building up plow share

[gusbratz]

this is one of those little projects I have been wanting to do so last week I took a little time. I had tried about 2 years ago and my 7018 weld cracked. this time I preheated on top of the stove to around 350* F then used some 9N10 rod that I found in a dumpster at work to weld a bit of leaf spring to it instead of just building it up.
making pattern to cut outo of leaf spring

preheating share and bakeing rod

all back together, we will see how it does this fall. may just break right off.

[Don McCombs]

Your share would have looked something like this when new.

[Bus Driver]

Worth a try. Might be useful if your soil is not rocky. We have rocks here- to understate the matter. Let us know how it works.

[v w]

You are too neat. As I've posted before dad used to simply weld a piece of leaf spring parallel to the land side of the point and never grind it down. Width of the spring didn't matter. A few acres and the rough spots would disappear. Anyway your reconditioned point should go down easily. Vern

Bus Driver, We had rocks and the retipped point was no different than a new one. Many times I had to backup and get a plow.

[Clark Thompson]

the point was fine before you welded the extra piece on it. The piece will most likely brake off.The point was a little worn but all you have to do is sharpen the edge with a grinder to take the dull edge off. I have had cub plows over the years that were worn a lot worse and worked just fine.

[v w]

It occurred to me after posting that maybe you and others might not understand what I meant when I said I had backed up many times to get a plow. In years past a lot of plows were trailer plows which used a hook shaped hitch dropped into a twisted clevis pinned to the drawbar. This pulled the plow thru stiff compression spring(s). If the plow struck something, read rocks, the spring would compress, the hook would swivel upward and the plow would disconnect from the tractor. In other words I have hit many rocks. I have never broken a plow point. If you are breaking welds you might want to look at your welding and yea it does take a few amps. To expand upon dad's way of retipping a point a piece of spring long enough to lay flat under the landside of the point with about 3 inches sticking forward was placed under the point and welded along the landside and across the top of the spring. A bevel was then ground on the front of the spring. The share was generally not touched. The spring should be welded so that any curve points down. Vern

[Clark Thompson]

I understood what you were saying. I have used just about every IH trailer plow there was. I have used just about all the cub moldboard plows also. I have used cub plows with worse points than yours with no problems. all though I would set the debth controle at its deepest till I got into the ground that way I wanted. Also It takes about 3 furrows before your plow will get down the maximum debth. I have fixed broken point on a set of IH little genious two bottom. the points broke when hit a large rock and also tripped the hitch release. I use spring steel but used hard surfacing welding rod to make it weld , It would be interesting to see your plow work. I currently have a 3 bottom 14" little genious trailer plow that I picked up at a auction for 50 bucks. The land slides are broke the points are bad and the moldboards are very thin. BUt i use at the tractor club plow day pulling it with a John deere B in 3 d gear. I can sink the plows in over 12 inches with no problem even with all the worn parts.

[gusbratz]

It occurred to me after posting that maybe you and others might not understand what I meant when I said I had backed up many times to get a plow. In years past a lot of plows were trailer plows which used a hook shaped hitch dropped into a twisted clevis pinned to the drawbar. This pulled the plow thru stiff compression spring(s). If the plow struck something, read rocks, the spring would compress, the hook would swivel upward and the plow would disconnect from the tractor. In other words I have hit many rocks. I have never broken a plow point. If you are breaking welds you might want to look at your welding and yea it does take a few amps. To expand upon dad's way of retipping a point a piece of spring long enough to lay flat under the landside of the point with about 3 inches sticking forward was placed under the point and welded along the landside and across the top of the spring. A bevel was then ground on the front of the spring. The share was generally not touched. The spring should be welded so that any curve points down. Vern

thank you for explaining, I was wondering what you ment by parallel to land side. welding a longer piece to the bottom sounds a lot easier than what I did, I made my piece and welded it and filled the gaps and contured it. the only problem I ran into was the share says "cast steel" on it and last time I welded it cold it cracked beside my weld, that is why I tried a high nickel rod and preheat and slow cool this time. we will see. I don't think hardface is high in nickel. and as a matter of fact it says on the pack it is normal for it to have crackes in it after a pass so I don't think I would use it for joining anything structural. just build up jobs.

[v w]

I wanted to encourage you to keep trying to do what you have already done. Remember I was speaking of a different share than a cub and quite a bit heavier. I don't know how deep you want to plow nor the type of soil you have but IMHO if the share won't do what you want it to do it has all the value to you of scrap iron. We plowed anything from light sandy loam to clay and after I was gone dad bought a farm that was mostly muck. But he did use the Genius plow in that a few times because his JD3010 liked the repair shop better than the field. Muck is easy plowing if your moldboards are scoured. Sandy soils wore points as fast as anything.

There was a plow, I don't know who built it that had a two piece share with the point end separate and was referred to as a shin which was cheaper to replace than an entire share. Today around here a moldboard plow is seldom used anymore as chisels are in favor.

Let us know how this turns out even if it means going back to the drawing board. One of the advantages of this forum is the exchange of ideas. Vern