avoid gaps.  Attached ImagesDon’t pay any attention to meI’m just a hobbyist!CarlDynasty 300V350-Pro w/pulseSG Spool gun1937 IdealArc-300PowerArc 200ST3 SA-200sVantage 400
Reply:Cep, don't you know that's ancient technology? What's next? Use fire to move steel?? Airco Ac/Dc 300 HeliwelderMillerMatic 200 (stolen)Miller Maxstar 150STLMiller AEAD200LE (welding and generating power) Hobart MIG
Reply:Originally Posted by SquirmyPugWhat's next? Use fire to move steel??
Reply:Originally Posted by CEPI read somewhere here, that doesn’t work.
Reply:Thanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately flux core is out of the question because we don't have any in stock. Also, I spoke with the welder in our shop about using some hardened material, and he said for what they use this machine for it wasn't really worth it. As for stick welding it, would it be better to go up hand or down hand with how I have the bucket sitting?
Reply:Personally I'd just mig it myself using the wire you have. As it's sitting, I'd go uphill. If uphill mig isn't your strong suit, I'd tip the bucket on it's side so half those welds would be horizontal fillets, them tip it on it's other side and do those welds.I agree I doubt hardened material is really called for on a small bucket like this. Maybe if all you dug was sand, hardened material might help some with wear, but I doubt it..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by jeff.dThanks for the input everyone. Unfortunately flux core is out of the question because we don't have any in stock. Also, I spoke with the welder in our shop about using some hardened material, and he said for what they use this machine for it wasn't really worth it. As for stick welding it, would it be better to go up hand or down hand with how I have the bucket sitting?
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWPersonally I'd just mig it myself using the wire you have. As it's sitting, I'd go uphill. If uphill mig isn't your strong suit, I'd tip the bucket on it's side so half those welds would be horizontal fillets, them tip it on it's other side and do those welds.I agree I doubt hardened material is really called for on a small bucket like this. Maybe if all you dug was sand, hardened material might help some with wear, but I doubt it.
Reply:Spray would work fine, but you won't go into spray with 75/25 gas. You'd need something like 90/10 or something with a CO2 percentage less than 10% to go into spray. It's not really worth a special gas for this. Get the voltage high enough and you can probably go into globular transfer. the machines I typically use, if I'm running 75/25 I'm pretty much limited to short arc since it's a 200 amp class mig, or on the XMT, I'm running 92/8 so I can run either short arc or spray.I'd set the machine based on the bucket skin, not the wear strips. Since I don't know how thick the skin is, it's a bit hard to say. My guess is the skin is pretty thin though, say maybe 1/8" based on the bucket size. If so I'd probably be in the 17.5v/ 175 to 19.5v/200 range in short arc with the XMT depending on if I'm running uphill or horizontal. I might even go higher in horizontal as long as I can keep most of the puddle on the 3/8" and not end up with any undercut on the bucket skin.In reality all you need to do is keep the wear bars attached to the skin and keep dirt out. It's not structural, so you don't need super strong welds..No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. Government programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth! Ronald Reagan
Reply:Originally Posted by DSWSpray would work fine, but you won't go into spray with 75/25 gas. You'd need something like 90/10 or something with a CO2 percentage less than 10% to go into spray. It's not really worth a special gas for this. Get the voltage high enough and you can probably go into globular transfer. the machines I typically use, if I'm running 75/25 I'm pretty much limited to short arc since it's a 200 amp class mig, or on the XMT, I'm running 92/8 so I can run either short arc or spray.I'd set the machine based on the bucket skin, not the wear strips. Since I don't know how thick the skin is, it's a bit hard to say. My guess is the skin is pretty thin though, say maybe 1/8" based on the bucket size. If so I'd probably be in the 17.5v/ 175 to 19.5v/200 range in short arc with the XMT depending on if I'm running uphill or horizontal. I might even go higher in horizontal as long as I can keep most of the puddle on the 3/8" and not end up with any undercut on the bucket skin.In reality all you need to do is keep the wear bars attached to the skin and keep dirt out. It's not structural, so you don't need super strong welds.