Modified My Apex Pick

[1515Art]

I like carrying my small Apex pick but it’s always left me wanting a bit more when digging the blade is a narrow scraping down on a target but I’ve put up with it because it’s lightweight and digs OK.  A couple months ago the bracket welded onto the rear bumper holding my spare tire and aux fuel tank cracked and was starting to flop around held mostly in place by the large bolt the swing out arm pivots on. The bumper actually works well with the exception it’s breaking and a new setup would run me $1500 to $2000 so I decided to teach myself to weld on YouTube and bought myself a little mig/tig welder, fixing the bumper has gone well so far and I’ve branched out to other projects modifying my picks and a few other things. On my small apex pick I add two small wings with 1/4 weldable steel one to each side widening the pick from 3” to 5” and creating a scoop out of the blade, I also slimmed down the pointed side to compensate for the added weight of the blade and shaped the point better for getting down into and between the desert rocks. If this works well I’ll modify the Apex Tallon next.

[jrbeatty]

Nice wings! 

When my pick point wore out I cold cut a Cat D4 grouser plate to shape, cut the old blunt tip off and stick welded the replacement on using low hydrogen rods. Note the chevron shaped cut for maximum strength. 

That was some years ago and the point still remains sharp many hundreds of holes later  :)

[geof_junk]

I use a small pick most of the time. I do not have access to welding equipment but when my pick got too short I went to a car muffler shop and got the guy to tig weld a a small handy man jackhammer changeable tip to my pick. It was a great mod. I noted that a super magnet is attached to the pick. I moldered some epoxy putty around the magnet so no edges  are on the back of the pick which allows me to remove all steel and hot rocks with one swipe of the hand. 

[Swegin]

I think you need a bigger magnet. LOL   Nice job on the wings.

 

[1515Art]

There’s some serious Aussie digging tools if you need a deep hole just check and see what’s being used there, seems lately most of my targets are 5” down or shallow surface trash the reason I quit carrying the large apex most of the time. I’ll have to remember that Chevron weld technique, 👍.

1 hour ago, Swegin said:

I think you need a bigger magnet. LOL   Nice job on the wings.

 

it gets serious if I walk to close to my Jeep, lol.