Dragline bucket

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Hi, new to the forum I have got a lot of help from here in the past with other projects I have worked on. After a few days of looking for some info on welding on a drag bucket and coming up short I thought I would ask for some help and advice. This is a 3/4 yard pmco bucket, it's not work or  job related project just a hobby. The buckets are made of ? and welded with ? I have seen the welds before but don't know anything about the process. The top and bottom picture look like wire and the middle looks like stick.Looking to fix some cracks, and build up some chain links. Welder is a miller 225 bobcat and I have a s32 wire driver I can use with it. Me I am an average welder but always looking to learn  Thanks Attached Images
Reply:Ok I have to ask... What sort of hobby do you have where you rebuild a dragline bucket? Are you restoring an old machine? I've always thought those old buckets and machines were neat. I've seen a bunch abandoned here and there in upstate PA. Some quite large. From the trees and oak leaves I'm wondering if you're from PA or maybe WV. The bucket looks too small to be from out west.I was thinking the top and bottom picts looked like 7024 stick, and the middle one like a poorly run wire feed myself. The middle one the runs look to long for stick. Maybe FC wire..Last edited by DSW; 03-07-2010 at 10:09 PM..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:Well I am not an expert, but I really pissed off my local scrap yard hauling a tractor trailer load of them forrecycling. Part of them are steel and part of them are Manganese. It is welded with a high Nickle contentstick, I do not recall the number.Take a magnet and see where it will stick to give you an idea of if and/or where your metals are different.Aeromax Service Truck w/ 6,000lb Crane to carry my toys.Miller Trailblazer 302'69 Lincoln SA-200A couple of Victor Jr's to make big pieces smaller..........
Reply:Welds look like they are stainless.  Try gouging them with a torch.  Heavy weld shouldn't have enough pickup to get much carbon in it and won't cut with torch.  At the mine I worked at in the late 70's, early 80's, it seemed to be pretty common to weld the small, old dragline buckets with stainless.  Don't know why.I helped build a Marion 8750 with a 110 cu. yd. bucket before getting on at the mine.  IIRC, we welded the buckets together with 9018 with about 350 preheat. Wear liners went in with same. Two buckets, when time came we pulled the extra bucket to the bench with six CAT 637D scrapers for the change out and pulled the used one back to the bucket shed for repair.  One would usually last about 8 to 12 months before change out.  Had fairly soft shale instead of hard rock for overburden.After the first year or so, most welding was done with 7018 and preheat with good results.  Bushings for drag chains were welded with Astralloy I believe.  Look up draglines on You Tube for some neat videos.  All the big old shovels have been torn down and sold for scrap.  If you never saw one of these (big shovel or dragline) you really missed something!"The man of great wealth owes a peculiar obligation to the State, because he derives special advantages from the mere existence of government."  Teddy RooseveltAmerican by birth, Union by choice!  Boilermakers # 60America is a Union.
Reply:in the second pic how many passes did you make? the first and third look good but the second shot with the 3 beads looks likes you went a little too fast and a little too cold.I break things for a living...
Reply:those beads in the first pics with the gold appearance look like eutetic 680
Reply:It's been twenty years or more since I've welded on a dragline bucket....  understand, we generally use long-reach excavators now, when at all possible.   It's not that the draglines are less efficient, it's more due to the fact that there's no real operators left anymore.My recollection of dragline buckets, generally manganese steel.   Keep the heat down, no preheat.  Stringer beads only, again, limit the heat, and let it cool between passes.    You can check your bucket very easily, manganese steel is NOT magnetic, a magnet won't stick to it, or at the most, just a very weak attraction.  If in fact, it is manganese steel (a perfect combination between impact resistance and wear resistance), it can be welded with any common 70xx filler material.    Again, keeping the heat down.   Dragline buckets in particular, we generally welded with a SS filler, I could be wrong, but 309 based filler???   A  more ductile weld, less likely to crack when dropping the bucket.   I would strongly suggest, before doing any welding, contacting the tech lines for Hobart, Lincoln, ESAB, McKay, etc. etc.   The welding engineers, as long as you can accurately describe your application, they will tell you what to do.    I can remember, last time I called Hobart, the LADY, told me how to lay it, how to put it down, I just said "yes, Ma'am", did it like she said, job turned out perfect.This is what they are being paid for, you should utilize the knowledge they have.
Reply:JSFab, Thanks for confirming what I was thinking, seems like the last one I fixed we used 7024Jet rod on it, either 3/16 or 1/4.Smokin Dodge, Those welds you are looking at are probably 40 years old.......... Aeromax Service Truck w/ 6,000lb Crane to carry my toys.Miller Trailblazer 302'69 Lincoln SA-200A couple of Victor Jr's to make big pieces smaller..........
Reply:Bob might be right about the stainless, seeing the steel is rusted and the weld isn't."Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal"   -Henry Ford
Reply:Thanks for the help guys. I have 2 old draglines I am working on as a hobby and now I have a spare bucket to work on. All the welds were on it when I got it, and was wondering if it was Nickle. And before I did more harm than good I wanted to do my home work.  The bucket is 4' long by 3' wide and 2' deep and 1000 lbs so it's easy to work on. I guess I look at this as part of the learning process of working with this equipment. I hope to try the magnet and maybe the torch test this week along with making some phone calls. Thanks again
Reply:Originally Posted by DraglineHi, new to the forum I have got a lot of help from here in the past with other projects I have worked on. After a few days of looking for some info on welding on a drag bucket and coming up short I thought I would ask for some help and advice. This is a 3/4 yard pmco bucket, it's not work or  job related project just a hobby. The buckets are made of ? and welded with ? I have seen the welds before but don't know anything about the process. The top and bottom picture look like wire and the middle looks like stick.Looking to fix some cracks, and build up some chain links. Welder is a miller 225 bobcat and I have a s32 wire driver I can use with it. Me I am an average welder but always looking to learn  Thanks