We’re machining a custom set of press die tooling from scrap material to form protective plates for a problem that can cost thousands to repair on CAT D10 and D11 dozers.
The problem happens around the blade lift cylinder rod eye and connector, where dirt and debris can fall into the joint and cause serious wear and damage over time. When the rod eye, connector, pin and bearings need replacing, the cost of OEM parts can quickly climb past $15,000.
The solution is surprisingly simple. Protective ring plates can be welded around the area to help keep the debris out, but first we need a way to form the plates to the right shape.
We start by machining a top and bottom press die on the lathe using scrap material from around the workshop. The bottom die gets turned to size before drilling the centre with a BPK spade drill, then Kurtis angles the cross slide and uses a boring bar to machine the 70° taper.
For the top die we’re back into our old piece of mystery “unknownium” from another job, and it doesn’t take long before the hard spots start destroying inserts again. This time though, we finally work out exactly what the material is and why some sections are so hard to machine.
Once both halves of the press tooling are finished, we take them over to the 150T hydraulic press and put them to work forming the ring plate.
Pressing the plate also changes the shape of the centre opening, so there is still a bit more machining required before we can test fit it over the blade lift cylinder rod and see how everything comes together.
A simple piece of shop made tooling, but one that could help prevent a very expensive recurring problem.
Thanks to Earthmoving Downunder for allowing us to use a short portion of their footage in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/@EarthmovingDownunder
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We're a down-to-earth, real-life machining and fabrication workshop on the Gold Coast, Australia. We specialise in helping mining and earthmoving businesses keep their machines running smoothly, and we love working on broken parts, the bigger the better! As well as our customer repair work, we also share the big workshop projects, restorations and custom shop-made tools we get stuck into, like the Franna crane project and our heavy duty parts washer build. New video every second Friday. Subscribe to follow along.
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