Repairing / Modifying My Picks

[phoenix]

Both my big and little pick where looking a bit worse for wear lately, but they both still have nice sturdy handles on them so I decided to have a go at fixing them.  To replace the big pick would probably cost me a couple of hundred bucks.   My mate Steve gave me the material , a piece of car leaf spring.
  I used a 4½" angle grinder with a cut off disc to cut the pieces I needed, (don`t force the grinder, just let the grinder do the work and you wont tear hell out of the disc). 
 I own a 240 volt, 15 amp inverter stick welder that I bought on ebay, ( I have no idea what the equivalent would be in the States), I fitted the new material to the the back of the pick blades, and welded them length ways only, NOT, across the blades, with low hydrogen rods.
I wanted to use them for a couple of days before I told the world how clever I was, and I gotta say these new picks are great, so much easier to dig with. Much better than when they were new off the shelf.  I`ve only used them 3 days so I still have to see how they stand up, but at the moment I am very happy with them.    Dave

[Jin]

I've been thinking about doing the same to mine also. I reckon the pointier end would be much better at digging than the original design. Thanks for the pictures Dave

Cheers Rick

[goldwright]

Looks okay but only drama is once heated by the weld the spring steel is weakened a lot and normally will break really quickly.  I hope it last but I make spring steel pilots for the auger of my dingo and heat it to much even cutting with a grinder for to long and they break.

[GoldEn]

They look much better and sharper than before.

Hope they dig few nuggets.

GoldEN

 

 

[phoenix]

2 hours ago, goldwright said:

Looks okay but only drama is once heated by the weld the spring steel is weakened a lot and normally will break really quickly.  I hope it last but I make spring steel pilots for the auger of my dingo and heat it to much even cutting with a grinder for to long and they break.

Yeh mate,  that`s why I only welded them length ways, not across the blade. I figure way less chance of them breaking. cheers

[beatup]

good looking rebuilds 

[DolanDave]

Great way to save some Dinero..... Thanks for the idea, and post...

Dave

[jrbeatty]

Did the same recently using steel cut from a spare grouser plate off my bulldozer:

Did a low hydrogen butt weld in an "V" formation to avoid cross fracturing.:

Steel looks thicker (and longer) than it actually is because of camera foreshortening. I've successfully done this before using high tensile steel without any problems. Once the tip wears a bit I'll hit it with a tungsten carbide based hardfacing electrode.